I've seen that too. It's kinda like cosmoline.

 

Most rotors are coated with something from the factory to prevent corrosion. Cast iron corrodes very easily, and if they didn't spray them with something oily, they'd be all rusty straight out of the box.

It can be anything oily and rust preventive. Cosmoline is pretty unlikely because it's really hard to remove. Brake cleaners are designed to remove all oils from the disc's surface, and you should always finish with a shot of brake cleaner on both sides of the rotor just before you put the wheel on.

 

I’ve done a lot of brake jobs and never cleaned them. Maybe that’s wrong, I just never thought of it. On my last set of autozone rotors and pads on the pilot, I followed a solid bedding strategy and let them properly cool on the interstate. They bedded unevenly, hummed and gave a slight shimmy to the car. Fast forward to when I had the rotors turned down and put OEM pads on, and the car runs fine. It was my first experience with issues in brand new brakes. I still don’t really know what went wrong.

 

I found a picture of the rears, which had a nice transfer layer, but no photos of the fronts.. go figure. I recall seeing sections (rings) on the fronts where the pads didn't make contact. Other areas had pad transfer as expected. It could be a combination of inadequate cleaning of the rotors and not enough heat.

 

Yup, that's wrong for sure. Always, always, always finish the job with a poweful degreaser to remove all oils from the rotor's surface. If you do not, you can't expect the pads not to bed properly.

 

So would you guys still suggest ordering from rockauto? Need to replace my front rotors with the BREMBO (coated) for the next autocross event. I've replaced my pads with EBC yellows and noticed some steering wheel shake under normal braking around 40mph.

 

I have rotors from Rock Auto on the wife's GS F. They work just fine.

 

Thank you. I’ll try them out and save up for better rotors later on

 

After years and years i'm finally getting some 2 piece rotors on the car tomorrow from RR Racing. I think I have about 50% left on the stock OEM pads which I love, but wondering if I should replace them with the Carbotech 1521 pads since I'll already have the brakes apart. Anyone able to comment on how they compare to OEM pads? I definitely don't' want to take a performance hit and I just can't go with pads that squeal and from what I've read any of the Carbotech XP8's and up make noise.

 

I had strange tapered wear issues with the 1521s. I have not run them since.

 

Would you suggest sticking with OEM for street use?

 

I'm running PowerStop pads from Rock Auto on both my F cars right now. They're cheap and they work fine for street duty. The GS F has the Z23 pads, and they have good feel as well as being quiet. Not great feel - definitely don't feel like race pads, but they're quiet, cheap, work well, and last a long time.

FWIW, I bought the Z26 "Street Warrior" pads for the IS F and they definitely do not feel as good as the Z23 pads. Significantly more pedal effort with Figs 2 piece rotors than the Z23 with OEM Brembo rotors on the GS F.

 

I've been happy with Endless MX72 pads for years now both stock Brembo rotors and the 2 piece Giro discs from RR Racing. They do dust like the stock pads though, but worth the tradeoff for me for the performance they offer.

 

Just to add here - When I had my ISF I ran Ferodo DS2500 in front and PMU HC+800 rear. Great feel and street performance for me

 

+1, love this combo, an awesome upgrade from OEM in every way.