Composite Brake Rotors

Anyone ever use these Composite brake rotors before? Also curious on what everyone's thoughts are.

ACDELCO 18A2650SD

 

Sub’d

 

Interesting, like iron / aluminum?

 

Presumably yes. I'm a little suspicious about it looking like it's cast as one unit because I feel like under hard braking and high heat the two different metals expanding at different rates may cause them to crack and separate which would be no bien but, I assume they wouldn't sell a product so main stream if they weren't confident... I wonder what the weight difference is between the composite and a factory disk... anyone need brakes soon aha

 

Put a set of coated (composite) rotors on my Tacoma a couple of years ago. Coating prevents rust but will wear off where pads contact disc. No advantage other than that. Not really composite, just called that!

 

https://youtu.be/ydd5y1pXXbY

https://youtu.be/VBd9y3mxzCM

 

That ACDelco part is not a traditional Composite rotor. Thats just a painted iron rotor.

 

I started using Raybestos Element3 coated rotors on everything a while back and they're a big help where road salt is used. Just checked out my moms rotors that are several years old and they still look like new. Normally the vanes would be corroded by now.
Just did the wife's SUV with them last weekend.
Can't beat the price for Tacoma; $35/ea on RockAuto.

 

I would say the Rock Auto ad is incorrect in saying 'composite'.

Because it's not, it's a coated or treated rotor.

A true composite rotor is not really street friendly and would cost many times that amount.

 

I have not looked at the ad but “true” composites are materials like carbon ceramic, graphite, Kevlar, fiberglass, etc.. some ABS plastics are confusingly identified as composites. As someone who has fairly extensive design and manufacture experience with composites for aerospace I can tell you the material cost alone is much more than the listed price for these Rock Auto rotors. Besides the carbon ceramic rotor listed in the above video I wouldn’t spend much time considering anything made with a different material.

 

Another marketing gimmick so somebody can tell his friends he has 'composite' rotors. Nothing more and nothing less.

 

ABS composites are ABS themoplastics that are reinforced with other materials, similar to alloying of metals.

It's only really confusing to people who are used to composite referring to a small subset of what are actually composite materials.

Jeff

 

That all makes sense. I'd still be curious just for fun to toss a set on just to see what happens. Maybe it's a sham, maybe they cast steel/aluminum to a cast iron rotor and shaved off a few pounds from the rotor. Who knows. Maybe the unsprung mass will be just enough to get us pretty well on par to the sports car feel we expect of our Tacomas (**giggles to myself as I write this**) or maybe it'll really start making our fuel economy competitive to it's toyota family member the prius (**giggles a little more**) When I personally think of composite I think of a two piece brake rotor like very high end sports/exotic car. So I am skeptical but also curious. Maybe it's was just an accident loading it into the system

 

Did you end up getting these?

 

I did not actually, at the time i was cruising for parts for my Fiance's vehicle and took at what they had for out trucks and spotted them

 

OEM style rotors work pretty well idk. If you are concerned about stopping power you want more contact surface, not these drilled and slotted things. Drilled/slotted rotors are designed to reduce brake fade because they dissipate heat and gas better.

A happy medium would be leaving the rotors stock and going with a carbon infused pad. You'll lose just a tad bit of stopping power (like you would with drilled/slotted, so it may be negligible), but they'll be less likely to fade and they'll generate less brake dust.

I don't know. With shit like this I just go with whatever OEM is, usually.