EBC Brakes

Did you see my (unneeded/cosmetic) painted calipers??? I highly recommend that you clean and paint your calipers too! It takes the pad slap project into the day long project zone very easy! I can match anyone's OCD level here! But, I am a recovering perfectionist with 20 years sobriety - I choose my OCD level vs. being controlled by it. Life's real challenges does that with the advent and wisdom of old age.
 
Lucky I'm not that bad. Checking the runout does seem to be a good thing to do. Catch and correct an issue before you're on the road wondering what's wrong.
 
Originally Posted by blupupher
I had some EBC green pads on my '02 F150 that cracked and fell apart in < 10,000 miles on me. Not very pleased at all.
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Those pads appear to have been pretty severely overheated.
I have taken pads off that looked like that, and the vehicles they came off had sticking calipers or hung up slides, of the caliper bracket had rusted to the pad, not allowing it to retract.

I ran a set of EBC Ultimax pads on my old Saturn and really liked them. Nice stopping power, no noise, low dust, and they held up well for the 30k or so I put on them before I sold the car.
 
Rotors and pads are suppose to be here tomorrow. I'll take some pics of the rotors and try to figure out where they came from.
 
FWIW I wouldn't necessarily be afraid of Chinese made rotors. This is a country with a space program, after all, a brake rotor is nothing compared to that. As long as EBC requires tight QC from the manufacturer they'll be fine.

The Chinese are capable of manufacturing just about anything you want, you just have to make sure you specify you want a quality product instead of junk.
 
Originally Posted by littlehulkster
FWIW I wouldn't necessarily be afraid of Chinese made rotors. This is a country with a space program, after all, a brake rotor is nothing compared to that. As long as EBC requires tight QC from the manufacturer they'll be fine.

The Chinese are capable of manufacturing just about anything you want, you just have to make sure you specify you want a quality product instead of junk.


I have purchased Chinese rotors on numerous occasions, for different cars in the past 10 years. Haven't had an issue with any of them. No pulsating, warping, etc.

I always go with a middle or high quality brake pad though for sure.
 
Originally Posted by littlehulkster
FWIW I wouldn't necessarily be afraid of Chinese made rotors. This is a country with a space program, after all, a brake rotor is nothing compared to that. As long as EBC requires tight QC from the manufacturer they'll be fine.

The Chinese are capable of manufacturing just about anything you want, you just have to make sure you specify you want a quality product instead of junk.

I'm not afraid of China stuff. I'm trying to not give them any money I don't have to. Obviously they can make good stuff.
 
its not the country, its the manufacturer. every country has firms that make junk and firms that make excellence (GM Vs Lockheed is a good example)
 
Originally Posted by Olas
its not the country, its the manufacturer. every country has firms that make junk and firms that make excellence (GM Vs Lockheed is a good example)



The beloved Michelin Company also has a tire plant in China-and ships tires all over Europe from it.
 
Originally Posted by cronk

Those pads appear to have been pretty severely overheated.
I have taken pads off that looked like that, and the vehicles they came off had sticking calipers or hung up slides, of the caliper bracket had rusted to the pad, not allowing it to retract.

I ran a set of EBC Ultimax pads on my old Saturn and really liked them. Nice stopping power, no noise, low dust, and they held up well for the 30k or so I put on them before I sold the car.


Other than the backing plate and giant crack in the pad, it actually doesn't looks abnormal to me. It just looks like bad luck or bad QA/QC. Friction material shouldn't come off the backing plate like that, but EBC did have QA issues with their pads before doing exactly this. When I think of overheating I'm thinking of below (credit to corvetteforum.) Although it would be easier to see if the pad overheated with a picture of the rotor too.

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The pads and rotors came today. I can't see anything related to country where the front rotors where made. The machining looks excellent however. I didn't open the rear rotors yet.
 
Originally Posted by CKN
Originally Posted by Olas
its not the country, its the manufacturer. every country has firms that make junk and firms that make excellence (GM Vs Lockheed is a good example)



The beloved Michelin Company also has a tire plant in China-and ships tires all over Europe from it.



Yes they do, which reinforces the point that the country doesn't matter, its the factory. Michelin make good tyres no matter which bit of soil their factory sits on.
 
Originally Posted by FlyNavyP3
Originally Posted by hatt
I just ordered EBC rotors and pads for the 2010 Camry. Did I waste money? It looks like the choices were China rotors or EBC for not too much more.


Where are the EBC rotors made? I've always wondered if their entry level stuff was also cast in China.


Here is an EBC rotor discussion covering the COO question. To me they are very vague on COO and it appears are importing significant rotor volumes from China.
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/foru...328665/re-ebc-rotor-pictures#Post5328665
 
EBC products in the EU have a bad reputation - Friction material delaminates from backing pads and discs crack.

Stick to Brembo/Zimmerman/Pagid wherever possible.
 
Originally Posted by Olas
EBC products in the EU have a bad reputation - Friction material delaminates from backing pads and discs crack.

Stick to Brembo/Zimmerman/Pagid wherever possible.


That was a problem which was later addressed, particularly on the Ultimax OE replacement series. Personally I've never had a problem, and I'm running their products in all my vehicles with no issue. None of the vehicles are driven gingerly.

All the discs I bought had approvals from ABE and TÃœV, and all the pads had ECE R90 approvals.
 
Originally Posted by Olas
EBC products in the EU have a bad reputation - Friction material delaminates from backing pads and discs crack.

Stick to Brembo/Zimmerman/Pagid wherever possible.

I never had issues with them, and I am also running it on Land Cruiser Prado in Europe with Ultimax rotors and Green stuff. Unlike Toyota OE, these do not vibrate after 10,000km.
 
Itspossibletht they use a better supplier, or a better production technique, but I still maintiain that I will never use them again. Ive been changing brakes since before I had a license, and I've NEVER seen delaminated pads from any manufcaturer, ever, except the EBC pads I took out that 'make a noise and feel funny'.
You only need food poisoning once to never go back to that restaraunt,
You only need to be in one airplane crash to always get the train or boat for the rest of your life,
and you only need to see one delaminated brake pad to never buy from that company again.
 
Originally Posted by Olas
Itspossibletht they use a better supplier, or a better production technique, but I still maintiain that I will never use them again. Ive been changing brakes since before I had a license, and I've NEVER seen delaminated pads from any manufcaturer, ever, except the EBC pads I took out that 'make a noise and feel funny'.
You only need food poisoning once to never go back to that restaraunt,
You only need to be in one airplane crash to always get the train or boat for the rest of your life,
and you only need to see one delaminated brake pad to never buy from that company again.

I had Ferodo split in half.
 
It's an extremely competitive marketplace, where manufacturers are under extreme pressure for market share. This is especially true for a company like EBC, given their size, with so many huge players in the brake segment. While I don't deny every manufacturer is going to have their own share of problems, not doing anything about it will do nothing but land them in all sorts of trouble.

Brake pads, like all wear items, have a set lifespan depending on use. Wear can be further accelerated when problems like partially seized calipers or corroded caliper pins are present, not necessarily related to the pads or rotors themselves. A simple search will reveal many folks have experienced issues with disintegrating pads, with brands ranging from Volvo OE to Textar pads on a Porsche.

I've had Bendix CT-3 pads crack and disintegrate on me 2 years after installation, and when I contacted Bendix about it, I was sent a replacement set - no questions asked - which I never had any problems with over the course of its lifespan (4 years/34,000 miles). Perhaps they had a bad batch, but they absolutely did the right thing and that's exactly what instills confidence, when a manufacturer backs their product.

While it's understandable some folks will be left with a bad taste in their mouths, that didn't put me off Bendix products, considering various OE brake parts on my vehicles, like the master cylinders, are supplied by them. Quite the opposite in fact, especially given the problem occured 2 years and roughly 15,000 miles after installation with 75% life left in them, when they quite well could have told me to go pound sand.

EBC has an article on their website dedicated to cracking rotors, as well as an article on choosing the right pads for your application. While OEM pads/rotors tends to cover the needs of most drivers, as Edyvw pointed out, they don't cover everyone. From experience, I'm not a fan of most OE brake setups on Japanese SUVs; primarily Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi with pads supplied by Sumitomo (FF edge codes in most cases). In my case, the EBC Yellow Stuff pads have been the answer, covering a niche where other manufacturers haven't really offered an alternative to OE spec. Good luck finding Brembo or Otto Zimmermann for those. At the end of the day, it's your money, your time, your vehicle.
 
Brembo also has a few skeletons in their closet. I agree with you Falcon FS. Is you ban every manufacturer that you (or others) had one bad experience with, you will quickly run out of alternatives.
 
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