Best coated rotors

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I need new brakes for both of our cars. Where we live with winter salt, the failure mode for brakes on our cars has always been the rotors rusting on the inside, and creeping onto the friction surface wearing grooves into the pads causing noise. My Camry is only 4 years old and this just starting occurring with the factory rotors. On my wife's RAV4, I used Raybestos e-coated rotors and they are rotted up after only 3 years. Generally I get 4-5 years out of factory rotors, and only 3 out of aftermarket even with the e-coated vanes and hats. It sucks because the pads have lots of life left when this happens.

I don't want e-coated rotors. The hats and vanes are coated, but not inside the hat. The failure of all of my rotors in the last 10 years has been rust creeping from inside the hat onto the braking surface. The new "coated" rotors with the silvery coating seems to cover everything, even the inside areas that cause the problems. There are a few options so I wanted to see what the opinions are.

Raybestos has the Element3 line with the RPT coating technology. They say it holds up under 300 hours of salt spray testing, and they are pretty cheap. What I don't like is that it says the maximum lateral runout is 0.004", which is crazy. The factory specs are maximum runout of 0.002" so I don't know how a brand new rotor is so sloppy.

NAPA Ultra Premium coated rotors are quite bit more pricey, and I've heard they are repackaged Raybestos rotors. They say their coating is polymer, and the maximum runout is 0.002" so it would appear they are different from the Element3. I like that they have a lifetime warranty, so I assume if/when they rot out I'll get new ones for free.

A lot of people like the coated Powerstops, but I can't find information on runout, and the warranty is lousy.

Are any of these any good? Are there other options that you've had good luck with? Again, I want something coated, even inside the hats, so that eliminates all of the black e-coated ones as far as I can tell.
 
Originally Posted by JMHC
It sucks because the pads have lots of life left when this happens.


Then just replace the rotors. Don't buy into the hype that you must always replace the pads when you replace rotors. And you can always spray an anti-rust coating on the inside of uncoated rotors.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by JMHC
It sucks because the pads have lots of life left when this happens.


Then just replace the rotors. Don't buy into the hype that you must always replace the pads when you replace rotors. And you can always spray an anti-rust coating on the inside of uncoated rotors.


I'm not putting pads back on with grooves worn in them. I'm not THAT cheap.
 
We never seem to reach a conclusion about which rotor coating system is best. There are at least 3 types: e coating, geomet, and a clear coating. It's tough to confirm if all of the silver coated types are geomet or a different version of it.

Have you waded through the dozens of recent threads on this: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&biw=1920&bih=925&ei=0a6PXPzAOYTvjwSU8JzICA&q=coated+rotors+site%3Awww.bobistheoilguy.com&oq=coated+rotors+site%3Awww.bobistheoilguy.com&gs_l=psy-ab.12...8782.9612..12346...0.0..0.53.99.2......0....1..gws-wiz.IXHoTVA8Ufo

I will have to buy rotors in the next year, so I am interested in this topic. Right now I am leaning towards the silver type coating.
 
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Originally Posted by JMHC
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by JMHC
It sucks because the pads have lots of life left when this happens.


Then just replace the rotors. Don't buy into the hype that you must always replace the pads when you replace rotors. And you can always spray an anti-rust coating on the inside of uncoated rotors.


I'm not putting pads back on with grooves worn in them. I'm not THAT cheap.


Depends on how bad. A few small groves are harmless and will smooth out in use. Most pads already come with a large vertical groove built-in.
 
Coating is one aspect , the base material is another . Zimmermann does a very good job resisting rust in Michigan .
 
I would not recommend anyone spray any corrosion protection oil on the inside vanes of a disk brake rotor! With centrifugal force and just sitting in the driveway, this oil will seep out and potentially contaminate your brake pads....nobody wants a sphincter tightening moment as they try to stop for that kid crossing the road!
 
Originally Posted by doitmyself
We never seem to reach a conclusion about which rotor coating system is best. There are at least 3 types: e coating, geomet, and a clear coating. It's tough to confirm if all of the silver coated types are geomet or a different version of it.

Have you waded through the dozens of recent threads on this: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&biw=1920&bih=925&ei=0a6PXPzAOYTvjwSU8JzICA&q=coated+rotors+site%3Awww.bobistheoilguy.com&oq=coated+rotors+site%3Awww.bobistheoilguy.com&gs_l=psy-ab.12...8782.9612..12346...0.0..0.53.99.2......0....1..gws-wiz.IXHoTVA8Ufo

I will have to buy rotors in the next year, so I am interested in this topic. Right now I am leaning towards the silver type coating.


I have waded and not really seen anything definitive either. I guess I want to know what people thought of the Element3 given their large runout tolerance, or how well they, or the NAPA ones hold up.
 
[Linked Image]
 
Originally Posted by Kjmack
Coating is one aspect , the base material is another . Zimmermann does a very good job resisting rust in Michigan .
Quality of rotor material > cheap coating. The rust belt will always reveal poor metallurgy.
 
Zimmerman all the way for longevity. Bosch/Meyle/Textar and I think Raybestos coated are all the same, and are all good quality as well, but dont last like Zimmerman. If you can find them, Freemax's new coating is very thick, this is what the Napa Fleet said they were using but it was the black painted Freemax's, they dont hold up as well.
 
Originally Posted by Audios
Zimmerman all the way for longevity. Bosch/Meyle/Textar and I think Raybestos coated are all the same, and are all good quality as well, but dont last like Zimmerman. If you can find them, Freemax's new coating is very thick, this is what the Napa Fleet said they were using but it was the black painted Freemax's, they dont hold up as well.


I have Zimmerman's on the VW.... the water-based coating doesn't last that long either.

I still prefer the E-coating on Centric Premium (and higher) rotors.
 
after a lot of research i selected EBC rotors + pads, fully coated + higher carbon, a good thing. made in UK + USA not china as most are!!
 
Originally Posted by JMHC
These are Toyotas, not Euro cars. Zimmerman doesn't make rotors for them.


Toyota sells the RAV4 in Europe.

And yes, Zimmerman DOES make rotors for them.
 
Coating on rotors makes them look nice, and in the interior vanes helps them move more air without the restriction of passages from rust.

It does nothing related to "creeping onto the friction surface wearing grooves into the pads causing noise. ", unless you're talking about leaving a vehicle sitting outside undriven for months during a rainy season.

The brake pads remove 100% of the rust on the areas they contact. The only rust that remains will be because your rotors (or pads) were already uneven from wear, not salted roads, so this is an area the pads aren't scrubbing. It will happen to the same extent i there was no salt on roads, the wear I mean, the unsightly rust does nothing beyond cosmetics in the valleys and pits of the friction surface.

Quote "It sucks because the pads have lots of life left when this happens.

There you go! Get softer pads so they wear instead of eating up your rotors. You don't need coated rotors at all for the problem mentioned, though as mentioned above, they do have benefits if your driving style or brake system design heats them up a lot to keep more air moving through them... except not all rotors even have air channels.
 
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Originally Posted by benjy
after a lot of research i selected EBC rotors + pads, fully coated + higher carbon, a good thing. made in UK + USA not china as most are!!


+1
 
Originally Posted by Dave9
Coating on rotors makes them look nice, and in the interior vanes helps them move more air without the restriction of passages from rust.

It does nothing related to "creeping onto the friction surface wearing grooves into the pads causing noise. ", unless you're talking about leaving a vehicle sitting outside undriven for months during a rainy season.

The brake pads remove 100% of the rust on the areas they contact. The only rust that remains will be because your rotors (or pads) were already uneven from wear, not salted roads, so this is an area the pads aren't scrubbing. It will happen to the same extent i there was no salt on roads, the wear I mean, the unsightly rust does nothing beyond cosmetics in the valleys and pits of the friction surface.

Quote "It sucks because the pads have lots of life left when this happens.

There you go! Get softer pads so they wear instead of eating up your rotors. You don't need coated rotors at all for the problem mentioned, though as mentioned above, they do have benefits if your driving style or brake system design heats them up a lot to keep more air moving through them... except not all rotors even have air channels.


This is what happens. The pads do not clean this, even if driven daily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZIVH6In4zM
 
I've always had good luck with NAPA brakes.IMO their adaptive one line is as good as anything out there for normal use. They're not race brakes, of course, but if you're not racing you can't get much better.
 
Originally Posted by JMHC
This is what happens. The pads do not clean this, even if driven daily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZIVH6In4zM


Nonsense. He is a shill marketing coated rotors, but even then he pointed out the two primary problems which were the pad slide rails not lubed (which makes them swell with rust so the pad may no longer even engage at proper force) and slide pins sticking from lack of lube too.

I lube my slide rails under and over the stainless guides, and my pins, and I drive in salted winter weather. I do not have rotor wear as shown in the video. I mean across multiple vehicles and decades of DIY brakes.

It is laughable that he thinks less airflow to the back of the rotor keeps it wetter. If driving in rain, it will be wet on both sides. Centrifugal force will sling any excess water off and the heat from braking will dry both sides completely once you are not driving in water.

One HUGE mistake he made in the video is not recognizing that the area where the pad rides the friction surface of the rotor, will almost immediately (during brake pad break-in) remove the coating and it is then no longer there to stop rust, will rust exactly the same given the same poor state of brake system lubrication. He tried to state the rust creeps from the edge but that would not account for the uneven wear on the inner area and it is quite obvious that this is an old worn rotor onto which new pads were installed. Notice how they barely have any material missing, are quite thick. This was staged fiction about how NOT to do brakes since new pads were put on unevenly worn rotors, AND the slide rails and pins were not greased.

The reason the back of the rotor wears unevenly is because the front has the pad in a fixed position but the back wobbles more when caliper slide rails and pins are not lubed properly. This is not always the case, but it is also not always the case that only the back wears unevenly.

It has nothing to do with coated rotors. Again, the area in question become uncoated the moment you break in the pads, and will have no difference in rust formation on the friction surface with all else equal. Even so, coated rotors are useful for keeping the air passages flowing better, but they do NOT allow you to let your guide rails and slide pins rust and stick due to lack of lube.
 
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