Bad Brembo Rotors (rear)
07-14-14, 12:46 PM
#1
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Thread Starter
Bad Brembo Rotors (rear)
I've been using Brembo for many years and always thought of them as "better-than-average" confirmed by excellent stopping power... until I got my latest pair of rears for my LS.
I installed them and got terrible rumble noise which an hour later became clanging sound like the car was going to fall apart. I thought it was the wheel bearing, except they never go bad so fast. Since the car was also being slowed down a little with each revolution of the wheels, I was really concerned that car will stop in the middle of the highway; it was impossible to drive it at normal speeds, so I had to slow down to 25mph and drive all the way to the right with flashers on. It took hours to get home...
So, once I got home, I took off the wheel to see if there was something I could tell just by looking at it, and lo and behold I found a burn spot on my brand new rotor!
I had to adjust the heck out of half-used drum pads to be able to drive the car at all. Thinking this was just one off, I ordered another, new, identical Brembo Rotor from rockauto.
The new rotor came, and being tired after a long week, I took the wrong wheel off.
Well, "Since I am here, I may as well look around..." and - you guessed it - I found ANOTHER burnt spot on the other rotor!
Now I was pissed. Luckily, that one was less out of shape than the other one, so just a little parking brake adjustment did the trick, but the other one I had to replace all together to be able to drive.
The crappiest rotorsI have ever seen in my entire life.
Some of the problem can be explained by the fact that bolt holes are a little too large. Just in case you are asking - yes I do use two small screws to hold discs in place while working and they are OEM and brand new too.
But, even those holes being a little too big does not explain it... so I am thinking, it is quite possible that brembo's rotors for rears are not concentric, meaning - interior surface is not perfectly round and concentric with the rest of the disc and holes.
Terrible, just terrible. How much time was wasted and how much stress this was, to have to stop in the middle of a highway because the car sounds like its falling apart... It's just not worth ANY money. If they were free I would still advise everyone to stay well away.
If I get a chance, I will take the bad rotor to a shop around here to see if they can measure deviations, although it is clearly visible where the drum pad was rubbing against it, and by now has eaten some of that metal surface away anyway.
I installed them and got terrible rumble noise which an hour later became clanging sound like the car was going to fall apart. I thought it was the wheel bearing, except they never go bad so fast. Since the car was also being slowed down a little with each revolution of the wheels, I was really concerned that car will stop in the middle of the highway; it was impossible to drive it at normal speeds, so I had to slow down to 25mph and drive all the way to the right with flashers on. It took hours to get home...
So, once I got home, I took off the wheel to see if there was something I could tell just by looking at it, and lo and behold I found a burn spot on my brand new rotor!
I had to adjust the heck out of half-used drum pads to be able to drive the car at all. Thinking this was just one off, I ordered another, new, identical Brembo Rotor from rockauto.
The new rotor came, and being tired after a long week, I took the wrong wheel off.
Well, "Since I am here, I may as well look around..." and - you guessed it - I found ANOTHER burnt spot on the other rotor!
Now I was pissed. Luckily, that one was less out of shape than the other one, so just a little parking brake adjustment did the trick, but the other one I had to replace all together to be able to drive.
The crappiest rotorsI have ever seen in my entire life.
Some of the problem can be explained by the fact that bolt holes are a little too large. Just in case you are asking - yes I do use two small screws to hold discs in place while working and they are OEM and brand new too.
But, even those holes being a little too big does not explain it... so I am thinking, it is quite possible that brembo's rotors for rears are not concentric, meaning - interior surface is not perfectly round and concentric with the rest of the disc and holes.
Terrible, just terrible. How much time was wasted and how much stress this was, to have to stop in the middle of a highway because the car sounds like its falling apart... It's just not worth ANY money. If they were free I would still advise everyone to stay well away.
If I get a chance, I will take the bad rotor to a shop around here to see if they can measure deviations, although it is clearly visible where the drum pad was rubbing against it, and by now has eaten some of that metal surface away anyway.
07-14-14, 02:28 PM
#2
Hmmm. Difficult to believe that two rotors would be out of spec. Did you confirm that they were the correct rotors? I've got two new Brembo rear rotors from Rockauto on my car. Zero issues.
07-14-14, 04:33 PM
#7
They hit you pretty good on shipping, otherwise I say go for it. Still way cheaper than regular price.
Last edited by aptoslexus; 07-14-14 at 04:37 PM.
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07-14-14, 04:35 PM
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07-14-14, 07:52 PM
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07-14-14, 08:58 PM
#13
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Thread Starter
Oh comon guys, "wrong car"? LOL
It eitther fits or it does not. You cannot fit wrong disc on a car with say different bolt pattern. But what we are talking about here is the inner diameter and how concentric it all is on the rear disc, the area where drum brakes go against it.
I have a 1st gen LS, with 2nd gen brakes on it. Everything is a direct bolt on.
However, even if it were NOT a direct bolt on, a round object can only do one of these two things:
1. Not spin due to, say, incorrect inner diameter of the parking brake which I hope you know is a standard thing on most cars (190mm inner diameter)
2. Or, spin perfectly fine.
If by some magic the rear drum brakes were too tight, they would be catching quite uniformly. But with Brembo, I had to retract the adjustment all the way back, as if I had brand new drum pads, and STILL had the brake catch the disc on the inside (only one disc, the other was relatively OK, although it still had a burn mark).
Now, when an object is NOT round, it starts catching on one side only.
Those two were bought months ago, I only installed them two weeks ago.
The third one I bought a week ago, and installed yesterday, and it gave me no trouble. Now if I made the parking brake real tight, maybe it would give me grief, I don't know, haven't the time to screw around with it.
But again, keep in mind the inner diameter is supposed to be exactly 190mm, its a standard thing, not a matter of "what model of the car is it". It also goes without saying that it is supposed to be concentric with the rest of the disc.
It eitther fits or it does not. You cannot fit wrong disc on a car with say different bolt pattern. But what we are talking about here is the inner diameter and how concentric it all is on the rear disc, the area where drum brakes go against it.
I have a 1st gen LS, with 2nd gen brakes on it. Everything is a direct bolt on.
However, even if it were NOT a direct bolt on, a round object can only do one of these two things:
1. Not spin due to, say, incorrect inner diameter of the parking brake which I hope you know is a standard thing on most cars (190mm inner diameter)
2. Or, spin perfectly fine.
If by some magic the rear drum brakes were too tight, they would be catching quite uniformly. But with Brembo, I had to retract the adjustment all the way back, as if I had brand new drum pads, and STILL had the brake catch the disc on the inside (only one disc, the other was relatively OK, although it still had a burn mark).
Now, when an object is NOT round, it starts catching on one side only.
Those two were bought months ago, I only installed them two weeks ago.
The third one I bought a week ago, and installed yesterday, and it gave me no trouble. Now if I made the parking brake real tight, maybe it would give me grief, I don't know, haven't the time to screw around with it.
But again, keep in mind the inner diameter is supposed to be exactly 190mm, its a standard thing, not a matter of "what model of the car is it". It also goes without saying that it is supposed to be concentric with the rest of the disc.
07-14-14, 09:30 PM
#14
Oh comon guys, "wrong car"? LOL
It eitther fits or it does not. You cannot fit wrong disc on a car with say different bolt pattern. But what we are talking about here is the inner diameter and how concentric it all is on the rear disc, the area where drum brakes go against it.
I have a 1st gen LS, with 2nd gen brakes on it. Everything is a direct bolt on.
However, even if it were NOT a direct bolt on, a round object can only do one of these two things:
1. Not spin due to, say, incorrect inner diameter of the parking brake which I hope you know is a standard thing on most cars (190mm inner diameter)
2. Or, spin perfectly fine.
If by some magic the rear drum brakes were too tight, they would be catching quite uniformly. But with Brembo, I had to retract the adjustment all the way back, as if I had brand new drum pads, and STILL had the brake catch the disc on the inside (only one disc, the other was relatively OK, although it still had a burn mark).
Now, when an object is NOT round, it starts catching on one side only.
Those two were bought months ago, I only installed them two weeks ago.
The third one I bought a week ago, and installed yesterday, and it gave me no trouble. Now if I made the parking brake real tight, maybe it would give me grief, I don't know, haven't the time to screw around with it.
But again, keep in mind the inner diameter is supposed to be exactly 190mm, its a standard thing, not a matter of "what model of the car is it". It also goes without saying that it is supposed to be concentric with the rest of the disc.
It eitther fits or it does not. You cannot fit wrong disc on a car with say different bolt pattern. But what we are talking about here is the inner diameter and how concentric it all is on the rear disc, the area where drum brakes go against it.
I have a 1st gen LS, with 2nd gen brakes on it. Everything is a direct bolt on.
However, even if it were NOT a direct bolt on, a round object can only do one of these two things:
1. Not spin due to, say, incorrect inner diameter of the parking brake which I hope you know is a standard thing on most cars (190mm inner diameter)
2. Or, spin perfectly fine.
If by some magic the rear drum brakes were too tight, they would be catching quite uniformly. But with Brembo, I had to retract the adjustment all the way back, as if I had brand new drum pads, and STILL had the brake catch the disc on the inside (only one disc, the other was relatively OK, although it still had a burn mark).
Now, when an object is NOT round, it starts catching on one side only.
Those two were bought months ago, I only installed them two weeks ago.
The third one I bought a week ago, and installed yesterday, and it gave me no trouble. Now if I made the parking brake real tight, maybe it would give me grief, I don't know, haven't the time to screw around with it.
But again, keep in mind the inner diameter is supposed to be exactly 190mm, its a standard thing, not a matter of "what model of the car is it". It also goes without saying that it is supposed to be concentric with the rest of the disc.
So did you buy the brembo rotors for your year LS or did you buy 2LS rear rotors? I presume you did a front 2LS bbk?
07-14-14, 10:09 PM
#15
I couldn't even find rear Brembos for his year, so I assume he bought a later year. He's got some issue with fitment due to swapping brakes, though. I'm not buying that the rotors are not round. One rotor I would entertain the idea. Both? No way. The odds are astronomical against.
