AC Delco Advantage coated rotors -PICS-

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stephen9666

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This is a cosmetic review of the AC Delco Advantage coated brake rotors. I bought these after returning the Carquest Platinum painted rotors I previously purchased. I returned those because the paint wasn't very impressive.

The machine work cosmetically looks good, but I haven't checked the runout, thickness variation or anything. They have a non-directional finish.

They're made in China, which isn't surprising.

The advantage line is AC Delco's lower-priced line. They offer plain and coated Advantage rotors. They also offer a premium series of rotors.

The photos on the AC Delco website and Amazon were incorrect for my application and showed a plain, uncoated rotor, but when I ordered them I received a fully coated rotor.

These are significantly better coated than the Carquest-branded rotors. They are fully coated, including the inside of the hat and down in the vanes. I don't know how this coating holds up compared to the paint on the Carquest rotors. This is a coating -I believe it's zinc based- that doesn't need to be removed before installing the pads.

I'll update this after I get them installed.




 
I should also add that these were virtually the same price as the Carquest rotors.
 
Any pics of the edge codes? Bosch made a lot of the OEM rotors for GM trucks. I would be surprised if these were made my Bosch.
 
Originally Posted By: Kibitoshin
Any pics of the edge codes? Bosch made a lot of the OEM rotors for GM trucks. I would be surprised if these were made my Bosch.


Definitely reminds me of the Bosch Quietcast rotors.
 
Originally Posted By: Farmer
These look identical of what Napa has to offer on their coated rotors.


Have a friend who works at Napa. He told us a little while ago that Napa has OEM supply them with parts. He said the OEM changes one letter or digit on Napa parts, but, they are basically OEM parts. This is why Napa was better than CARQUEST, Advance Auto, Autozone, etc., he said. The other auto stores carry parts to replace OE, but, they are not made by the OEM.

He also said that Napa offers different product lines in the Napa brand, because not everyone wants to pay for OEM parts, the cheaper products are not OE, but, the certain product line is made by the various OEM.
 
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Rotors are one area where Chinese (or other offshore) manufacturing doesn't bother me. It's not high tech, although metallurgy plays a role in even budget parts, the premium metallurgy examples are still expensive and often still made in the EU or North America in much smaller volumes, which is no different than before. For daily driver parts, twenty years ago a rotor was over $100 pretty much every time. I can live with $50 and $30 rotors.

Brembo, Bosch, etc budget lines are offshore made. Like everything made there, it's how effectively the monitoring and Quality Control from the principal to the factory is executed that matters. Excellent quality Chinese parts are possible, but if you don't take care of business with "your man in China" expect to see quality drop as soon as they can get away with it. As always, there is a right way and a wrong way to outsource manufacturing.
 
I bought some OEM Delco drums for my Silverado off of Amazon, they were warped out of box. These were the OEM line of ACDelco. Returned them. Then just went to Advanced Auto and bought their house brand. They were warped out of box. I took them to a shop and had them true them and they worked fine. After a bunch of phone calls I sent the shops bill ($100.00 to remove, true, and reinstall drums) to Advance Auto and they sent me a check to reimburse for my cost. Do most drums come warped enough now out of box that they have to be cut before they're installed?
 
So much talk about cosmetics, when a few minutes with a cheap micrometer would tell us about parallelism (8 equidistant readings around the rotor), and a dial indicator on a magnetic base would tell us everything about runout, once installed. We're talking about $50 worth of equipment to do a job right, or return bad parts for good before they even break-in.

Instead we have more speculation, waiting, and hoping.

I have 48K and 2 years on some cheap-[censored] rotors on my Toyota, 2 days ago I just pulled the pads and greased the backs and the pins for the second time since the brake job. Stopping is still silky smooth and quiet. Why? I checked runout when I installed them, and corrected by rotation, followed by proper break-in, plus proper lubrication and cleaning.

But some prefer the b'gosh and b'golly they-should-be-straight gee whiz I hope they don't warp while hot in a mud puddle method. When that was never the problem...
 
Originally Posted By: HangFire
So much talk about cosmetics, when a few minutes with a cheap micrometer would tell us about parallelism (8 equidistant readings around the rotor), and a dial indicator on a magnetic base would tell us everything about runout, once installed. We're talking about $50 worth of equipment to do a job right, or return bad parts for good before they even break-in.

Instead we have more speculation, waiting, and hoping.


Don't get so quick with your judgment, friend. I installed them yesterday. I did use a dial indicator.

On the driver's side it came out .0025 on the first pass. I indexed it and got it down to right around .001

On the passenger side it was right around .001 right off the bat, so I didn't need to index it.

I hadn't cleaned the hub on the driver's side as thoroughly as the passenger side, so that might explain the higher initial runout on the driver's side. I cleaned it a little better when I was indexing it.

The factory spec is .002 max runout on this vehicle.
 
Originally Posted By: CapitalTruck
I bought some OEM Delco drums for my Silverado off of Amazon, they were warped out of box. These were the OEM line of ACDelco. Returned them. Then just went to Advanced Auto and bought their house brand. They were warped out of box. I took them to a shop and had them true them and they worked fine. After a bunch of phone calls I sent the shops bill ($100.00 to remove, true, and reinstall drums) to Advance Auto and they sent me a check to reimburse for my cost. Do most drums come warped enough now out of box that they have to be cut before they're installed?


I used to think my drums and rotors were warped also. Nope, just glazed over in certain areas with goop from overheated pads. The glazing makes the brakes grab, then slip, giving the sensation of being warped. A little sanding with some fine sand paper and the "warping" was gone. Assume the turning did something similar, removing surface material.
 
I installed the OEM version fully coated a few years ago. Recently removed to install new pads and that coating was nowhere to be found, not even the hat! Rusting between the cooling fins and pieces of rust collecting inside the rotor. Not bad enough to replace but still, was expecting some grey. Nada. Gone. Installed painted Raybestos rotors in the rear, we will see how that holds up in comparison.
 
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
I installed the OEM version fully coated a few years ago. Recently removed to install new pads and that coating was nowhere to be found, not even the hat! Rusting between the cooling fins and pieces of rust collecting inside the rotor. Not bad enough to replace but still, was expecting some grey. Nada. Gone. Installed painted Raybestos rotors in the rear, we will see how that holds up in comparison.


I have wondered how these zinc-based coatings (at least I think they're zinc) hold up compared to painted rotors. It seems the zinc-coated rotors are more thoroughly covered than painted rotors, but maybe paint lasts longer.

We will see. I'll update this as I get some miles on them.

Originally Posted By: The Critic
Did the "coating" have a smooth feel or a rough feel to it?


I think it was pretty smooth, but I wasn't caressing it. I can probably check later and let you know.
 
OK, so I was grumpy when I wrote that. I had just read, what, 3 different threads (one on another forum), all with zero measurement facts but lots of opinions. It wasn't an attack on you so much as the group, because nobody even asked.

Anyway, good job! And good specs, getting things under .002" is not always easy, especially as many rotors don't come that flat in the first place.
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic
Did the "coating" have a smooth feel or a rough feel to it?


It feels pretty smooth. It's not like glass, but it's not like sandpaper, either.
 
As mentioned, these look IDENTICAL to the Bosch Quietcast rotors.

I installed a set on my Crown Vic a year ago. The hats and edges are still perfect, even after driving through the winter. However, there is some slight surface rust starting between the vanes. They mustn't have as good of coverage in their as it appeared when they were new.

So, in all, the coating itself works wonderfully - the coverage is the limitation.

 
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