This is just a rant on my recent experience with Centric Premium [120 series] rotors on my Mazda6.
About 25k miles ago, re-did the front rotors and pads with Centric premium 120-series rotors [these were cast in China bought from discount brake warehouse online as Amazon did not stock them at the time] and Bendix CT-3 brake pads [I used D1164 even though D1192 is listed as an acceptable part; only difference I saw in diagrams is that the 1192 has the brake wear squeal tab riveted on the backing plate]. Braking was vastly improved over the 'certified pre-owned from dealer' rotors and pads [which I'm not even sure were factory pads although it appeared that the pads were just slapped onto the factory original rotors based on the light grooving]; these previous brakes had semi-grooved/scored rotor faces, squealed, dusted, and had pad knock-back due to old hardware. They never had the correct bite and just in general did not brake well.
The new centric/bendix setup worked well at first; new hardware stopped the pad knock-back noise [which the dealer said is normal for mazdas, ha!] bite and pedal modulation was better and dust was better. About 15k into the setup, I had pulsations which I first noticed after driving in the foothills of the 50/Placerville area for a rafting trip; the long steep hills really put some heat on the brakes. At first I though it was just deposits or glazing, but subsequent bed-ins did not help. It started getting worse; braking at low speeds would produce a whole car grab and go effect with a constant pedal effort. Sometimes in the cold cold mornings braking felt like it should, no grab and go, and good bite at low speeds. It got to the point that braking from 60mph plus produced a prominent shake in the steering wheel and pulsation in the pedal; as the brakes got hotter, the pulsing got worse and more noticeable. At first I was fearing some weird EBD/ABS fault or a weird pad formulation incompatibility with the factory rear rotors/pads. I though EBD/ABS because of the grab and go effect at low speeds but once it started having a stronger effect at freeway speeds, I knew it was run-out.
So I check amazon for Raybestos Advanced Technology Rotors [part# 680404] which go for about $48 each. I saw two in warehouse deals for $22 each. Five minutes after putting into my cart, they drop to $10 each. I had $18 in amazon points, so for about $3.75 shipped [I have prime] I got a pair of like-new rotors! Could not pass that up! I was stoked and totally prepared to get some awful banged up rotors in the mail as Amazon does a terrible job shipping rotors. Sure enough, the Raybestos AT rotors arrive in the mail in banged up boxes, but the rotors were true and good. One of the two rotors appeared to have been dry fittted as the retaining screw taper had paint wear and there was a little bit of marks/scuffs on the inside rotor hat, however the rotor surface was not worn at all. Both looked new after washing with soap and warm water.
Installed the Raybestos AT rotors [One thing I noticed for this application is that Raybestos doesn't use the non-directional cross-hatch finish on the AT rotors whereas the PG line uses the cross-hatching] and reused the Bendix CT-3 pads [still in great shape and even wear] in the front after a thorough cleaning of the hubs with a wire cup, re-did the slide pins with sil-glyde and new rubber boots and pin bushing on the top pin only as the kit only came with one rubber pin bushing [I used CRC gray goop last time, which I have since learned is not really rubber safe, perhaps the old rubber pin bushing combined with teh CRC stuff caused the pins to bind up enough to cause what I was experiencing with the Centric rotors]. Calipers move a lot more freely with just the rubber bushing on the top pin; not going to order another full pin boot kit just to get two more slide pin rubber pieces.
I also did the rear brakes with CT-3 pads and napa/raybestos PG rear rotors [I did buy Centric premium rear rotors from amazon about a year ago but never installed them; come to find out that the terrible amazon shipping caused a dent/ding on the outer edge of one of the rotors in the pad contact path, of course only revealed after cleaning and prepping them]. Not going to get brand new rotors machined for this one dent and this effectively makes the other side unusable in my opinion as I'd want matched rotors. I think I'm just not going to buy rotors online anymore; the extra $10-$20 at Napa for their ultra-prem/Raybestos AT rotors is worth not having to deal with shipping damage. I was going to just order another Centric prem rear rotor, but it was the same cost on amazon for one rotors as a pair of new rotors at Napa [$19.99 each]. Granted, the PG/Napa-premium line doesn't have painted rotor hat like the ultra-prem and AT lineup, but I don't really care about that as the coating wears out eventually. A good true rotor is much more important to me than a painted rotor hat, in my opinion.
And my gosh, I actually have super smooth braking now, great bite, no noise at all, no pulsing no matter the speed, no more grab and go and low speed stops. I can't believe how much of a difference just the Raybestos AT rotors made and reusing the CT-3 pads; big believer in Raybestos AT rotors now. I haven't been a big fan of Centric prem rotors lately after getting vastly different castings one from China and one from Taiwan for a friend's IS250 I take care of [the Taiwan ones looked much better than the ones from China in that]. At least the Raybestos AT rotors have consistent castings and machining from the same place, China.
So overall, and to re-cap, I really like Raybestos AT rotor line-up now, not very happy with Centric rotors lately, I like the CT-3 pads very much and the pads feel even better with rotors that have no run-out. It's just really nice to have dead silent and super smooth braking with an ease of modulation and good dependable bite. I was ready to attribute the braking as normal with the Centric rotors and can't believe I got used to less than optimal braking. I was really stoked to get a pair of front rotors for less than $5 and even more stoked that it wasn't the pads causing problems as I was not looking forward to spending $65 on my other pad choice of Akebono ProACT.
About 25k miles ago, re-did the front rotors and pads with Centric premium 120-series rotors [these were cast in China bought from discount brake warehouse online as Amazon did not stock them at the time] and Bendix CT-3 brake pads [I used D1164 even though D1192 is listed as an acceptable part; only difference I saw in diagrams is that the 1192 has the brake wear squeal tab riveted on the backing plate]. Braking was vastly improved over the 'certified pre-owned from dealer' rotors and pads [which I'm not even sure were factory pads although it appeared that the pads were just slapped onto the factory original rotors based on the light grooving]; these previous brakes had semi-grooved/scored rotor faces, squealed, dusted, and had pad knock-back due to old hardware. They never had the correct bite and just in general did not brake well.
The new centric/bendix setup worked well at first; new hardware stopped the pad knock-back noise [which the dealer said is normal for mazdas, ha!] bite and pedal modulation was better and dust was better. About 15k into the setup, I had pulsations which I first noticed after driving in the foothills of the 50/Placerville area for a rafting trip; the long steep hills really put some heat on the brakes. At first I though it was just deposits or glazing, but subsequent bed-ins did not help. It started getting worse; braking at low speeds would produce a whole car grab and go effect with a constant pedal effort. Sometimes in the cold cold mornings braking felt like it should, no grab and go, and good bite at low speeds. It got to the point that braking from 60mph plus produced a prominent shake in the steering wheel and pulsation in the pedal; as the brakes got hotter, the pulsing got worse and more noticeable. At first I was fearing some weird EBD/ABS fault or a weird pad formulation incompatibility with the factory rear rotors/pads. I though EBD/ABS because of the grab and go effect at low speeds but once it started having a stronger effect at freeway speeds, I knew it was run-out.
So I check amazon for Raybestos Advanced Technology Rotors [part# 680404] which go for about $48 each. I saw two in warehouse deals for $22 each. Five minutes after putting into my cart, they drop to $10 each. I had $18 in amazon points, so for about $3.75 shipped [I have prime] I got a pair of like-new rotors! Could not pass that up! I was stoked and totally prepared to get some awful banged up rotors in the mail as Amazon does a terrible job shipping rotors. Sure enough, the Raybestos AT rotors arrive in the mail in banged up boxes, but the rotors were true and good. One of the two rotors appeared to have been dry fittted as the retaining screw taper had paint wear and there was a little bit of marks/scuffs on the inside rotor hat, however the rotor surface was not worn at all. Both looked new after washing with soap and warm water.
Installed the Raybestos AT rotors [One thing I noticed for this application is that Raybestos doesn't use the non-directional cross-hatch finish on the AT rotors whereas the PG line uses the cross-hatching] and reused the Bendix CT-3 pads [still in great shape and even wear] in the front after a thorough cleaning of the hubs with a wire cup, re-did the slide pins with sil-glyde and new rubber boots and pin bushing on the top pin only as the kit only came with one rubber pin bushing [I used CRC gray goop last time, which I have since learned is not really rubber safe, perhaps the old rubber pin bushing combined with teh CRC stuff caused the pins to bind up enough to cause what I was experiencing with the Centric rotors]. Calipers move a lot more freely with just the rubber bushing on the top pin; not going to order another full pin boot kit just to get two more slide pin rubber pieces.
I also did the rear brakes with CT-3 pads and napa/raybestos PG rear rotors [I did buy Centric premium rear rotors from amazon about a year ago but never installed them; come to find out that the terrible amazon shipping caused a dent/ding on the outer edge of one of the rotors in the pad contact path, of course only revealed after cleaning and prepping them]. Not going to get brand new rotors machined for this one dent and this effectively makes the other side unusable in my opinion as I'd want matched rotors. I think I'm just not going to buy rotors online anymore; the extra $10-$20 at Napa for their ultra-prem/Raybestos AT rotors is worth not having to deal with shipping damage. I was going to just order another Centric prem rear rotor, but it was the same cost on amazon for one rotors as a pair of new rotors at Napa [$19.99 each]. Granted, the PG/Napa-premium line doesn't have painted rotor hat like the ultra-prem and AT lineup, but I don't really care about that as the coating wears out eventually. A good true rotor is much more important to me than a painted rotor hat, in my opinion.
And my gosh, I actually have super smooth braking now, great bite, no noise at all, no pulsing no matter the speed, no more grab and go and low speed stops. I can't believe how much of a difference just the Raybestos AT rotors made and reusing the CT-3 pads; big believer in Raybestos AT rotors now. I haven't been a big fan of Centric prem rotors lately after getting vastly different castings one from China and one from Taiwan for a friend's IS250 I take care of [the Taiwan ones looked much better than the ones from China in that]. At least the Raybestos AT rotors have consistent castings and machining from the same place, China.
So overall, and to re-cap, I really like Raybestos AT rotor line-up now, not very happy with Centric rotors lately, I like the CT-3 pads very much and the pads feel even better with rotors that have no run-out. It's just really nice to have dead silent and super smooth braking with an ease of modulation and good dependable bite. I was ready to attribute the braking as normal with the Centric rotors and can't believe I got used to less than optimal braking. I was really stoked to get a pair of front rotors for less than $5 and even more stoked that it wasn't the pads causing problems as I was not looking forward to spending $65 on my other pad choice of Akebono ProACT.