Brake Rotors and pads
 

Does anyone have advice in brake rotors and pads? Time to replace the fronts on my Boxster S. The OEM rotors are painted for rust - any experience with other brands? Looking for advice on pads, too.
TIA,
Alshig

What does this mean-

"The OEM rotors are painted for rust"

Do you want new rotors?

Scott

In my experience, many aftermarket rotors are painted for rust but once the pad makes contact, it stripps the paint off.
I too do not understand what you are saying???
ANY rotor will always show bare metal.

The rotor 'hat' on our cars is painted a gray color. This is the part of the rotor that does not make contact with the pads.

If you buy aftermarket rotors, such as Zimmermann, the hats doe not come painted. Simply paint them with a high temp paint.

I bought a set of Pagid pads after my first DE event as I had some pad staining from the OEM pads showing on the rotors (can't tell you why it happened, but it looked like someone had taken a kid's ink stamp in the shape of the brake pad and made a few marks on the rotor with it - I did my cool-down laps, but this showed up at the end of my last run anyway). Eventually these marks wore off of the discs and the brakes are still performing fine, so I've not had a chance/reason to install the new pads yet.

Pagid "Blue" pads are supposed to improve the stopping performance, while still being "streetable", and also to decrease dust production. I may install them this year as part of my annual oil change and end of season pre-storage prep - I finally have the power brake bleeder in order to do the work, including a change over to the Ate Super Blue racing fluid (higher boiling point).

I've had excellent experiences with Carbotech pads, albeit on my track car which is a '99 M3. They are pretty quiet on the street and have good longevity. On the track, they bite early and have a wide range of operating temperature. And as an added bonus, they're relatively easy on the rotors, especially compared to the PF97 pads I used to run on track.

I know they have Porsche application as well and I plan to get a set for my Boxster S when I do a NNJR driving school. I instruct with the BMW CCA and have not yet gotten over my angst of driving on the track with a canvas top over my helmet!

I had a lengthy discussion concerning rotor run out, watch your paint thickness, if you do it, it can make your wheels shimmy; that is if you go to thick [coats].

I painted mine though with no problems.

Scott

Speaking of painted rotors,

Frozen rotors come with a heat sensitive paint around the rim of the rotor that indicates the highest temperature your rotors have reached. Sort of like a mood ring for track junkies :D

Thanks for the response guys.
I do want to replace the front rotors which have painted "hats" and center "fins".
Didn't occur to me to paint the hats, but am leery about the fins. Any more word on the Zimmers TP?

Zimmermann make the rotors for out car, albeit the hats are not painted. An example.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ts/timb007.jpg