I thought I made up my mind a long time ago, but now that it is actually time to replace my Brembo rotors on my 04 G35 coupe I am debating. I have started tracking my car every six months, though without trying to set any records on the track...just have fun. That being said I have gotten away with just using my Hawk HPS pads and being very sensitive to signs of brake fade with no problems.

I miss the inital bite of the stock OEM pads and don't care about dust. I love the brakes on this car...they were part of the selling points. I have read about the brake assist function being calibrated to the soft OEM pads and rotors and thus after market equipment can lengthen an emergency stop on cold brakes. I have read about poor quality aftermarket shims causing problems...I still have the original set of shims installed with the Hawk pads. I have also read about excessive squeeling from aftermarket set ups due to the mis-match of pads/rotors/shims..or no shims used. BLAH BLAH BLAH

Any way here are my two choices.

A. OEM rotors and pads that even on mynismo.com cost over 2000.00 just for pads and rotors.

B. Stoptech stage two kit with the aerorotors and axxis ultimate pads and of course the steel braided lines kit for 1500.00.

The minor squeel of the original stock brembos never bothered me. I loved the original setup...it is just incredible expensive and I have also been intriqued by the stoptechs setup for a couple of years as well.

Please give me some advise and plus and minus comments as well on which choice to make.

 

OEM Brembo pads + rotors should be around $1k, not $2k.

That aside, why not get OEM Brembo pads (~$145 from one of the sponsors) and aftermarket rotors (i.e. heat treated blanks, or dba 4000, or Stoptech)? There should be no change to the OEM bite and stopping distances, they should wear longer, and that setup will be less expensive than the OEM rotors. You can always get a set of track pads for your track days, and use them with the upgraded rotors.

IIRC, one of the mods on FreshAlloy (Riffster) changed his rotors out for dba's and used two sets of pads - the OEM Brembo for the street, and something else for the track and had great results. He also lives in Chicago, where cold bite is not something to be taken lightly.

Plus, if you're already using Hawk HPS, you have already reduced your cold bite, so going back to OEM pads will be a dramatic difference.

 

I have priced the Sport Brembo slotted rotor on tirerack and those with OEM Brembo pads would be around 1000.00 I was not sure if the slotted Brembo's were the same make-up/material/equivilance as the OEM rotors which I priced off of mynismo.com.

And yes...I do agree that I lost a fair amount of my cold bite and I want it back!

Thanks for the advice

 

The slotted Brembos are probably not the same makeup, but the difference should be very small, if it's even noticeable.

But you should also check out the dba 4000 slotted rotors at Autoanything.com or Tire Rack. They are around $175/pc. They are heat cycled from the factory, come with special vanes to improve rotor cooling over OEM, and have heat indicators on them.

 

I think I went a little overboard...and I love it I am installing these tomorrow with a friend!!!

 

WoW... but honestly the DBA rotors werent a bad decision. thats going to be my next set of rotors

 

I can't say I disagree. I have read a lot of positive reviews of the DBA's. I had two piece rotors on the brain the entire four years I have owned the cars and also knew I was going to do the installation myself. The savings on the labor went into rotors instead of my pocket I can also just order the rings for the front in the future if I so desire which should be fairly reasonable.