These along with Akebono Euro ceramic pads seem to be the norm for replacement. I have found they offer a few different kinds of rotors. I am looking to buy the High Carbon.


Any personal opinions? How are they holding up especially if you are in the rust belt area. It seems to look good with that electro plating.

Thanks!!

Chris

 

I'm also looking at replacing mine to get rid of a slight warp up front. Was looking at brembo rotors as I hope to avoid the rust associated with cheaper rotors. Thought about the centrics as well so would love opinions from those who used 'em.

 

Got a set of the standard Centrics rotors a few years ago for my XKR and found 3 of 4 had not been balanced at all! Only one had any mill cuts to balance them. Not sure if that was a fluke or standard practice but caused a bit of vibration and drove me nuts trying to figure out where it was coming from.

Was able to finally get it resolved by balancing the rotors at a local machine shop so no harm done. Next time around I think I will go for the higher end options (there were not as many at the time) and also get them checked for balance before I ever put them on the car.

That was my experience but even with all that I hesitate to call it "bad".

Total cost was still thousands less than the official parts, it was just a hassle to figure out. The balancing was not very expensive which is why I think I will just make it a pre install check from now on.

In 20k miles they have held up well enough. The standard parts came uncoated and I painted mine so I would strongly recommend the electroplating for rust prevention if it is an option. I live on the anti- rust belt but they are cast iron so will show rust in a hurry with even a little moisture.

 

Thank you for your in depth experience, that is what I was looking for.

Anyone else have anything to add? I am ready to make the purchase, just need that push off the ledge.

Chris

 

I ordered a pair of brembo coated rotors for my XJR via partsgeek last night. 209 delivered. Sure hope they're worth it but will let you know my toughts

 

I'll throw my experience with high carbon centric rotors in here. I bought a set of the High Carbon Centric rotors from rock auto. They Fit perfectly but weren't straight. They would pulsate fairly hard under braking above 45 mph.

So i sent them back and got replacement. The replacements did the same damn thing. I brought them to a local shop and had them turned. Since they've been turned they have worked great!

I got a set of Akebono pads for my xjr and they will not fit with the centric high carbon rotors. The rotors seem to be very think and wouldn't fit the pair of akebonos I tried to put on.

Since I've had the rotors turned they have been great, but not something that one should have to do with new rotors.

Just thought I'd share my experience with them. hope this helps

 

Chris,
Got my coated for rust on the exposed areas Brembo brand (not Brembo option rotors) from partsgeek 2 days after ordering and finally put them on as we had a couple hundred mile camping trip (yes my xjr is a tow car) that I didn't want to do on new brakes, installed the akebono and new rotors. Nice quality though a bit pricey for rotors imo but they should hold up and not rust immediately like most of the low carbon knock offs.

Ben

 

Thank you Ben!

 

I've run Brembo blanks (stock ATE 325mm) on the front and Centric cheapos (I needed them that day and that's all they had) on the back for a little over a year now. The Brembos were great until about 3 months ago, when they started warping badly. I have however been VERY hard on my brakes, with a couple of autocrosses and one HPDE in there. The coating on the Brembos rotors has held up fairly well. The Centrics however rusted almost immediately and look like crap. But these are the cheapos, not the high carbon, and they therefore had no coating as far as I know.

 

I wouldn't call that hard on them. The car is made for fun right?

 

It was never intended for track days, lol. The brakes are very good, but they are undersized for serious track work with this much mass, just not enough thermal mass and cooling. I'm working on some more serious brake cooling ducts for the Brembos I'm putting on soon, and the move up to a 355mm rotor should help a lot with the fade resistance. I got the stock brakes to the point of serious fade at the trackday when I got the red mist to hunt down that E46 M3 that was in front of me , and they were smoking pretty good there for a while when I got to the pits to cool them. For serious track work I consider a 14" brake the minimum for anything over 3500 lbs, and the XJR is pushing close to 4000, so it could definitely use some bigger brakes. But if you aren't going to see that kind of sustained heat, the stock ATE brakes are well more than adequate.

 

I might be way off base here, but back in October I fitted my VDP with pads and rotors purchased off Ebay (local SoCal manufacturer). They offer sets for MANY models (including XJR), and the rotors are cross drilled, and slotted. The whole set was delivered to my house for $275.-

I was AMAZED! They were true, no vibes, no issues,..."plug and play". My brakes felt great, worked like a charm,.....and the best of all,....CHEAP!!!! It took me under two hours to change everything.

IF I ever need another set (and I bought one for my S430 AMG too), I'll be buying from them (any make/model). Rotors were electroplated, and looked nice. Since I'm in SoCal, I have no idea how would they hold up in the snow and salt, but the OEM ones I took off, were rusted (except the friction areas of course).

I sold my cats, but the ones on the Benz still look like new.