brake rotor help

[DARKSCOPE001]

Hello all. I need to do the brakes on my dads 2007 Suzuki sx4. The pads unfortunately wore all the way though to the backing plate and thus gouged the rotors. I put on some cheep sacrificial pads to hold him through till he can get the parts he needs for the rest of the brake job.

But the place where I get confused is rotors. The different prices for basic OE replacement rotors. Nothing special just a hung of iron. The price difference is mostly what confuses me. I was looking at these http://www.theautopartsshop.com/Search/P...and+PartDetails

Cheapest i could find but I dont really want to go cheep if it means sacrificing safety and performance. the next best deal I could find was the local advance has wearever rotors for 35. Would the wearevers be so much better than the "prontos" that I should justify to my dad the extra cost? Also it seems like all other brake rotors hover around 50ish dollars for this car. So what gives?

Thanks
Sean Scott

 

[McKittrick]

check out www.rockauto.com they have generally good prices and there is always a discount code posted somewhere here on bobistheoilguy

i bought some nice brembo rotors for my honda for about 45 dollars and with over 50,000 miles on them the wear indicator is showing less than half used. i also used akebono ceramic pads that they had at about 2/3 the cost of local parts houses.

good luck

 

[sciphi]

Get good pads with whatever rotors you want. The pads do most of the work, the rotor is just a surface to work on. For white-box rotors, they're all made in the same factory with different labels for the major brands slapped on.

If you got a high-performance rotor like an EBC, well, that's a whole different story.

 

[NateDN10]

I've wondered this too. It would seem like as long as the thickness is the same as OE, it would be fine. They're just cast iron after all.

On the other hand, I used cheap AutoZone (Duralast) pads and rotors on my last brake job and they developed a pulsation in less than 20K miles. What I don't know is whether the rotors warped or the pads left uneven deposits. Either way, I got the high quality parts to replace them.

 

[A_Harman]

Option up one level above the cheapest for brake rotors. The cheap ones will warp.

 

[doitmyself]

If you buy rotors mailorder, how much hassle is it if you have warranty problems? Do you have to pay shipping to return them?

Sean, I just went through this with my son's Ranger. Local prices varied between $34 and $100 dollars.

It's really a guessing game as experiences are all over the place. Good luck with the cheapies and/or bad luck with the expensive ones. To counter the AZ story above, my daughter went through 3 warranty replacement OEM rotors on her Grand Am, but the AZ ones I installed solved the warping problem!

Check out Carquest. They (counter people) claim to be one of the biggest buyers/sellers of rotors. They told me that they only have one level (their "premium")and they were the cheapest in my case. Chinese, like most of them.

Your Pronto's have a 2 year warranty, which is better than many at that price (whatever good the warranty is?).

Good luck. I have leaned/guessed towards the cheapest to middle grade lately.

 

[bepperb]

"It's really a guessing game as experiences are all over the place."

Agreed. Get some cheap Chinese rotors from Carquest/napa/advance and take your chances. At least from a brick and mortar store while you may pay more, if they are terrible you can get another set (a blessing and a curse probably).

I've had the Brembos from TireRack and they were great, but their cost has doubled since then.

 

[scott37300]

Whenever I do brake pads I just get new rotors. I order online from advance and use a coupon code you can get from this site or googling it. Usually parts are just over 100 bucks for 2 new rotors and a set of pads and can find a code for 40 bucks off so it ends up being 60 or so dollars for everything. Or if the parts are more you can break it up into two orders to save even more. It doesn't pay to have rotors turned anymore with the advance auto codes. Order online and pick up in store and get 40% off everything, can't beat it.

 

[oldmaninsc]

Originally Posted By: scott37300
Order online and pick up in store and get 40% off everything, can't beat it.

That doesn't work for those of us who don't have a store close to us.

I bought all 4 rotors for my Mercury from a place called R1concepts. It's been almost 3 years and they seem to be holding up very well.
http://www.r1concepts.com/

 

[Rix]

I've had good luck with brembo and bradi rotors, as plain rotors and with slots/dimples and combinations thereof.
Also have good luck with factory (toyota) rotors.
I've had a lot of NOT good el-cheapo rotor (and pad) experiences.
I don't even bother trying to find a "deal" anymnore, I just look for good brands with known good quality.

 

[stephen9666]

Unless you go with EBC or another high-end brand, you'll be getting Chinese rotors. Also, many of the high-end ones are probably made in China, but EBC claims their rotors are UK or USA made.

I just went through this looking for rotors for my Hyundai.

I would recommend you check Amazon. Rotors are heavy, so shipping is expensive on Rockauto and a lot of other sites. Amazon has a lot of rotors that have free shipping.

I ended up getting Raybestos Professionals (their lower end line) for $27 each, and they seem to be quality pieces. Rockauto had a similar starting price, but shipping would have been more than $20

Here's a link to my thread about the Raybestos rotors.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2238394#Post2238394

 

[DARKSCOPE001]

amazon has one result for brake rotors for a sx4. and they are beck arnley. same thing I can get at a local store for pretty cheep. Would I be wrong to tell him to get wearever rotors? Or would i be better to get some higher end rotors? The local store wants 45 per rotor for the wearevers. and autozone has some duralasts for a bit more that have a 2 year warantee. and ive always had good luck waranteing parts at Autozone. but that 40 dollar off coupon sounds pretty sweet. Ill look that up later.

Thanks again everyone
Sean Scott

 

[Paulson]

I've had good luck with oreilly rotors (their cheapest available). I'm currently doing front work on my 94 intrepid and I can get things $60 cheaper than online through advance with coupon code big35 ($35 off $80 purchase) or big30 ($30 off $75 purchase)

 

[mechtech2]

I advise cheap rotors and the best pads you can get your hands on.

 

[DARKSCOPE001]

are duralast gold or cmax pads any good? I searched and it seemed like people have mixed reviews. I still am kinda looking at wagoner thermoquiets especially with the mail in rebate right now. But I have a question? what do you have to do to take advantage of the lifetime warantee? does this warantee cover wear and tear? Thats why I love duralast pads so much is you buy once and its free after that.

Thanks
Sean Scott

 

[stephen9666]

Originally Posted By: DARKSCOPE001
amazon has one result for brake rotors for a sx4. and they are beck arnley.


I just did a search for a 2007 SX4 and it came up with a dozen rotors, including Beck Arnley, Wagner, Centric and others. They ranged from around $39 to $46 for the lower-end ones.

Rockauto was the only website I could find with rotors cheaper than the Pronto you listed, but the price will vary based on shipping to wherever you are.

Just to muddy the water more, you could call Beck Arnley and see if they could tell you the country of origin for the part number rotor that fits your vehicle. If they're sourced from an OEM supplier, they could be from somewhere other than China.

But, if they're all from China, then we're all over thinking this, IMO.

 

[mechanic380]

I think this is being over thought no matter what. I am not going to knock the get good pads advice, but otherwise just buy some rotors. $40 dollars for something that will last several years is not a big deal.
The vehicle is not a performance vehicle so any run of the mill rotor should do the trick. I buy mine from Oreilys they work.

 

[mechanicx]

I wouldn't go too cheap on rotors. Besides the possibility of warping, sometimes the real cheapie Chinese rotors are not balanced well. Sometimes they can be so unbalanced that it causes a problem that you might waste time chasing down by rebalancing wheels.

 

[JasonC]

I just bought some Wagner rotors from Rock Auto for the front of my 2005 Explorer on wholesaler closeout and the boxes said "Made in USA from Imported Goods"

 

[stephen9666]

Originally Posted By: JasonC
I just bought some Wagner rotors from Rock Auto for the front of my 2005 Explorer on wholesaler closeout and the boxes said "Made in USA from Imported Goods"


When I called Centric, they told me their rotors were made in China, but machined in the USA. I assume the Wagners are probably similar, with blanks coming in from China that are finished here.