C5 S6 and RS6 front rotors

[RS6 rick]

Are C5 S6 and C5 RS6 rotors interchangeable except for the drilling ? Thanks for any and all help. Be safe.

[mrdave]

Nope, not even close. The only other front rotors from Audi that might be interchangeable are from the RS5, R8, and maybe the Phaeton.

[RS6 rick]

Hi.....Thanks for the response. I had read an article on 1 of the forums that said the Phaetons work perfectly but I did not save the article )-:. If you have any further input I would appreciate it. The cost on the RS6 rotors is off the charts.

[RS6 rick]

Just checked and the Phaeton rotors are 360mm. and 34mm thick and can be had undrilled which is a big plus if you are not tracking the car as the drilling takes away from the effective swept area (stopping power).

[lswing]

Buy Zimmerman brand, really not that much money for all the miles and performance you get, even the OEM rotor pricing. Anything but RS6 specific and you'll have to do some messing around. Trust me, this is one of the easiest cheapest things to deal with on this car...besides putting gas in:)

[RS6 rick]

Thanks for the response. Have you had any experience with the VW Phaeton rotors. Virtually the same size 360 to 365 and the same width. If there used on a v12 (-: I think they would work for us There available undrilled which is a good thing for street cars as there is more swept area and better stopping power. Appreciate any and all thoughts. Be safe

[lswing]

Aha, found it, seems the only performance issue is the rotor veins not being directional, so less cooling, and it's nice to have drilled or slotted to clean the pads. http://www.rs6.com/showthread.php/22537-Un-drilled-but-anybody-ever-look-at-these-Euro-Phaeton-floating-two-piece-rotors

Use "site:rs6.com phaeton rotors" for a search in Google, most of these things have been discussed over the years.

[RS6 rick]

Centric has these in Hi Carbon 3500 series iron as opposed to 3000 for $149 !!! not slotted or drilled.

[lswing]

I think you get into some issues with the one piece not dissipating heat as well also, there are cheap one piece knockoffs of the RS6 rotors also. But honestly, I'll take max braking and safety for a few hundred more bucks...

[Nate Dog]

Buy Zimmerman brand, really not that much money for all the miles and performance you get, even the OEM rotor pricing. Anything but RS6 specific and you'll have to do some messing around. Trust me, this is one of the easiest cheapest things to deal with on this car...besides putting gas in:)

Totally agree on Zimmerman, after much research this is what I chose, they have the quality but at the best price I could find, imported them from USA on eBay. They saved me literally $1k's. I was quoted $5000 - $7500 for replacement of pads & discs by various providers & agents here in New Zealand. Total cost using Zimmerman was just over $2500 & that was using EBC Yellow Stuff pads. Performance & wear of discs is excellent considering I regularly drive very hard using these brakes to their maximum at times.

Hope that's of some benefit.

[lswing]

Totally agree on Zimmerman, after much research this is what I chose, they have the quality but at the best price I could find, imported them from USA on eBay. They saved me literally $1k's. I was quoted $5000 - $7500 for replacement of pads & discs by various providers & agents here in New Zealand. Total cost using Zimmerman was just over $2500 & that was using EBC Yellow Stuff pads. Performance & wear of discs is excellent considering I regularly drive very hard using these brakes to their maximum at times.

Hope that's of some benefit.

Good choices, sounds about right. And welcome to the forum!

[Nate Dog]

Good choices, sounds about right. And welcome to the forum!

Thanks Iswing, I've had my car for 2.5yrs and have used this forum a number of times for research but never posted before. I now have a lengthy history of insight into fixes and issues resolved, the odd major one, which I hope to post to assist others should they find themselves in the same situation. I look forward connecting with people here, particularly for parts and maintenance as the age is starting to reveal a few issues on my machine. Regards Nathan

[nistah]

Can someone please refresh my memory is it absolutely necessary to run a front L and front R specific set of brake disc rotors or does 2 front R's or 2 front L's work with minimal issues.

IIRC the only difference is the direction of the veins which I believe is RS6 Specific, the R8, Lambo, rs5, Phaeton un-drilled are all unidirectional, can someone please confirm or correct my assumption here?

[P1054]

I believe that is correct. I know the RS6 ones have directional vanes, and I'm quite certain that's the only difference. I haven't personally seen the R8, RS5, Phaeton, etc rotors, but everything I've read and heard leads me to believe that they actually do have curved vanes like the RS6, they just use the same rotor for both sides (which means one of them has backward vanes). Can someone confirm this? Or are all those others (R8 etc) just straight vaned?

[hahnmgh63]

I've got a new set of RS5 rotors in the shop, I'll pull them out of the boxes tomorrow but I think the part numbers are the same, I will check the cooling vanes to see if they're straight or curved.

[nistah]

Thanks Hahnmgh63 & P0154. Guessing it would not be the end of the world (no fitment issues) if someone ran 2 front left or 2 front right Audi Brake rotors then?

[s8prtotype]

Just a reminder here, The reason I orginally went with the RS5 wavy rotors on my car is because I got a steal on a pair... (and they're lighter) They're the same rotor for both sides...kinda sucks but i don't track the car.. yet...

However... you can skip the weird stockers just get the aftermarket ECS ones now and they look great...

Normal...

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-ecs-parts/front-2-piece-brake-rotors-pair-365x34/000574ecs01akt/

Wavy...

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-ecs-parts/front-2-piece-wave-brake-rotors-pair-365x34/003281ecs02a02kt/


I still haven't messed with the wavy rears yet. (I'm debating upgrading to a ceika 4 piston rear set-up still) But again I was told it was some small spacers on the caliper to get it to line up.


Happy braking!

[nistah]

Great deal on front rotors:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/332040064776?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT (http://www.ebay.com/itm/332040064776?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT)

Looking for a similar deal on rears, most economical option thus far seems to be www.partsgeek.com which has rears at around $240 per disc, any others folks know about?

[GreggPDX]

I'm running R8 rotors right now, and they fit great. The only difference I could see is they are marked as unidirectional. They were low mileage take-off's that I found at a local tuner shop.

[lswing]

Great deal on front rotors:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/332040064776?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT (http://www.ebay.com/itm/332040064776?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT)

Looking for a similar deal on rears, most economical option thus far seems to be www.partsgeek.com (http://www.partsgeek.com) which has rears at around $240 per disc, any others folks know about?

Yes, because you really want to be as cheap as possible with one of the most important safety/performance items.:hey:

Agree on finding a good deal, but these are no-name rotors, probably one piece non-directional vanes blah blah blah...rotors last 25-50k, just get good ones!

[BradP]

I've got a new set of RS5 rotors in the shop, I'll pull them out of the boxes tomorrow but I think the part numbers are the same, I will check the cooling vanes to see if they're straight or curved.

I'd be really curious what the difference is between the RS5 and RS6 rotors. All I've seen is typical measurements which seem to be the same. How about back spacing?

I ask because I have the Brembo RS6 rotors, and may be building an S4 using RS5 front brakes. At $2k, I haven't gotten nearly enough use out of the rotors:)