EBC Rotor Pictures

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These are EBC rotors for early 90's BMW. Bought as EBC touts their passenger car rotors are made in UK & USA. Price was right at the time for $110 delivered for the pair from Summit Racing, which was about the same as budget rotors from Rock Auto. Build quality looks good - fine machining and smooth cast surfaces. Installation was without problems and they perform (with Red Stuff pads) as they should. I did not need the anti-corrosion coating (I think they only come this way), but the black "Thermic black" coating has good coverage - even down into the cooling vanes.

The odd thing is that there is zero markings with country of manufacture on the packaging or the parts. Except for a vague statement about "90%" of their parts being from US or UK on the shipping label. I guess this was one of the other 10%. Seems fishy to me as all other EBC parts I've bought for my motorcycles and the front & rear pads for this BMW are heavily labeled with "Made in UK" or "USA." Nonetheless,these appear to be a good value. Time will tell how they really perform but can't see why they will not be OK.

Story has changed a bit on country of manufacture.
https://ebcbrakes.com/product/premium-oe-rotors/


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I recently installed a set of their 3GD dimpled/slotted rotors on my Explorer, along with their Ultimax2 OE replacement pads.

The packaging on the pads clearly indicates "Made in the United Kingdom", but there was nothing about country of origin on the rotors.

Taking a close look at the rotors, which were definitely heavier than the 20 year old factory rotors on the truck, I noticed the date of manufacture on the side in U.S. format. Since we're the only country in the world to use month/day/year, I reckon it's safe to assume these were machined in their Las Vegas facility. The 3GD rotors I bought for my Envoy are the same way. Those definitely are quality rotors and miles better than the Motorcraft or ACDelco white box specials from the Mainland.

According to this, EBC Brakes manufactures 90% of its rotor range in ISO and TÃœV approved facilities in the UK or in Italy. All rotors including GD Sport Rotors are machined and finished in the UK and in the USA.

[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]


[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]


[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]
 
I think many companies are buying castings from China and doing the final machining in the USA. And probably the castings are made from scrap US iron & steel.

Not sure there are many plants in Las Vegas that cast steel parts!
 
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Ran an import search on EBC USA and they bring in a high volume of automotive rotors from China. See pic. Also friction material from China. From UK they import lots of stuff obviously.
[Linked Image]
 
Originally Posted by Donald
And probably the castings are made from scrap US iron & steel.
That 1967 Dodge Polara coming back to life as new rotors...
 
They had an issue some years ago with the QA/QC of brake pad friction material coming off the backing plate. From then on I've avoided them at all costs.

I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet they import the majority of the iron from china then finish it off in the UK/US so they can say it was made here like some popular brake manufactures.
 
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I like their products because of their TÃœV, ABE and ECE R90 approvals. British made was an added bonus.

What's interesting though, is not that long ago, they mentioned using British iron for their brake discs. Now the language on their website has changed:

EBC Brakes produces G3000 grey iron castings in numerous plants, either owned by its sister Company in the UK or from carefully selected sources in Italy, Europe and Asia with over 82% of EBC brake discs are MADE in the UK. - Source

With all those imports from China, I guess things have definitely changed:

EBC automotive rotors or discs are made from G3000 grey iron many castings being made in the UK by our sister company who has full casting facilities, research, chemists and tech analysts and a quality control department. Other imported rotors are made to EBC specification in ISO approved and German TUV accredited facilities that are inspected and approved by EBC Brakes engineers. All EBC brake discs/rotors carry German ABE labelling. EBC Brake rotors are made from OE spec grey iron made to SAE J431 cast iron which is known in the USA as G3000 grey iron. This is the exact spec used by OEM car builders. - Source

As long as the quality is there, I guess that is really all that matters. But if they're charging UK manufacturing costs for Chinese sourced rotors through marketing gimmicks, that's a whole different ball game. Still, it raises the question; which discs are actually made in the UK and the U.S., and which discs are made at "other" facilities?
 
I doubt I'll be going out of my way to buy any more EBC rotors since they don't care enough to put where a product was manufactured on their product.
 
I don't have the substance to hold the hard line on issues like this. I.E., I buy inexpensive oil at Walmart knowing that I dislike their business model. I now have to question buying Valvoline products based on the recent threads here stating that Valvoline does not have a warranty on their products. I'm sure that I have probably bought Asian made products that probably have unjust working conditions. I don't research every manufacturer of my underwear.

Kudos to those of you that manage to hold the line of integrity on all of your purchases.
 
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