I replaced my brakes...without doing reasearch ....and now my braking his horrible. I need to get this corrected asap. So what is my best option? I don't want to spend loads of money, so no big brake kit. I want to get oem stop quality or better. should i just buy oem rotors/pads. or maybe upgrade to r56? or buy something aftermarket thats better but cheaper or similar priced?

 

What'd you buy? That'll help us in determining the best/cheapest option for you.

 

Ignore post...

 

i bought rotors off ebay. they were zimmerman or something...i thought they were supposed to be a good brand, but i dont think so now. drilled and slotted (which i hate now). and i bought the most expensive pads autozone had to offer...and theyre still junk, ive come to find.

 

carbotech pads (bobcat and AX6 are street) i run XP8 track/street and there frggin awesome you can out brake cars with BBK's with them, and TXWerks rotors if you wanna keep oem sizes, either that or one of the TCE willwood kits or TXWerks BBK's

 

Just out of curiosity, what sucks exactly? Is the pedal less firm or mushy? Is the stopping distance longer than you expected? I'm assuming after the install you job you bled the brakes with a good fluid and bedded them in correctly. With some rotor/pad combinations you need to go through the bedding in process more than once. It isn't uncommon to be disappointed after the first round of bedding-in as it sometimes isn't enough and needs to be done again.

I haven't used the Zimmerman rotors but others have had luck with them and it is important to know that the pads make the biggest difference. If I were you I'd go through another round or two of bedding-in and if you're still not happy after a week or two, keep the rotors and just upgrade the pads. I don't mean to insult you if you've already bedded-in the pads, but its commonly not done correct or not enough:

StopTech bed-in read-through
Quick-and-dirty bed-in instructions

 

theyve been bad since day one. I have had them on for about 4 or 5 months now, so ive done the bedding process. the pedal response is all but gone. I used to barely touch the pedal and the brakes would grab (the oem brakes). now i have to mash the pedal and instead of biting, it just slowly clamps down hard and harder and evenutally stops the car. not to mention they vibrate something horrible im not sure if the rotors are warped or what. Also, I'm not sure if they were bled or not...I had a local garage do the install.

 

Where you took then car to have the brakes done, do you trust them, could you have them look at them? Thinking about what you can do without breaking the bank, I would find out if the brakes were bleed or do so if they weren't. Next I would find out if the rotors are ok or not. The vibration could be a warped rotor, it could be improperly installed or you could have a dead spot of build-up of brake pad material. This could have been caused if the rotor hadn't been beeded-in properly which could also have led to a glazed rotor if there was too much heat/friction suddenly after the rotors were installed. This could help explain the lack of bite and can probably be fixed by sanding/surfacing the rotor. If the rotors really are ok, I would replace the pads and follow proper bed-in procedure. It sounds like the pads are the weak link. If you have the money, you could do the rotors as well but I think it would be in your best interest to find out if that is really necessary. I would try to find an independent, good brake shop or independent MINI/BMW shop nearby that would be more attententive and to beat a dead-horse, a shop that could bed-in the pads properly as beding-in pads on already used rotors takes more time/effort.

 

Pads are the reason for your problems. Go for new pads before changing out everything and see if that works.

Is there a warranty from Autozone?

 

I think I went cheap for my brake route and it stops awesome:

I bought Hawk break pads at the Las Vegas rally, then a month later I bought rotors from autozone that is compairable to stock rotors.

Then a month later I found a local bmw shop to install the parts for me.

After several days the breaks were awesome.

 

Go back to OEM.... save the headache.

 

Rotors are Rotors are Rotors for daily street driving.... the Zimmerman's are fine. Pads are the problem... "most expensive AutoZone pads" are probably ceramic... which will have much lower bite than the OEM pads, and probably don't perform nearly as well as ceramics from performance brands like Hawk or Carbotech.

If clean wheels / low dust / silent braking is important to you, buy Carbotech Bobcats. If insanely fast stops are most important and you don't care about dust or a little squeeking, buy Carbotech AX6. Have your new rotors resurfaced (just a TINY bit) or sand them a little and you should be good to go.

 

Thanks for the information. the brakes were not bled. (I called and asked) so So i guess I will be doing that, and buy some different/better pads. hopefully the rotors aren't the problem.

I'm not after incredible braking, just want to at least get back to oem performance.

 

People actually buy parts at Autozone? I would never trust any of their Duralast crap.

 

The Carbotech Bobcat 1521 pads are nice. Got a set from AutoXCooper.com.

 

I forgot how incredible stock pads were, untill i took off my Snyper Code Black carbon kevlar pads, and put the stockers back on. I should have never swapped, the stock is so much better. If you want good pads, but costly, try ferodo ds2500. I know ALOT of guys who run them on the street and love them. My self, im going wilwood BBK this winter, fwiw.

 

Note that "OEM Performance" means different things to different people. The OEM pads have very good initial bite - which is the part that makes you feel like you're going to hit the dash when you punch them. This comes at the cost of high dust.

Pads like the Carbotech Bobcat don't have as much initial bite, but have better modulation - you have to push harder on the pedal to get the same "amount" of braking, but you have much more control over how much braking you apply, vs. the "on-off" switch of the OEM pads and some other high-friction compounds (like the Carbotech AX6)... but this takes some getting used to, and initially your reaction (like many people) might be "these don't stop as well as OEM pads..." - they DO... they just do it *differently*...

 

Yup, I really like this about the Bobcats. For average driving, it is easier to be smooth with them. When you get on them hard, they are quite effective.

 

I forgot to ask. When sanding the rotors, what special steps should be taken. any particular grit, or sanding motion to follow?

Also, are there any other good pads you'd recommend, other than Carbotech? I really don't want to pay $300 for pads. Maybe something that i could get all four pads for $200 or less?

 

I used EBC green pads before my Carbotech Bobcats. They were pretty nice. The EBC dust less than stock but more than the carbotechs. The EBC braked about the same if not better than stock but not as good as the bobcats.

 

Second set of EBC greenies on my o2 @ all 4 corners nowand on the front of the 07. Pure street use.

 

Hawk ceramics are nice pads, also.

For sanding the rotors... just need to scuff them a bit, to ensure you get any old deposited pad material off... just about anything will work - probably anything 60grit-200grit would do the job...

 

OUCH

60 to 200????

buy ANY 3M pad and you'll be safe.

60 paper on a rotor with no follow-up?????

DAMN

I'd say anything 200 and UP....in the context of the post....



OUCH

 

In this situation I agree with Capt_bj that 60 is way to rough. 120-130 is recommended and even Hawk recommends using 130 grit sandpaper when installing pads on previously used rotors. I'd suggest following up with a final scrub with a finer sandpaper, up to 600-grit to get the rotors smooth and make sure than all the glaze from the old pads is gone. If you leave the rotors too rough you're just going to wear out the pads and rotors that much quicker.

Circular motion, e.g. with the "grain" of the rotor is fine. Not too much pressure.
OutMotoring and DetroitTuned have Hawk HPS pads and you can get a set for all four corners for $200 or less.

 

OK... maybe I'm a little crazy... but it's not like you're gonna do much of ANYTHING to a rotor with a piece of sandpaper by HAND... other than scuff it a bit and clean off deposits... but, yeah, if I were doing it myself, I'd use something toward the finer end of the range of what I said "would probably work"...

Note that 130grit is dead in the middle of 60-200....