RS6 OEM Rotor Longevity [Archive] - RS6.com

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Holiday

January 17th, 2009, 17:16

Well Gents, my rotors are nearly toast; something that happens fairly often with the OEM brakes I've read. I received a quote this week from my Indy for $2000/set (parts only) and it made me wonder just how long these rotors are lasting for people.

I'm particularly interested in input from those who use their cars on the street only; it wouldn't be a fair assessment with rotors having track time included.;)

Thanks!

Ross

grizz

January 17th, 2009, 17:22

Ross , i that for plain or drilled discs ??? I take it it's front & rear ...

Hy Octane

January 17th, 2009, 17:44

Ya know, in most cars I would use the brakes to slow down exclusively as opposed to downshifting and using the drag to help, thinking that brakes are cheaper to replace than the clutch, but in this car, I have taken to using the gears to do much of the engine braking since the rotors are so expensive and the tranny is covered under warranty. In short, i'd rather burn up the tranny and have it replaced for $50 and save the brakes.

Holiday

January 17th, 2009, 17:48

Ross , i that for plain or drilled discs ??? I take it it's front & rear ...

Grizz- I should've mentioned that. I'm looking for average life of the front and rears. I don't imagine there is a significant difference in longevity between the slotted and drilled, so for simplicity let's go with both!

hahnmgh63

January 17th, 2009, 17:54

Drilled are the only discs available through Audi in the US as that was standard here. I guess Audi figured the car looks faster and more exotic with drilled discs. I'm sure they cost more than the plain rotors in Europe.

p3u

January 17th, 2009, 18:37

Actually you can get the plain rotors, audipartsdepot has them. They were around $240 vs $300 for the drilled per front rotor.

hahnmgh63

January 17th, 2009, 19:20

vangelis

January 17th, 2009, 19:30

Just searched their site for the drilled rotors price by part # and it didn't come up in their system. Didn't bother checking the plain as I have two sets of new drilled front rotors in my shop so I'll stick with drilled rear. Anyone know who has the best prices for the rear?

Do you have your owen shop for these rotors? I'm about to replace the front & rear rotors very soon,, I'm using the plain ones now as it came already with the car and didn't replaced till now,, my car done 47K km so far and I need to replace them ASAP. I'm going for the drilled or slotted ones.
so if you have a shop, or know a cheap price to get the front & rear rotors please advice. appreciate your help :)

DuckWingDuck

January 17th, 2009, 19:37

ya, those damned oem rotors are expensive! Anyway, how often do you guys replace them? Every other pad replacement? Every pad replacement?

vangelis

January 17th, 2009, 19:41

DWD, mine used 2 sets of pads and now the time came to change these rotors.

Holiday

January 18th, 2009, 00:12

Guys, let's keep rotor longevity in terms of miles; comparing them to pad life only brings in new variables...

Not to start a new topic mid thread, but here's what I'm getting at by asking the question- I've been talking with Tom Fredrico lately who owns MOVIT Brakes USA (and happens to be a local San Diego resident!). I've been a fan of their products since they introduced themselves at SEMA several years ago. I simply wanted to see what other options might be out there for the money; not convinced that the OEM system is ideal for daily driving (short rotor life + excessive pad noise).
Tom has been selling MOVIT brakes for roughly 5 years now and tells me that on street driven vehicles, it's not uncommon for their rotors to last 70k - 90k miles; not to mention the lack of brake fade and overall superior performance. They're not cheap (roughly $8k quoted for complete front and rear setup to include calipers, rotors, brackets, etc.) but if we're paying $2800 every ~20k miles for the OEM parts and labor, the MOVIT brakes just became a reasonable alternative. An additional benefit is the ability to transfer them to your next vehicle down the line with a simple swap of brackets.
Several on this forum have these brakes and have raved about them since day one. I'm interested in going down that road, but only if I can justify spending the $$$.

CornersWell

January 18th, 2009, 03:02

vangelis

January 18th, 2009, 03:26

Stock pads and cross-drilled rotors. Was putting on my 3rd set of rotors at ~50K.

So, ~25K/front rotor.

City and highway driving.

Replaced stock rotors and pads with cryo-treated, slotted aftermarket rotors. Should get up to double the milage out of them.

CW

Hi CornersWell,,Could you please tell me where did you get them? I'm going to replace front & rear rotors soon.

CornersWell

January 18th, 2009, 04:23

Hi CornersWell,,Could you please tell me where did you get them? I'm going to replace front & rear rotors soon.

Vangelis,

I purchased through the group buy (from Jimmy Stoner) some time ago (late last Spring, IIRC). I purchased two sets of the slotted rotors, one set of re-usable hats and the mounting hardware. Including the cryo-treatment (300below.com), two sets of replacement pads (from ECS Tuning) and all shipping, I seem to recall that I was in the $2K USD range. Not bad, by my reckoning.

Jimmy's email is elsewhere, but here it is if you want so see if he might be putting together another group buy: JimmyS@cableone.net

Also, here's a pic of what the replacement rotors look like...

CW

peiserg

January 18th, 2009, 06:24

just did my front rotors yesterday. 31000 miles, and not yet down to the metal on metal. Replaced OEM with the "jimmy stoner special" mentioned in this thread. I purchased a 2nd set of rings, so I should be good for the next 60-90000 miles.

DuckWingDuck

January 18th, 2009, 07:10

holiday - drop me a PM; we're putting together a local event!

cornishmoocher

January 18th, 2009, 08:06

Guys, Changed my front disks when i bought the car. It had solids on it. changed it to drilled. They lasted 22k miles. The back disks are STILL on there from 30k miles! so thats 41k miles!!!

Now have the big disks on the front...... will they outlast the car???

hahnmgh63

January 18th, 2009, 17:14

Well for once I got lucky. I bought one new set of fronts on Ebay for $400 a year ago, and last month found another new set of fronts on Craigslist for $250, the guy was trying a big brake conversion on an older S4 but gave up, he thought they were RS6 rears but they are fronts. Now I have two new sets of fronts, just need some new rears as I'm not too far from a brake change.

mmaturo

January 18th, 2009, 21:15

Mine have been only lasting between 10 and 15K miles if that...my last set if they really are shot only made it 7 or 8K for some reason..no track days either on them. Wish i could find a cheaper alternative (or lucky on Ebay) as cheapest OEM price i can get now is $700 for the front pair. My rears are now toast so the first set last ~35K and the second set ~35K.

DuckWingDuck

January 18th, 2009, 21:37

how does one make the determination that the rotors are toast? and maybe it's time to look into going direct to brembo to see how much they might charge....

mmaturo

January 18th, 2009, 21:47

how does one make the determination that the rotors are toast? and maybe it's time to look into going direct to brembo to see how much they might charge....

seems i just have to believe the dealer service tech. They said both front and rears are out of spec. Issue of thickness.

Rupert

January 19th, 2009, 13:44

The thickness is printed on the bell, use a digital micrometer to check your dealer's readings.

hahnmgh63

January 19th, 2009, 17:42

You have to use a micrometer or disc calipers as the ridge on the edge of the rotors would give you false reading with regular calipers.

Copper

January 19th, 2009, 18:34

I made it to 62K miles on RS6 #1 with the original rotors.

I'm at 47K miles with RS6 #2 on original rotors.

Street driving only.

mmaturo

January 19th, 2009, 20:28

I made it to 62K miles on RS6 #1 with the original rotors.

I'm at 47K miles with RS6 #2 on original rotors.

Street driving only.

Wow. I really gotta stop driving my car like i stole it everyday... on second thought that is why i bought it...

DuckWingDuck

January 19th, 2009, 22:40

Mark, how shady do you think your dealership is? That is to say, do you sometimes wonder if the technicians are telling you to replace the rotors when they may not need to be replaced?

Yellow RS6

January 21st, 2009, 20:25

Mine got new front and rear rotors at 49K, but after looking through the service records, I saw that the fronts had already been replaced at 23K. This was all before I owned it, so I don't know how it was driven. Although looking at the poll results, 66% voted between 10k and 30k, so this seems to be the norm.