Best Brake Rotor Manufacturer

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NewEnglander

NewEnglander

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Jan 14, 2015
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Boston
So I'm getting ready to do the brakes on the Rio and was not happy with the last set of rotors. Not thrilled with the last set and trying to figure out best replacement parts.

Brembo makes some good looking ceramic pads I'm strongly considering. They also make front rotors that fit and may go that out. However no rotors that fit the back so would need to find an alternative part.

BLUF: need something good against rust and quiet. Cost mostly nonissue but looking for something that does a great job braking in city driving.
 
Brembo replacement rotors are Chinese & not any better than Centric. They try to hide the country of origin. I bought Brembo rotors for my Avalon & only then did I find out the COO.

OEM rotors are probably your best bet....Unless you were unhappy with those?
 
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Brembo replacement rotors are Chinese & not any better than Centric. They try to hide the country of origin. I bought Brembo rotors for my Avalon & only then did I find out the COO.

OEM rotors are probably your best bet....Unless you were unhappy with those?

THANK YOU for pointing this out. I suspected that was the case but was not sure.

I may review OEM...but I hear EBC is as good as can be?
 
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Brembo replacement rotors are Chinese & not any better than Centric. They try to hide the country of origin. I bought Brembo rotors for my Avalon & only then did I find out the COO.

OEM rotors are probably your best bet....Unless you were unhappy with those?


Well, there's no reason why the Chinese couldn't make good rotors. They've put people in space, after all, compared to that manufacturing brake rotors is a pretty simple task. They also do just fine making the smartphone in your pocket and the computer on which you posted this, both of which are far more difficult to manufacture than a simple rotor. Especially when you consider a machine does most of the work, and the machine is going to perform just as well in Shanghai as it would in Detroit or Stuttgart. They just have to be contracted to do it, and the buyer has to ensure good QC. Besides, there's plenty of junk made right here in the USA, or in Germany or Japan or where ever.

A lot of people want to blame the Chinese manufacturer instead of the western buyer. If you got a bad set of Brembo rotors, blame Brembo for putting their name on bad rotors. There's a lot of Chinese rotors out there which are as good as anything.

Now, if you have an ethical or moral qualm with buying things made by exploited and mistreated workers in the developing world, I'm with you there. EBC is one option, OEM is another, although a lot of OEM stuff is made in China now too.
 
Last edited:
EBC's are UK as well as usa made brake products + their rotors are said to be higher carbon. no high end stuff for many regular cars unless you really spend for custom made. the EBC smooth coated rotors + yellow pads worked great on my 2011 frontier.
 
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Brembo replacement rotors are Chinese & not any better than Centric. They try to hide the country of origin. I bought Brembo rotors for my Avalon & only then did I find out the COO.

OEM rotors are probably your best bet....Unless you were unhappy with those?

Brembo makes rotors in numerous countries (including USA).
For European cars, they come from Italy. Chinese will be of same quality and are DEFINIATELY better than Toyota ones (or KIA ones). It is actually not any kind of an achievement to make rotor better than Toyota one, and those are not make in China.
 
Originally Posted by NewEnglander
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Brembo replacement rotors are Chinese & not any better than Centric. They try to hide the country of origin. I bought Brembo rotors for my Avalon & only then did I find out the COO.

OEM rotors are probably your best bet....Unless you were unhappy with those?

THANK YOU for pointing this out. I suspected that was the case but was not sure.

I may review OEM...but I hear EBC is as good as can be?

Get Brembo. If not Brembo go with EBC. I have EBC on SIenna now. Light years better than OE Toyota.
I had EBC on other cars. Superb quality.
 
Originally Posted by edyvw
Originally Posted by NewEnglander
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Brembo replacement rotors are Chinese & not any better than Centric. They try to hide the country of origin. I bought Brembo rotors for my Avalon & only then did I find out the COO.

OEM rotors are probably your best bet....Unless you were unhappy with those?

THANK YOU for pointing this out. I suspected that was the case but was not sure.

I may review OEM...but I hear EBC is as good as can be?

Get Brembo. If not Brembo go with EBC. I have EBC on SIenna now. Light years better than OE Toyota.
I had EBC on other cars. Superb quality.

Thanks. I read up more on EBC and am impressed with what I see thus far. I could land matching rotors front and back along with pads in kit packages that saves a bit.

Question then becomes the "Greenstuff" or "Ultimax2"

Decisions, decisions...
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by NewEnglander
Originally Posted by edyvw
Originally Posted by NewEnglander
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Brembo replacement rotors are Chinese & not any better than Centric. They try to hide the country of origin. I bought Brembo rotors for my Avalon & only then did I find out the COO.

OEM rotors are probably your best bet....Unless you were unhappy with those?

THANK YOU for pointing this out. I suspected that was the case but was not sure.

I may review OEM...but I hear EBC is as good as can be?

Get Brembo. If not Brembo go with EBC. I have EBC on SIenna now. Light years better than OE Toyota.
I had EBC on other cars. Superb quality.

Thanks. I read up more on EBC and am impressed with what I see thus far. I could land matching rotors front and back along with pads in kit packages that saves a bit.

Question then becomes the "Greenstuff" or "Ultimax2"

Decisions, decisions...


Honestly, unless you're doing autocross or something, the Ultimax would work fine. Especially given as it's cold in New England, and the Ultimax has better cold bite.

I've seen some studies showing that sport pads, by themselves, make very little difference in street conditions anyway. They're better if you get the brakes hot from racing, but otherwise it's just more money.
 
Originally Posted by littlehulkster
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Brembo replacement rotors are Chinese & not any better than Centric. They try to hide the country of origin. I bought Brembo rotors for my Avalon & only then did I find out the COO.

OEM rotors are probably your best bet....Unless you were unhappy with those?


Well, there's no reason why the Chinese couldn't make good rotors. They've put people in space, after all, compared to that manufacturing brake rotors is a pretty simple task. They also do just fine making the smartphone in your pocket and the computer on which you posted this, both of which are far more difficult to manufacture than a simple rotor. Especially when you consider a machine does most of the work, and the machine is going to perform just as well in Shanghai as it would in Detroit or Stuttgart. They just have to be contracted to do it, and the buyer has to ensure good QC. Besides, there's plenty of junk made right here in the USA, or in Germany or Japan or where ever.

A lot of people want to blame the Chinese manufacturer instead of the western buyer. If you got a bad set of Brembo rotors, blame Brembo for putting their name on bad rotors. There's a lot of Chinese rotors out there which are as good as anything.

Now, if you have an ethical or moral qualm with buying things made by exploited and mistreated workers in the developing world, I'm with you there. EBC is one option, OEM is another, although a lot of OEM stuff is made in China now too.


I didn't like the fact I could NOT find the COO anywhere before the purchase. That's misleading in opinion.
Also don't care for Communism or exploiting/oppressing people!
 
Originally Posted by edyvw
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Brembo replacement rotors are Chinese & not any better than Centric. They try to hide the country of origin. I bought Brembo rotors for my Avalon & only then did I find out the COO.

OEM rotors are probably your best bet....Unless you were unhappy with those?

Brembo makes rotors in numerous countries (including USA).
For European cars, they come from Italy. Chinese will be of same quality and are DEFINIATELY better than Toyota ones (or KIA ones). It is actually not any kind of an achievement to make rotor better than Toyota one, and those are not make in China.



These are NOT OE grade Brembo rotors!
Brembo makes some of the worlds finest brake components, The "race to the bottom" aftermarket replacements they are hawking is NOT that! My dial indicator told me so.....

Toyota installing marginal sized brakes on a heavy van is a whole other discussion.....OE Toyota rotors are pretty good for the most part.
 
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Originally Posted by littlehulkster
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Brembo replacement rotors are Chinese & not any better than Centric. They try to hide the country of origin. I bought Brembo rotors for my Avalon & only then did I find out the COO.

OEM rotors are probably your best bet....Unless you were unhappy with those?


Well, there's no reason why the Chinese couldn't make good rotors. They've put people in space, after all, compared to that manufacturing brake rotors is a pretty simple task. They also do just fine making the smartphone in your pocket and the computer on which you posted this, both of which are far more difficult to manufacture than a simple rotor. Especially when you consider a machine does most of the work, and the machine is going to perform just as well in Shanghai as it would in Detroit or Stuttgart. They just have to be contracted to do it, and the buyer has to ensure good QC. Besides, there's plenty of junk made right here in the USA, or in Germany or Japan or where ever.

A lot of people want to blame the Chinese manufacturer instead of the western buyer. If you got a bad set of Brembo rotors, blame Brembo for putting their name on bad rotors. There's a lot of Chinese rotors out there which are as good as anything.

Now, if you have an ethical or moral qualm with buying things made by exploited and mistreated workers in the developing world, I'm with you there. EBC is one option, OEM is another, although a lot of OEM stuff is made in China now too.


I didn't like the fact I could NOT find the COO anywhere before the purchase. That's misleading in opinion.
Also don't care for Communism or exploiting/oppressing people!


I wasn't aware Brembo was communist. Guess that explains the red color scheme.
 
Originally Posted by littlehulkster
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Originally Posted by littlehulkster
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Brembo replacement rotors are Chinese & not any better than Centric. They try to hide the country of origin. I bought Brembo rotors for my Avalon & only then did I find out the COO.

OEM rotors are probably your best bet....Unless you were unhappy with those?


Well, there's no reason why the Chinese couldn't make good rotors. They've put people in space, after all, compared to that manufacturing brake rotors is a pretty simple task. They also do just fine making the smartphone in your pocket and the computer on which you posted this, both of which are far more difficult to manufacture than a simple rotor. Especially when you consider a machine does most of the work, and the machine is going to perform just as well in Shanghai as it would in Detroit or Stuttgart. They just have to be contracted to do it, and the buyer has to ensure good QC. Besides, there's plenty of junk made right here in the USA, or in Germany or Japan or where ever.

A lot of people want to blame the Chinese manufacturer instead of the western buyer. If you got a bad set of Brembo rotors, blame Brembo for putting their name on bad rotors. There's a lot of Chinese rotors out there which are as good as anything.

Now, if you have an ethical or moral qualm with buying things made by exploited and mistreated workers in the developing world, I'm with you there. EBC is one option, OEM is another, although a lot of OEM stuff is made in China now too.


I didn't like the fact I could NOT find the COO anywhere before the purchase. That's misleading in opinion.
Also don't care for Communism or exploiting/oppressing people!


I wasn't aware Brembo was communist. Guess that explains the red color scheme.


Brembo is headquartered in Italy but they're a global company, the 3rd largest number of employees is in China. Italy and Poland are first and second.

https://www.brembo.com/en/company/about/brembo-around-the-world

Oppression happens under many forms of government.
 
My current pick are Akebono ProAct pads and Wagner coated rotors. We get a little snow and a lot of salt in the winter so coated rotors are a good idea. Other parts of the country may not need the coated rotors but can never hurt.

If you are a normal driver on the street of America, no need for any high performance/racing brake products.
 
Hey NewEnglander,

I feel your pain of analysis paralysis. I'm about to pull the trigger on the EBC rotors for my Patriot. I'm still waffling between Ultimax 2 vs. ProAct pads. My OEM rotors have held up well, but are $150 a pair vs. $80 for EBC. OEM pads are $82.

I hope its o.k. to go a bit off topic, pardon me. My OEM show that they are "Made in U.S.A.". What does that mean? Machined here? I am only aware of Advics made in the U.S.. Is there still U.S. rotor manufacturing going on? Foundries casting rotors?

Donald, EBC plain rotors and Ultimax 2 pads are daily driver level. In my case, Autozone wants $53 for Chinese coated rotors and I can get the EBC ones for $40. Centric, Wagner, and others are about the same price. It's a question of if the U.K. made rotors are actually better, or just made in a country other than China. I'm not so sure.

Thanks.
 
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