"Chips" in the brake rotor, help please.

[NickyC]

Hi there. I decided to go with a pretty trick little setup for my Z4M in the form of a Z06 BBK (Rally Road). I purchased the kit barely used from a member on another forum, and the kit arrived today. Much to my dismay and utter disbelief, the packaging job was beyond terrible. He basically packed 70lbs of rotors/calipers/bolts/pads/brackets in a small box with a couple thin strips of bubble wrap (mostly popped now lol) and PAPER. He honest to goodness used PAPER between the calipers and the rotors. Needless to say, the near new calipers are all chipped up (which I can repaint which sucks but whatever), but I'm more concerned with the rotors. From all the contact during shipping, look at what one of the calipers has done to the rotor.

My question, is this rotor damaged beyond help? I can't imagine I could just bolt this up and go. Any help/advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!!

[MarkMcL]

That rotor does not look barely used to me. How many miles did the PO claim? Those nicks/gouges seem too extreme to be from shipping to me. Sucks this stuff happens.

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by MarkMcL

That rotor does not look barely used to me. How many miles did the PO claim? Those nicks/gouges seem too extreme to be from shipping to me. Sucks this stuff happens.

Seller said 1k miles. These rotors are THICK. They are some of the largest rotors I've ever seen. The weight is pretty extreme, but my car is just for the street so I'm not that concerned about weight.

I looked over both rotors, and the damage shown in the picture is about it. The calipers are chipped up, but it's no biggie as I have a ton of paint lying around and will clear them too after a little respray.

The chips don't look quite as deep as they do in the picture, I'm just wondering if this is a big deal? It's on the inside of the rotor as well, won't be able to see it from the outside.

The packaging job was horrible though, no excuse for it. 70lbs of metal in a box, with paper in between everything. LOL.

*EDIT* Just measured rotor thickness. Brand new is 32mm, these are coming in at 31.60mm. Discard is at 30mm, so they're OK thickness wise, thanks.

[David70]

If everything in the picture is taking material off of the rotor, basically no spots higher on the surface than the surrounding material I think trying to remove the gouges through turning the rotors might be worse than leaving them. Is the outside edge of the rotor (the "lip" in the picture), normal? I haven't looked at my rotors in a while but to me this looks like evidence of how much the rotor has worn down, more than I would expect in 1k miles. Probably worth measuring the rotor thickness to see what is left and whether they can be turned, which would lessen or remove the gouges, and remove the lip. Assuming you can turn these rotors?

In the end I would probably leave it and install them on the car as is, the gouges will slowly go away.

I do think this could happen in shipping/transit. If you put one rotor edge against the surface of another, threw them in a box and shook them for a few hours I think you could end up with this problem.

[Steeler]

Nick, just my opinion but those "nicks" look radial to me meaning they are following the radii of the scoring in the rotor.
Not sure how they would have happened but I doubt that a steel casting(caliper) would make that kind of divot on a solid steel disc.
You will need to turn a lot of material off to remove that.

[NickyC]

Thanks guys, as I said above I did measure them. Thickness is 31.60mm, brand new is 32.00mm while throw away thickness is 30.00mm. The lip looks pretty defined in that picture. The chips were definitely not there prior to shipping, he took pics front and back of each rotor and all was fine. This happened from him sticking a very heavy six piston caliper on top of the rotor with nothing but a thin piece of paper between them.

Is it your opinion that this rotor is OK to install? Thanks for your help.

[The HACK]

Wait, you're ditching two piece floating rotors for single piece solid rotors?

Massive downgrade in performance, IMO.

That does not look like a 1K miles rotor. That's what my rear rotors look like after 32,000+ miles. That massive lip on the rotor's edge is a dead give-away. There's at least 15K-20K's worth of wear on that rotor.

As far as those chips are concerned, they're always going to be there until the rotor is worn further off, and judging from the picture, you're not going to be happy for at least another 10-15K miles, and in fact, they may NEVER wear off, at least not until the rotor is completely useless. At least it's on the inside of the rotor. That IS the inside of the rotor, right?

Personally, I would hit stop payment on the transaction and send everything back if I found it in this condition. But that's just me. Functionally they MAY be okay, but not something I'd be happy with installing.

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by The HACK

Wait, you're ditching two piece floating rotors for single piece solid rotors?

Massive downgrade in performance, IMO.

That does not look like a 1K miles rotor. That's what my rear rotors look like after 32,000+ miles. That massive lip on the rotor's edge is a dead give-away. There's at least 15K-20K's worth of wear on that rotor.

As far as those chips are concerned, they're always going to be there until the rotor is worn further off, and judging from the picture, you're not going to be happy for at least another 10-15K miles, and in fact, they may NEVER wear off, at least not until the rotor is completely useless. At least it's on the inside of the rotor. That IS the inside of the rotor, right?

Personally, I would hit stop payment on the transaction and send everything back if I found it in this condition. But that's just me. Functionally they MAY be okay, but not something I'd be happy with installing.

OK, thanks for the input, greatly appreciated as always sir.

I'm just kind of bummed about the whole thing. Any replacement costs will totally negate the deal I had on the kit in the first place. Performance isn't a huge issue to me, this car is strictly for the street and will probably never see 1/10 of its capabilities while I'm the owner.

Yes, the pic is on the inside of the rotor, you won't be able to see it while installed. Thanks again.

[NickyC]

Here are a few more pics taken out in the daylight. You can definitely feel a lip on the rotors. Thoughts? I love the calipers though, they are a huge. I'll be repainting them a darker red though, especially since the other caliper is so chipped up from shipping.

[dc_wright]

While it's certainly disappointing to not get what you paid for, fortunately that damage is on the inside where it won't show. That's such a relatively small part of the total surface area it's not going to affect braking, and I suspect if you go ahead and install them the pads will take the high spots off in a couple of stops and they'll be fine. If you were nervous about that you could dress the high spots yourself before you install them and I think it'll be fine.

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by dc_wright

While it's certainly disappointing to not get what you paid for, fortunately that damage is on the inside where it won't show. That's such a relatively small part of the total surface area it's not going to affect braking, and I suspect if you go ahead and install them the pads will take the high spots off in a couple of stops and they'll be fine. If you were nervous about that you could dress the high spots yourself before you install them and I think it'll be fine.

OK thanks DC, I really appreciate it. I'll probably just give them a shot and see what happens. Thanks!

[pcwd]

Hi Nick,

I was wondering if you can update us on these rotors. Does your brakes still feels fine and functioning normal with all those chips and scratches on the back side of the rotor?


Thank you.
P

[NickyC]

I sold the kit on for a loss, with the issues of the kit fully disclosed to the new buyer. Purchased Stoptech kits front and rear and now it's happy motoring. Thanks.