I'm an old formula car racer and maybe I'm a weeeeeeeee bit hard on my brakes. I had to have the rotors turned (all four) at about 9k miles. I now have 13,300 on it and they are warping worse than before.
I contacted Coleman brakes, used their great brake products on Formula Fords and Atlantics, and they can make me litterally anything I want. I'm in the process of getting the dimensions for them. Will probably go with aluminum hats and bolt on flat rotors. Replacement of the rotors only will be quite inexpensive, after buying the hats one time. (56.00 each for Formula Atlantic rotors only) Two piece rotor/hat combinations usually also do away with warping problems.
I'll keep you guys posted on the progress. The only other brake rotors I have found are the Brembo Big Brake kit and I'm not interested in paying 1500 of the $2500 price for their name.....
I see no reason to mess with the calipers, as the brakes are very well balanced and work perfectly. I just can't stand the vibration in the pedal and car braking from 100 MPH.
Maybe I do that too often?
We may be able to do a group purchase and all save some money on some great brakes for our cars. I'll also work with Coleman on the best combination of cross drilling, slotting and pads.
I am a vendor to Mazda North America and Mazda - Japan, so if we have complaints that aren't being dealt with by our dealers, let me know, I have a tomodachi (friend) at the factory.
I decided to look at the RX8 out of loyalty to my customer and decided in about 3 minutes of driving to trade my beloved Acura CL TypeS.
For you guys who have never driven a formula racing car, they're just lighter and more powerful. The feel and balance of the RX8 is nearly identical! I won't go into the dynamics of handling here, but I can tell you there were some serious racers involved in the developement of this car. Right down to pedal placement.
Try braking with the ball of your right foot and using the right side of your sole on the throttle for matched RPM downshifting. When you apply the brakes, the throttle pedal is dead even with the brake. Perfect!

 

I'd be interested as well.

 

as would I

 

Check out Hopupracing.com - You can buy rotors only (not the whole brake kit) and chose from slotted, cross-drilled or both.

 

Wow- you guys must really drive hard if the stock brakes are inadequate:D

I would have imagined that you would only need aftermarket brakes if you were going racing.

 

how sure are you guys that the rotors from hopup racing wont rust.

 

As far as I know, all rotors are iron (Unless you can afford carbon fiber)
Iron will rust.

 

There exspensive, but it a whole lot cheaper than buying the full brake kit.

 

very true i like the rotora rotors
and i dont think there expensive compared to the entire big brake kit.i think it was under 400.00 for front and rear.go to mazdatrix and see there prices and compare.
reason why i would upgrade is cause if bigger wheels and looks good too

 

All rotors, themselves, are iron and will rust, however, the rust comes off at first application of brakes. The ugliness comes from the rotor hat that is also iron but doesn't get cleaned by the pads. The rotors I will do from Coleman will have neat-a$$ looking, machined from billet, aluminum hats that will be visible through the wheels. With any luck in the dimensions and design, they'll look like you ripped them off from an Indy car. Looks are not by main concern, but what they hey, why make em look like stock?

 

what do you estimate the cost at for a full set?

 

i suspect you had your rotors cut on a bench lathe? if this is the case then i suspect they cut more lateral runout into your rotors than what you came in with.

the reason the pulsating pedal went away for a vrief period is because the lathe cut the rotor faces paralell. the pulsing you feel in your pedal is a result of the rotor friction surfaces not being paralell. if there is lateral runout it causes the rotor to rub against the pads creating high and low spots in the rotor (unparalell). these high and low spots are what cause the pulsing pedal.

if your rotors were cut on a bench lathe then i would have the shop that did it check the lateral runout of your rotors while they are on your car. after they determine how much runout your rotors have they need to check that number against the runout of your rotor on their lathe. if the numbers are different then it is almost certain that their equipment cut the runout into the rotors.

for those that have similar problems and don't want to resort the expense of aftermarket rotors then i suggest you find a shop that uses a hub mounted on-the-car brake lathe to cut their rotors. these lathes garuntee a maximum of 2 thousandths runout per cut - it takes a lot of time and work to get that kind of accuracy out of a bench lathe - the kind of time and work that is often times not taken when using a bench lathe.


Ray

 

I'll post it here, when I get it.

 

Mine were perfect for about 3500 to 4000 miles after turning, then the pedal vibes started coming back. I had the same problems with my Acura CL TypeS and my 92 Prelude and my 89 Prelude and my daughter's 2001 Prelude..............for whatever reason the Japanese seem to have problems with metalurgy/heat treating or something to do with rotors. I've been able to replace all the Prelude rotors, over the years, with Brembo stock replacements but none exist for the CL or, to date, the RX8. It may be interesting to note that the vast majority of quality after market rotors come from Italy ( as do Brembo). Even the new six speed Acura TL comes with Brembo brakes.

 

I would try different pads first. Fade is usually from overheated pad compound. Try carbon-metallic, most of the IT racers that must keep original rotors and calipers love them. Hawk and Carbon-Metallic are both liked. A friend racing an RX7 uses Hawk. Just realize that for street use, they need to be warm to work right. Street pad compounds work when cold to warm, but not when real hot. I would switch back and forth for track.

 

Kwullen,

I'm doing a little hypothesizing here when i say that the majority of the asian parts that are made of cast iron, especially brake parts are sourced from recycled materials. it doesn't surprise me at all that this affects the performance of the parts.

i just want to make it clear that most shops these days probably don't use the propper equipment to turn rotors and those that do use the proper equipment probably don't take the time to do it right.

as for the brembo brakes and their performance i have to agree that the higher quality parts do infact resist warping better than the OEM parts.

Ray

 

Just curious - how do you tighten your wheels? Do it yourself with a torque wrench, or let a shop do it with whatever? What do you do about the wheel lugs after having the brakes worked on, for example - leave them as delivered?

Regards,
Gordon

 

Ever looked into endless? this is all I can find-->CLICKY!

 

Gord,
I always re-torque the wheels after EVERY service. Doesn't matter how much you bitch about what you found on them, never changes
I still have stock wheels on the 8, but I had after markets on the Acura. It pisses me off to no end that I take excellent care of my car, service it ON TIME each and every scheduled maintenance, walk MILES in parking lots to keep the dings out of the paint and the friggin dealership mechanics couldn't give a **** less about my investment.
My Acura CL had a sticking shifter. You had to really stand on the brakes to release it out of park. First, some idiot mechanic thought he could fix an obvious bad adjustment by spraying WD40 into the interior typtronic shift mechanism. This took the finish off the shift gate Then, when it was in to replace the ruined shift trim plate, apparently the idiot was working on it with both doors open and the engine running for the AC, WHILE WORKING ON THE SHIFTER, and womped both doors on the lift uprights! I just hope one of the doors slammed on his legs. Idiot.
That one cost the Acura dealer, dearly!
Dominion,
Thanks for the link, it will be interesting when they get some more info up.

 

Hey, if any of you all are still out there...I'm having pulsing brake problems. Everything I have on the car is stock and it just hit 12,000 miles. How can I (cheaply) get this fixed?