Brake upgrade

[rocastro71]

So I was almost sold to the BBK kit until I realized that either I would need to upgrade by wheels and tires or I would need spacers to increased the wheel offset in order to accomodate the BBK on my stock 19". I don't plan on changing my OEM wheels since I just love the way they look and I don't want to spend thousands more so I made it final to just stay with the current brake sizes. I did upgrade to the cross drilled slotted made by royalty rotors and cryo treated by frozen rotors. I matched it with hawk ceramic brake pads. The quality of the rotors are excellent. They are zinc coated to prevent rusting but I went ahead and painted the rotor heads black just as an extra precaution against rust. The rotors have lifetime warranty against warping and cracking. I also chose the ceramic pads for long life, low brake dust and excellent reviews. Here are some pics for you guys. Hope you'll like it.

1. Royalty rotor box

2. Rotors with heads painted black and hawk ceramic pads

3. Front brake rotor and pads installed

4. Driver side front wheel

5. Close up look of the rotor

6. Rear passenger wheel

7. My 08 M35S with the new rotors and pads

[Alphax]

Looks great! Did you DIY? How long did it take you?

[rocastro71]

I had a friend who works for honda installed it for me. Took roughly 1 hour to do it all.

[nadzak]

Any changes in the braking performance?

[ken in az]

They look great! Cryo treated is the only way for an OEM replacement upgrade

[Mdelicious]

oOOoooooh, that's nice!

[MZH]

After how long it is recommended to replace the rotors? anyone knows?

[EniGmA1987]

Replace the rotors if they are cracked, warped, or getting thin from being turned (ground flat) and dont have enough material left to properly brake.

Personally I like to replace rotors every 100k miles unless the signs above are showing before that.

Very beautiful car Rocastro

[locoluna825]

i replace them every brake change only becuase my moms a maniac and goes through brakes every 15,000 miles and warps the rotors in about a month after theve been installed

[M4T5]

i replace them every brake change only becuase my moms a maniac and goes through brakes every 15,000 miles and warps the rotors in about a month after theve been installed

That's a bit excessive... how about buying higher quality brake parts that can last longer and take the abuse. If you or someone else is doing the brake jobs and using your local auto parts brake components....that's probably why.

J

[rocastro71]

Thanks Ken. I was planning to do the BBK like yours but can't justify spending too much at this time.

[rocastro71]

So far, I am just taking it easy as per manufacturer's recommendation the first 500 miles. I'll write a review maybe in a few weeks time. Thanks.

[ArbitrageMan]

Love it. Glad to hear your happy because I'm going the same route when I need new brakes.

[Supreme Wu]

i replace them every brake change only becuase my moms a maniac and goes through brakes every 15,000 miles and warps the rotors in about a month after theve been installed

I've heard this happens if you overtorque the lug nuts

[exbmwdude]

Our cars just have an undersized braking system, plain and simple. If used hard, they warp. I test drove a 2008 M45X with 11k on it over the weekend and it already had warped front rotors.

Over-tightened lug nuts - I don't think so...

exbmwdude2006 M35S

[rocastro71]

Well, after 2 days of trying out the brakes, I would say it's definitely way way better than OEM brakes. The grip is just amazing. No noise at all. After the bed in process, I don't see any brake dust too. I definitely recommend this set up to anyone trying to upgrade their brakes. Also, I just realized after looking at pictures on cross drilled and slotted rotors that my rotors were installed incorrectly. The driver and passenger side were interchanged. I did call my friend and he'll redo it for me on friday.No big deal.
Modified by rocastro71 at 10:40 AM 8/26/2009

[Sportin' 35]

i replace them every brake change only becuase my moms a maniac and goes through brakes every 15,000 miles and warps the rotors in about a month after theve been installed

It could (possibly) be due to her riding the brakes.. My wife is notorious for this. We had new pads and rotors (premium) put on my wifes car earlier this year, and after about 7 months of only her driving it, I took it for a quick run up the street and man, her brakes pulsated and felt like crap. I took the car back to Honda and they confirmed that they were indeed warped. The Lead Tech confirmed my theory. She drives about 120 to 150 miles daily, mostly on the highway and paying attention to her driving style, (speed up/slow down- brake extra hard at any sign of brake lights up ahead), we found out how she is destroying her brakes. Keep a constant, although light pressure on the brakes is killing the rotors. Or so it seems. I guess I could also classify her driving as manic also. I do know his much though, when she's driving, sleep is out of the question for me..

By the way, good choice on the brakes.. I know they work wonders on smaller cars like Honda, Nissan, and such.. Be sure and let us know how they hold up on your M...

[szh]

Also, I just realized after looking at pictures on cross drilled and slotted rotors that my rotors were installed incorrectly. The driver and passenger side were interchanged. I did call my friend and he'll redo it for me on friday.No big deal.

Hmmm ... you have "angled" slots - meaning they are not pointing to the center of the rotor. There are two schools of thought about which way they they should "sit" with regard to the wheel turning direction. Some like it angled backwards and some forwards.

It is not clear that one is seriously preferred over the other. It may not matter ...(?)

The internal vanes on some rotors are angled too - these may have a preferred direction since the air motion is changed, I suppose.

I'd love to see comments and opinions and discussion about this topic.

Z

[The00Dustin]

The rotors pictured are sold as front right, front left, rear right, and rear left, so I think somebody has a serious preference for one over the other... The slots could be angled in more ways than one to cause that requirement, though, or it could be that they didn't want to try to distinguish them in some other way. I really don't know.

[szh]

The rotors pictured are sold as front right, front left, rear right, and rear left, so I think somebody has a serious preference for one over the other...

Ah! Okay, thanks.

The slots could be angled in more ways than one to cause that requirement, though, or it could be that they didn't want to try to distinguish them in some other way. I really don't know.

Hmmm ... would be interesting to find out more.

Anybody know?

Z

[szh]

i replace them every brake change only becuase my moms a maniac and goes through brakes every 15,000 miles and warps the rotors in about a month after theve been installed

Yikes! Rotors every 15k miles is very excessive for sure! Would a resurfacing of the rotor on a lathe would not be sufficient (rather than replacing every 15k miles)?

On my old Q45s, I needed pads to be done every 20k to 30k miles and rotors once every two to three pad changes, so closer to 75k miles.

On my current 2003 M45, the pads seem to be lasting longer ... nearly 35 to 40k miles on each set so far, and the rotors are still good at 78k miles. No warping, but they are probably going to be need replacement when I get a pad change done in the next three to four months.

Z

[NightWatch]

I believe there was a TSB for rotor warping and Infiniti was replacing them if it exceeded certain tolerances within the first 15,000 miles.

[haab4u]

rocastro71, How much did this setup run you? & where did you purchase from? I'm going to be replacing my Brakes & Rotors soon and looking at some options. I can't justify dropping $2500 + on a BBK either......although KenInAZ's BBK looks sick!

[ken in az]

Ah! Okay, thanks.

Hmmm ... would be interesting to find out more.

Anybody know?

Z

Slot or drilled direction has nil effect on performance.

On certain rotors, normally the pricey variety non OEM, will have a directional internal vane structure that actually acts like a fan which draws air in and slings it outward. If this is installed backwards you will tend to overheat the rotor and cause degradation of performance up to complete failure in extreme circumstances.

Here's a link that describes this with visuals

http://www.zeckhausen.com/how_...s.htm

[rocastro71]

The rotors I got from Frozen rotors.com. The F/R sets cost me $585 shipped. That includes 15% off using code "FR1395". The Hawk ceramic pads I got from hawkpadsdirect.com. I think I paid around $150 shipped for F/R pads. You can also use Hawk HPS pad which is cheaper and you can get it at autoanything.com with discount if you order by phone. Hope this helps.

[maxnix]

Never heard of Royalty. Wonder if they started as Brembo blanks?

[rocastro71]

Well, I called Frozen rotors and they said it doesn't matter which direction the angle of the slots faces. Hopefully his right? I read Ken's link about the internal vane structure so now I really want to make sure that my rotors were put in right. I did sent out an email directly to royalty rotors to make sure. Still waiting for their reply.

[The00Dustin]

The rotors I got from Frozen rotors.com. The F/R sets cost me $585 shipped. That includes 15% off using code "FR1395". The Hawk ceramic pads I got from hawkpadsdirect.com. I think I paid around $150 shipped for F/R pads. You can also use Hawk HPS pad which is cheaper and you can get it at autoanything.com with discount if you order by phone. Hope this helps.

I got an e-mail from frozen rotors a couple weeks ago indicating that royalty might be having growing pains, so I don't know if those will continue to be an option. frozen rotors has the HPS pads for sale too. I asked them about using ceramics and they said they don't recommend ceramics with the frozen rotors, that said, keep us up to date on how the ceramics perform with the frozen rotors.

[rocastro71]

OK, finally spoke to royalty rotors customer service. She did confirm that the internal vane structure follows the angle for which the direction of the holes and slots points. So my mechanic did put it wrong and will redo it tomorrow. Thanks to Ken again for the info.

[szh]

Slot or drilled direction has nil effect on performance.

That is what I thought too.

On certain rotors, normally the pricey variety non OEM, will have a directional internal vane structure that actually acts like a fan which draws air in and slings it outward. If this is installed backwards you will tend to overheat the rotor and cause degradation of performance up to complete failure in extreme circumstances.

Good info! Which is why I commented about the direction of the vanes in my earlier post, but did not know which way is better. Thanks for the link below!

Here's a link that describes this with visuals

http://www.zeckhausen.com/how_...s.htm

Most Excellent link ... thanks!

Z