Ebay rotor experiment failed

[bullittandy]

In an attempt to eliminate a minor braking pulse and to satiate my curiosity about those "great deals" on Ebay I bought a set of 4 crossdrilled/slotted rotors with pads off Ebay for my 97 Q45. $250 shipped! Well- even after indexing the rotors to .001 on the front and driver rear and .005 on the passenger rear, the braking pulse is now WORSE! In addition, the pads had poor feel and no initial bite. Verdict=poor Respectfully, this post is for people like me that were curious about those deals on Ebay. It is not for post-purchase, second guessing from others that speculate but do not conduct actual experiments with their vehicles. I searched the threads before my purchase and could find little consensus about other's expereince with aftermarket rotors.

[jamesmost]

1- u may have to burn off the zinc plating on the surface ??2- which seller/ brand was that (there are some cross drilled Brembos on e-bay)3- forgot what 3 was

[bullittandy]

1- u may have to burn off the zinc plating on the surface ??2- which seller/ brand was that (there are some cross drilled Brembos on e-bay)3- forgot what 3 was

1

1- that's a good point, I've got 200 miles on them after a "bed-in" maybe longer?2-Rotorworks in CA3-Exactly

[maxnix]

Are those rear rotors vented? Look way too thin.

Yeah, alot of people on the internet (forget just eBay) are claiming to sell Brembo rotors when they are not. Same for PowerStop. Know with whom you are dealing and if it is too cheap to be true, it probably isn't.

Oh, and good job on the indexing. Were the rotors true?

Caveat Emptor..

[jamesmost]

is power stop doodoie ??

[szh]

Check out irotors.com for one company that sells on eBay, but also does a good job (some folks have had difficulty with them, though).

I bought Bradi (sister company of Brembo) rotors from them - cross-drilled and slotted - for my old Q45 and they worked out very well. Albeit for the short time I had the car after that ... sold it for other reasons.

Z

[szh]

Also, in general, stick with the OEM pads, no matter who the rotor mftr is, and you will have better results, imho!

Z

[elwesso]

For most people OEM pads are fine, but like to fade after a few stops...

Anyway, give the pads some time... new pads are never relaly good, you need to get em broken in real good.....

it should be OBVIOUS that your wobble isnot related to brakes!

[3Q Jay]

you could only index to 0.005? that is way too much residual runout. if that was the best, i would try some breakalign shims (search there was a thread, although they are very pricey), or just get some good 0.003 shim stock and cut ya a wedge to put between the rotor and the hub at the low spot.

my eyes must be bad, but those are vented rears, right? fy33 came with vented rears and g50 did not although the diameterrs are same.

[3Q Jay]

oh and pewter is such a nice color on the fy33!!

[bullittandy]

Update- I put the "original" front rotors back on and indexed them to .001. The braking is now butter smooth, even from 90MPH. Interestingly, the worst index with the "original" rotors was .0025 and to get .001 I only had to try three positions. The ebay rotors were at .001 but as bad as .006. This leads me to believe that even though the ebay rotors were set up well, they must have been warped somewhere else. I'm trying to contact rotorworks to see if they'll give me a refund or maybe store credit (91 Mustang where vibrations are a way of life). However, if they won't, would anyone be interested in these rotors. They'd require some work but maybe someone wants to experiment?Y33 [email protected]

[maxnix]

The important thing is to check hub lateral runout also, as no matter how well indexed, out of plane rotor vibration will return quickly.

[superuber]

I bought some cheapo rotors on ebay once and had same problem.anything can happen in transit, they get thrown around, dropped,who knows. Anything like that can happen. you learned what I learned,you get what you pay for! I know from experience some "off shore" rotors are junk!

http://community.webshots.com/user/neheadsuperuber

[chaps007]

so what can we do. i have this issue where the shifter shakes and the car will kind of pulse to stop below 40mph. i replaced the front rotors and brakes assuming that they were warped. i dont know if the back ones are causing this or what. i really want some better braking power. who knows whats good for a Y33 2000 Q45t

[maxnix]

so what can we do.

Post in the appropriate Infiniti Online Mechanic Forum.

i have this issue where the shifter shakes and the car will kind of pulse to stop below 40mph. i replaced the front rotors and brakes assuming that they were warped. i dont know if the back ones are causing this or what. i really want some better braking power. who knows whats good for a Y33 2000 Q45t

Your choices are OEM, Brembo, PowerStop. Be sure the last two are form reputable sources.

Ignoring rear rotor runout, hub runout, non OEM pads is all at your own peril. Read the previous posts.
Modified by maxnix at 8:53 AM 6/3/2006

[bullittandy]

Update- I put the "original" front rotors back on and indexed them to .001. The braking is now butter smooth, even from 90MPH. Interestingly, the worst index with the "original" rotors was .0025 and to get .001 I only had to try three positions. The ebay rotors were at .001 but as bad as .006. This leads me to believe that even though the ebay rotors were set up well, they must have been warped somewhere else. I'm trying to contact rotorworks to see if they'll give me a refund or maybe store credit (91 Mustang where vibrations are a way of life). However, if they won't, would anyone be interested in these rotors. They'd require some work but maybe someone wants to experiment?Y33 [email protected]

Not so fast. Turns out that there was still a slight vibration. I turned the original front rotors, put the original rear rotors back on and was too lazy to index them. Guess what? Back to normal, smooth and easy braking. Sidenote, I was looking at Tirerack YESTERDAY and front Y33 rotors were $30 a piece, TODAY they are $41-should have bought them yesterday!

[chaps007]

well. the pulse on the stop is really annoying. but i know the front is good b/c i got new pads, and rotors less than 6 months ago. i havent checke the rear myself but they were good at the dealership inspection where i know they would have replaced them if they were bad, b/c that day my O2 sensors were blown and they got some money out of me. but i dont mind b/c you get what you pay for in 2006, that is for dam n sure. so the solution is to first turn the rotors, see how that works then go with Hawk pads, brembo rotors, and SS brake lines. do i need any special tools for my calipers to take them off?

a pic of my Q before tint, when people could see me. that was a good feeling seeing all them looking. "they see me rollin, they hatin, patrolin...they want to catch me ridin dirty, tryin to catch me ridin dirty!"

but now they want to see who is in that 2000 Q45t blowing past that S500

[99q45t_vl]

Not so fast. Turns out that there was still a slight vibration. I turned the original front rotors, put the original rear rotors back on and was too lazy to index them. Guess what? Back to normal, smooth and easy braking. Sidenote, I was looking at Tirerack YESTERDAY and front Y33 rotors were $30 a piece, TODAY they are $41-should have bought them yesterday!

nopionline.com has them for $26.46

[bullittandy]

nopionline.com has them for $26.46

[/QUOTs

Thanks for the heads up, I just placed my order for new F/R rotors and will be replacing the front pads with new OEM.