Centric Premium vs Fremax rotors

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Centric Premium rotors are awesome because of the black E-coating to stop the rust. Unfortunately, they're made in China like all the other non-expensive discs.

I recently discovered Fremax rotors, made in Brazil. They are also sold under various other names like VGX Platinum. Besides painted hubs, they have a special dry oil dip coating that makes it unnecessary to clean the rotors before installation. You can just take them out of the package and put them on the car!

Does anybody have any experience with the Brazilian Fremax rotors? A non-Chinese rotor that is ready to install out of the box seems like a great choice if it can resist rust as well as the electrostatic Centric Premiums.

Centric also claims to have am "installation ready finish" but AFAIK you still have to clean them before the install.

My current rotors are Centric C-Tek, and they have "warped" (it's really uneven pad transfer) after only 20k miles. The pads are Axxis Deluxe. (I plan on replacing them with Akebono ProACT, which requires no special break-in bedding)
 
If your search here for Fremax you'll find some info. They're also rebranded and sold by Beck/Arnley. I know of at least one thread with pics where someone put Fremax BA rotors on his vehicle.

I'm sure Centric rotors are good, but I would personally try Fremax just because I'm curious about them.

Another thing, are you 100% sure it's pad deposits causing your pedal pulsation? Is it uneven wear due to runout, caused by too much runout in the disc or hub or junk between the hub and rotor? If it's a problem with runout in the hub you could run into the same issue with your next rotors.

I would try rebedding the pads to see if it improves the problem. If it does, it's an indication that it's probably something on the rotors. I recently was getting some pulsation in one of our cars and a rebed scrubbed off whatever was causing the problems and fixed it.
 
I put Brazilian made rotors onto our Fit. Very heavy, solid rotors. They stop well. No reports on longevity yet, but no complaints from the wife.
 
I had what I assumed to be pad deposit issues on the GP's front brakes. I replaced the worn rotors (there was a noticeable ridge along the outer edge of the rotors) and very dusty pads (OE are ceramic and I think the old ones may have been really cheap ceramic or semi-metalic) with Centric Premiums and Akebono ProACTs and have not looked back. I did not clean or otherwise prepare the rotors prior to install and braking performance has been great since day one. I do not remember any COO markings on the rotors or boxes, but they were definitely better designed and manufactured than whatever junk it was I took off.
 
I want to try out these Brazilian rotors. Tired of these Chinese scraps out there!

Originally Posted By: sciphi
I put Brazilian made rotors onto our Fit. Very heavy, solid rotors. They stop well. No reports on longevity yet, but no complaints from the wife.

That's not a dependable source (women) lol.. Mine drove with grinding brakes for a month before saying anything to me. Got in there and there was zero pad left! She told me it'd been that way for a while........
33.gif
 
I bought Centric slotted & cross drilled rotors 2 years ago along with the Evolution pads both front and rear. Stops 10 times better than the OE units. Made in China doesn't always mean a bad product. Mine had worked great all this time and still shiny. No rust anywhere!
 
Originally Posted By: lugNutz
I want to try out these Brazilian rotors. Tired of these Chinese scraps out there!

Originally Posted By: sciphi
I put Brazilian made rotors onto our Fit. Very heavy, solid rotors. They stop well. No reports on longevity yet, but no complaints from the wife.

That's not a dependable source (women) lol
.. Mine drove with grinding brakes for a month before saying anything to me. Got in there and there was zero pad left! She told me it'd been that way for a while........
33.gif



Maybe don't compare your wife to other people?
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: lugNutz

That's not a dependable source (women) lol.. Mine drove with grinding brakes for a month before saying anything to me. Got in there and there was zero pad left! She told me it'd been that way for a while........
33.gif



I known many people this could apply too and while 2/3 WERE women... plenty of men were offenders too.
 
Originally Posted By: lugNutz
I want to try out these Brazilian rotors. Tired of these Chinese scraps out there!

Originally Posted By: sciphi
I put Brazilian made rotors onto our Fit. Very heavy, solid rotors. They stop well. No reports on longevity yet, but no complaints from the wife.

That's not a dependable source (women) lol.. Mine drove with grinding brakes for a month before saying anything to me. Got in there and there was zero pad left! She told me it'd been that way for a while........
33.gif



Not mine. She knows her car quite well. If it makes a sound that's not normal, she's bugging me to fix it. Being a old-school Honda with zero sound insulation, we hear every pebble in the road/nail in tire/brake noise.

The times I've driven the car since putting those rotors on it's been pretty smooth.
 
Originally Posted By: benjamming
Where are folks sourcing Fremax rotors?


They obtain them anywhere Beck/Arnley is sold, as (at least some of) their rotors are fremax.

The VGX brand I mentioned in the OP would come from AutoPartSource on eBay.

It may be possible to find them elsewhere under a different name. If the rotor says "Made in Brazil" it is almost definitely Fremax.
 
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