Made in China Brake Rotor Users, please check-in

[The Critic]

Those of you who are using the sub-$30 brake rotors sold under the Napa, Duralast, or Aimco-GS brands, how many warp-free miles do you have on your rotors?

What pads are you using with them?

What kind of car/truck are the rotors being used on?

I'm trying to get an idea of the durability of these cheap rotors.

Thanks.

 

[Quest]

Cheep Aimco rotors (Chinese cast) in my former Mazda 323 (B6block) for 48000kms before I sold it. Still true after so many kms, with Monroe semi-metallic pads.

Cheep "Jasper" brand (Crraapy tires house brand) rotors on my dad's 7th gen civic, been over 24,000kms so far and no warping issues at all with Monroe semi-metallic pads.

Inroble (again Chinese cast) rotors both front and back on my wifey's camry Vee6. The rears have had over 60,000kms and the front nas around 36,000kms so far. Mate with Monroe semi-metallic pads. no problems at all.

 

[alanu]

Never really had issue using chinese made floating rotors. The heavier duty chinese rotors with roller/taper bearings on full size vans usually warp much sooner than a north American made rotor. If you have the two rotors side by side you'd know exactly why. The USA made rotor is much more robust than the china cast.

I've heard good things about PBR chinese rotors. Most china flavoured rotors work well. North American and china made may have some runout straight out of the box depending on the warehouse worker throwing them across the warehouse and the delivery part guy dropping it on the ground as it enters the shop door

Floating rotors that go on hubs typically seem to work fine. I do not hesitate to use them on my personal car or cutomers cars. The cost is so cheap aswell that I would consider replacing them when they are mariginally within the discard spec. I find many rotors regardless of manufactured origin will still warp even when they are within the factory specs. It depends on driver and vehicle weight (small rotor on heavy vehicles)

 

[Master ACiD]

rotors are really simple. they are a wad of low quality cast iron thats been machined on 2 sides and has a few holes drilled for lug studs.

aside from machining quality, i dont see how chinese rotors could be any better or worse than anything else.

 

[Virtuoso]

I have 61k on O'Rileys cheap china rotors with their (also cheap) BrakeBest pads. This is on a light '96 SL1 Saturn, but no warping issues.

 

[Chris142]

Quote:

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rotors are really simple. they are a wad of low quality cast iron thats been machined on 2 sides and has a few holes drilled for lug studs.

aside from machining quality, i dont see how chinese rotors could be any better or worse than anything else.

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The Chinese have been making cast iron for a long time. They should be pretty good at it by now. Critic asked me about Chinese rotors last night.

The OE rotors on my Jeep were terribly warped @ 5k. I had em turned and they warped again @11K. I replaced them with Chinese ones and Semi metalic pads @11K and now am at 63K with no issues.

 

[74DartSport]

97 Sebring 'vert; ~50K miles between brake jobs; every change is < $20 Guardian (Wagner "value" line) rotors and Wagner ThermoQuiet pads. Never any noise or warpage issues. 175K current miles.
Dusty though.

 

[chas3]

i have duralast rotors on the front. i replaced the oem's at 105k miles since they had been slightly warped for last 40k or so. i am using napa's ceramic pads on all four corners to try and combat brake dust. no problems so far (but only 7k miles). this is on a '99 pontiac firebird. i only drive it during the summer.

 

[1sttruck]

I've replaced about three rotors on the Taurii, two from NAPA and one from Ford, all have worked fine. I replaced one last week using a NAPA rotor, and asked about the $26 vs $52 rotors. The parts guy said that it's domestic vs offshore, that a popular local repair shop that uses a lot of them has had no problem, and that he doesn't stock the doemstic rotors anymore.

 

[JTK]

I've got about 1.5yrs and 15Kmi on a set of made in China Rotors and ceramic pads, both from Napa. I also installed a set of Chinese made drums on the rear about 4mo ago. Both the rotors and drums where packaged well and machined extremely well. I don't recall the price of the rotors. Somewhere around $40. The drums were a bargain as well at under $40/ea IIRC. This was all for my 2001 Windstar. Not the easiest vehicle on brakes BTW. Big, heavy, fairly smallish brakes and does not see an easy service life!

Joel

 

[tom slick]

chinese rotors from autozone with satisfied pads on my protege5 have been on there for 70k miles with zero problems. the oem rotors warped at 25k, I turned them and they were warped again at 30k.

 

[mechtech2]

We lean to replacing rotors with cheap ones in the shop as a general rule, rather than machining the old ones, or paying much more for supposedly better ones.
Normal street use shows very good results, and this is what I do on my own cars, as well.

 

[Buffman]

Quote:

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97 Sebring 'vert; ~50K miles between brake jobs; every change is < $20 Guardian (Wagner "value" line) rotors and Wagner ThermoQuiet pads. Never any noise or warpage issues. 175K current miles.
Dusty though.

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We've gotten cast iron castings from China at work before (steam traps) and it's been some of the worst castings we've ever dealt with. It was so hard after destroying quite a few taps and expensive bits, we refused to use it

That being said, I've never had an issue with you run of the mill standard quality chinese rotor. Did an E-150 van with Durlast Rotors. been stopping fine ever since. Friends contour has durlast rotors up front, and they're fine.

More or less it's really hard to warp a street rotor. The problem lies in the fact that you have uneven pad transfer on the rotor, creating a warped effect. Use good pads with a good bedin procedure and you won't have an issue.

 

[onion]

I've been running Chinese rotors from autozone on my '94 Corsica for about 5 years/40k miles. No issues to date.

 

[RedDart]

I purchased some PBR rotors for the rear of my 2002 Impala via the Internet. I thought PBR rotors would be good since they are used on Corvettes and PBR is based in Australia. Well, the rotors were Chinese but looked well made. Trouble is they began rusting as soon as they got wet. Corrosion resistance appears to be lacking. Have not had any problems with them but the rear rotors do not get a work out on a FWD car. Other Chinese rotors may be worth a try if you do not want to spend much. I try to support USA industry whenever I can.

 

[doitmyself]

Wow! A big change of attitude regarding Chinese rotors compared to the same question asked just a year or so ago.

My daughter's Grand Am had 3 sets of OEM front rotors replaced under warranty for warping (a common Grand Am problem, I'm told). The forth set I installed Duralast and they did just fine.

Last time I checked, Autozone Duralast were kind of a cult with the autocross guys - decent quality at a decent price for demanding conditions.

 

[kelpie]

I must say the Chinese seem to make decent quality rotors (got some from Advance Auto Parts), but I try to support American industries whenever possible.