Whats going on with all the aftermarket break companies only offering drilled, slotted, or drilled/slotted rotors? I finally need to replace my front rotors and would prefer to upgrade to a better alloy. However I can't find blank rotors anywhere. I don't want to start a pointless debate about benefits and such, blank rotors are just better. Do any of you know of a good set of blank rotors?

 

It has been a while since I did my brakes, but I'm almost certain I used Centric rotors that were blank. They came as a kit from one of the MINI specialist vendors - Way, Detroit Tuned, not sure.

 

Where did you look? For what car?

I did a quick search at three vendors for front rotors (for an R53 since that is what I have). Blank, non-drilled, non-slotted seem easy enough to find. BavAuto has Brembo and Meyle, ECSTuning has Brembo Zimmerman, and Pelican has Ate, Zimmerman. They probably have others too. But maybe the material is the issue?

 

OK I see now that this is in the R56 forum... but still don't know which car? S and justa have different sized rotors right?

But still, I think multiple blank rotors are available.

 

I think that you may need to change your search criteria. There are many, many places, and choices for solid rotors for any type of Mini.

They're definitely out there, but everyone has the drilled an slotted rotors featured on their ads, and in their page search criteria, because that's what's popular and selling.

 

I am a satisfied customer of Brembo rotors (pads too) and am on my 2nd set of replacement OEM style rotors

 

http://waymotorworks.com/brakes/rotors/


I see a bunch of options here . .

 

^This. I was going to say I know Way has some, and have read about the Centrics recently. While looking up other parts I've seen them pop up often enough. Shouldn't have to look too far.

Now if looking for a specific alloy that might complicate it, as these may or may not meet that criteria.

 

When I replaced my brakes I went with Centric 125 series rotors. They have been solid for the past 10k miles so far, and cheap too. I actually purchased them off Amazon after confirming multiple times that they worked for the 08 R56S for 185 both front and back combined.

Part #s are 125.34101 for front and 125.34094 for rear. These are for the R56S brakes, not the justa

 

Do they show any signs of grooves across the rotor surface?

 

Don't all rotors do this over time anyhow?

 

My OEM sport drilled & slotted rotors have gutters and uneven grooves, hell my blank rotors had far less grooves. I'm used to Japanese brake systems that are super hard rotors that don't have any grooves (gutters) and seem like super high carbon steel the wear even as glass. I'm tired of these German soft rotors and high brake dust covering the wheels in black brake dust after only short 30 miles trips. The OEM rotors are soft low carbon steel that don't last very long.

 

Sorry, but as a tech, and a guy who teaches this for a living I have to diagree. Rotors are pretty much a set and sold formula. I've seen groves form on everything from VW/Audi/Honda/Accura/Ford/Jag/Mini cars.

The brake pads on most OE sets are soft. This is done for several reasons, the biggest being noise. OEs don't care about how many times you have to wash your wheels. Soft brakes are nice and quiet. People want quiet, dealers want quiet. Sure somewhere there are pads that cost $80 a set (like EBC for example) that are quiet and throw little dust.

But thats you, and not 200,000 or even 800,000 units a year sold. To an OE its a numbers game.

Rotors are made typically of a "gray iron" content. "carbon" as you put it is a pretty generic term here. I seriously doubt you are seeing "rotor dust", sure there is some, but not nearly as much as the pads wear. Softer pads also have less pad-to-rotor transfer (Disk transfer) when hot, which is what many people think "warping" really is.

http://www.sae.org/events/bce/tutorial-ihm.pdf and http://www.iasj.net/iasj?func=fulltext&aId=52960 are two good sources.

The key is to think of the rotors as a "lubricant" for pads. Mini (and other brands) don't make rotors in house, often they are farmed out to manufactures who make things like rotors for a living (ATE, Bosch, Brembo, Raybestos, Zimmerman, etc..)

 

The OEM pads are soft, but my rotors are grooved pretty bad and that's with a soft pad. Can only imagine what EBC's RedStuff would do to the rotors. I think some of us are just looking for a more durable longer lasting rotors that do not have gutters and grooving. A higher carbon steel would last longer correct?

 

Check out our WMW rotors. They are plain face and reliable. Drilled and slotted are more for show than anything else so save your money.

 

The centric 125's are marketed as High Carbon but I don't have the data to compare vs non "high carbon" rotors. I can check for grooves in the rotors for you later today.

 

"high carbon" iron is typically known as "cast iron". "high carbon" Steel has roughly half the carbon as does cast iron. A non-stainless steel will have more rust issue than cast iron, which is hard to fix on a brake rotor (coatings would wear off the business edge). Can anyone actually source a low to mid end auto rotor that's not cast iron? I suspect not.

 

How many miles and how do you drive your Mini, I would appreciate it any pictures provided.

 

I put the brakes on at 44k miles, replaced the pads with EBC greenstuff at the same time and now my car is at 55k. In terms of braking....I engine brake as much as I can for stoplights but drive spiritedly otherwise, so I do some moderate force braking. Hope that's clear enough for you...these have also been through 2 days of autocross with no problems. I'll try and get pics tonight if i can remember