Groves in front rotors (replacement advice)
 

I took my stock FR-S to the track this past weekend and had and awesome time. It was my first track day so I was learning the track and car mostly before pushing any limits.

By the last session I was getting pretty hard on the brakes in the two braking zones. I ended up pulling in early because I felt quite a bit of fade in the brakes and noticed when I got home my front rotors looked like this:

http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...pskbykng9p.jpg
http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...psc0xla59n.jpg

http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...psmdtvoe6h.jpg



I was thinking of just getting maybe a slightly higher quality blank rotor. I really enjoyed driving on the track and it was definitely the most fun I've had in the car but the wear and tear on the car and higher risk probably won't have me doing these more than once or 2 times a year. I will probably stick to a few autocross events though just to compete in something as that is a lot less taxing on brakes and other components.

Can anybody recommend a rotor that will be a bit more durable. I'd really like to keep it under $100 for each rotor and was probably going to go with an organic pad for street use and swap in a semi metallic pad if I ever do go to the track or auto cross again. I just don't want to burn up rotors again for the once or twice a year hard track day.

Thanks for any suggestions and help.

I did read through brake sticky.

I don't have advice on rotors (I went with DBA rotors); but the rotors I pulled off tonight looked exactly like that (3 track days, 12+ autox).

I'm interested in the replies you get.

http://www.autoanything.com/brakes/61A5250A0A0.aspx

Centric premiums are a solid choice. Im running them right now, but I have not seen the track with them yet

edit: I bought mine from autoanything because of low prices and the free shipping helps with the cost

Was this with the stock brake pads?

Assuming you still have enough meat on the rotors, you could take them in to an auto part store and have them turned.

I went with drilled rotors
 

The drilled rotors help cool the disk better, don't chew up the pads as bad as slotted rotors, and they look a lot cooler than flat or slotted rotors. I don't hear as much scraping noises since changing to them either. It's hard to find just drilled rotors. Often they will drill and slot them. You can even get them in GOLD! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brake-Rotors...9VnzwN&vxp=mtr

Yet drilled are not that common on track, if reliability matters. Mostly show car thing. Normal disks are least susceptible to cracking, slotted less, drilled more. Drilled and slotted most of course. I certainly wouldn't actively chose/search for them. Slight extra cooling is not worth to be paid for with less reliability and can be got in better ways, eg. brake air ducting. Even if they look "cooler then flat or slotted", brake subsystem shouldn't be the one, where it's acceptable to have less reliability.

Get a quality blank and some track pads and high temp fluid. I did my first few track days with XP10 and RBF600. So glad I didn't attempt to try stock seeing how many people have issues and waste their track day dealing with them.

I'd probably just go straight to torque rt700 fluid, blanks, and research what track pad you like. I was happy with XP10 but the number of days I was doing I just went to AP sprint kit after 2 sets of pads.

Thats not as bad as I did on Project Mu 400s but similar. Your pads overheated, lost the transfer layer and tore the shit out of the disc. Get a better set of Pads and it'll clean up over a little bit of time. And start slow and build up because nothing cooks this cars brakes faster than leaving any of the traction control aids on and ABS. Not in that order.

Are those actually grooves, or just melted pad compound smeared around the rotor? Tough to say from pictures, but that looks more like pad smearing than grooves to me.

If you're getting pad fade (no brakes, but hard pedal) you need better pads (and fluid) to be safe, stick with blank rotors. Drilled rotors are for show cars, drilling removes thermal mass and weakens the rotor.

Yes Im assuming it was stock pads. I bought the car used from dealer with 16k miles. I brought it in the day before track day and it had 9-10mm of pad left all around.

I thought about that. I'll probably have these replaced and keep them to get refinished to have a spare set for street driving. New stock spec rotors look to be only around 35 dollars so if I can get these refinished for 10-20 each I'll do it.


Those look great! I looked into drilled/slotted etc rotors and if I do take it to the track the only thing I would be worried about is cracking and failure in the drilled rotors.


Thanks, ya thats what I gathered reading around a bit.

Quality blanks and pads is probably the route I'll go given my planned use for the car. Thanks for the advice. I'll check out those pads and fluid.

Awesome. I think you are right about the pads overheating and destroying the rotor. So you think the rotor is still good if I just threw new higher quality pads on? I'll probably replace rotors anyways.

Also interesting about the aids cooking brakes. Is it because of the torque vectoring using brakes? I did the last session of the day with vsc sport button pushed. I was too chicken to pedal dance everything off but a guy also recommended doing it at the track (another 86 driver).



They look and feel like grooves dug into the rotor to me, but I'm pretty inexperienced in this kind of stuff. That would be cool if new pads would clean up the rotor. Rotors were smooth as new at the beginning of the day and I didn't notice the grooves until I got home from the track day. Initially I thought I boiled the brake fluid because the pedal went pretty mushy and lost a lot of bite and braking power.

The brakes are still mushier and not as much stopping power when I drive on the street probably because the pads are toast and rotor feels like a vinyl record. So I will be replacing very soon. I don't get a good feeling driving around with dying brakes.


I would love to eventually get a high end bbk or something similar, but I don't have the funds right now to justify doing that. Also I won't be doing too much hard track days until it becomes a dedicated track/fun car I don't have to worry about getting me around on the daily.

If the rotors are still in spec for thickness (can't imagine why not, I know people like myself easily see 60k Street miles and multiple track days and seasons of autox on stock rotors without issue) don't waste your money. A new set of Street pads and a set of track pads for your next event. Throw a set of xp10s on there and at the end of your next track day that rotor will have a mirror finish on it.

Mushy feeling is probably a combination of fried OE pad and brake fluid, it'll feel better after replacing both. I experienced the same exact thing after my second track day.

Bbk is a waste of money unless you're using up multiple sets of pads per year.

Mushy brakes means you need to bleed them. For the rotors, pull your wheels off and run your thumb nail across the grooves and see how much it catches your nail.

I'd really suggest against drilled rotors, just get quality blanks if these do need to be replaced.

Definitely need a new pad. This is how rotors should look after a track day. I used Cobalt Friction XR2s.

http://i.imgur.com/PkKOibD.jpg