I haven't ordered yet. I'm buying parts over the Winter for a Spring install, so there's plenty of time for me to change my mind on rotors.

Centric is a good alternative; painted black rather than zinc-plated. Please post back here after you get them installed.

Thanks, kgallerie.

[edited] I'm looking at the Centric rotors... you know what I like about them? In addition to the painted hat, they painted the edges. That's a nice detail.



(ps. This picture is crazy... who uses 6 lugs?)

That "kangaroo paw" design internal to the rotor is interesting, no doubt about it. But those DBA rotors are seriously expensive, CMax.



The Centrics are only $47/ea. in the front. These DBA 4000's are $131/ea. all around. That's over $500 for rotors!

From rockauto, $43.79 front and $31.79 rear. They are pretty reputable around here and saved me ~$20 vs. tirerack.

I agree that the kangaroo paw looks interesting, but I cant imagine it would be that much better than a vented rotor to justify that cost

That's what I'm thinking. My Maxima is a family sedan that doesn't get tracked, so I don't need to deal with extreme braking and heat.

Thanks for the heads-up on saving $20 at RockAuto over TireRack.

Did you notice at TireRack, they rate the Centrics as better performance rotors than the Brembos, and yet the Brembos cost a lot more?

I was reading through these posts again this evening, trying to get a plan straight in my head. Then I followed PuppetMaster's link to the thread from 4 months ago. Very similar comments there, including my own. Crazy... but I forgot all about that conversation. It must be where I originally got solid on RTP.

My point -- It seems people have had good and bad experiences with both RTP and Centric. However, the photos of PuppetMasters instantly rusted Centrics was pretty convincing stuff.

Here are some pics of my RTP zinc plated after about a year.

Fronts:

Rears:

^^^
Those look absolutely horrible.

So, PuppetMaster is happy with his zinc-plated RTP's, and has pics of heavily rusted Centrics. And you're happy with your Centrics, with pics of heavily rusted RTP's.

I'm at a loss. Totally confused now.

I havent even installed my centrics yet so I cant really say I am happy with them yet. I am assuming they will rust fairly quickly similar to the brembo blanks and like Puppet said, but only on the non contact areas that arent painted (quite easy to paint). I plan on driving them for a few weeks, then touching up the areas that rust with caliper paint.

Most of this thread has been about aesthetics though, which doesnt really matter that much. It can all be taken care of with paint. The RTP's however have had quality issues which is why I went with the Centrics.

In regards to zinc... AFAIK it is not a rust proof material in the normal sense. The rusting of iron is an electrochemical process that begins with the transfer of electrons from iron to oxygen. Zinc will donate the electrons to the oxygen more freely which will allow the oxygen to take what it wants from the zinc and not the iron. So eventually the zinc will disappear. (Something like that) That is why you will see some extremely large ships with blocks of zinc attached to them. The zinc eventually goes away and helps slow down the rust. Galvanized is a whole new ball game.

For the record, I have just installed the DBA 4000 Series rotors on my car. I always thought the EBC brakes were the cat's meow. But now that I have DBA's on the car I have changed my opinion. The EBC brakes are loud with the redstuff pads and the hawks HPS pads. I am using redstuff pads now with the DBA's and they are quiet as a mouse both during light and heavy braking.

Oh, and it is OK to paint your rotors (the hats) with high temperature paint. That's why they make caliper paint to withstand high temperatures. The DBA rotors have the color coded stripes on them to tell you what temperature range you are driving at. The highest temperature is 650C. I hope mine don't ever get that hot, but engine enamel and caliper paint is capable of surviving that temperature.

Well, that's true. My focus here keeps coming back to which rotors resist rust the best. On most things, I prioritize functionality over form, but I was thinking any set of rotors between $150 and $200 would be about the same performance-wise, so it was OK to focus on aesthetics.

However, that one sentence does remind me of my priorities, Kgallerie. And I'm very interested in your impressions on the Centrics after they're installed.

Thank you for the insights and pictures, Knight.

In looking at PuppetMaster's rusted Cryo-Centrics, notice how nice and clean the painted hats still are. As he said, it seems the Centrics weren't painted deep enough into the face of the rotor.

Knight, what about powder coating? RTP said they'd do that for $300/set.

Do you have an opinion on that?

it would have to be a high temperature powder coat. Regular powder coat cures at 400F so I am not sure what would happen if the rotors got hotter than that.

I asked RTP a bunch of direct questions about the powder coated rotors, just now. Let's see what happens.

So I installed the centrics on saturday with the HPS pads and they are super smooth. So nice to have new brakes on the car again.

There is one other thing I wanted to point out about the RTP's. On the front vented rotors, the gap in the edge of the the rotor (vent) was not uniformly centered along the edge. The distance from the inner and outer edge of the rotor varied as it went around the circumference of the rotor. My car always had a slight shimmy at high speeds and I thought it was wheel or tire related, but it seems to have dissapeared since I put the centrics on.

On a side note/rant, whoever invented the screw in piston on the rear calipers should be shot!!! What a pain in the pooper!

Does anyone know what the purpose of that mechanism is as opposed to the press in mechanism like the fronts? Maybe has something to do with the parking brake?

Thanks for the follow-up, kgallarie. I appreciate it.

Jason @RTP hasn't responded to my inquiry (yet?) about powder coated rotors.

Here's where my heads at: doing a stare-and-compare at your rusted RTP's and PuppetMaster's rusted Centrics, it would seem the Centrics only had surface rust on the non painted area. Whereas, the RTP's were just shot... for whatever reason.

And Centric is a huge brake component company, for whatever that's worth.

Still a few months away, but I'm leaning towards Centrics now. Kgallarie, if you get sour on your new brakes, please follow-up again.

Thanks, guys!

Just got a response from Jason @RTP... for anyone who's reading this and interested in Powder Coating:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Bringing this thread back after 3 months... in case someone, someday, is reading this and wondering how things ended up.

I bought Centrics, rather than RTP. They showed up this week from Tirerack.com; $176.50 after shipping. They won't go on the car until April (along with a new set of struts), so right now they're just sitting pretty in my office, along with a new set of HAWK HPS composite pads, front & rear both.



And "pretty" they are! These rotors are gorgeous! I'm so psyched for new brakes.

I'll bump the thread again in April, after the install. Until then, eEnjoy the winter, guys. (Man, I hate winter.)

Nice man. :-p

Are those 6th gen sized fronts??

Don't forget to FLUSh that brake fluid....and I mean the WHOLE thing!!

gr

*No, haven't done the bg yet.*

Nope. The size is OEM spec for the 2003 Maxima. That's why the rears are so freaking dinky.

Brake fluid... my mechanic will be doing the install, along with Tokico HP struts, Moog strut mounts, and whatever else we uncover when check it out in March (tie rod ends, FSB end links, ball joints, oil pan, calipers, etc.)

Those centrics do look pretty sweet right out of the box.....

Also, in the picture, it looks like the HPS boxes are labeled incorrectly. The larger box should be the fronts.

And just a follow up on my centrics after about 5k. I havent really noticed how they look lately because my car is filthy in this crap winter weather and havent really paid much attention. But they are still running super smooth and I am pretty happy with them. The only thing is that they dont seem to bite as well as i had hoped. But I am getting more dust on my rear wheels than front wheels, so I am thinking that I may have a little air in my front lines and just need to do a good flush.

Good luck with the install in the spring.

Guess I'll need to snap some updated pictures of my brakes once the spring is here to keep the updates in this thread going.

Those Centrics do look good, like mine did out of the box. I agree with the point made a few months back that Centric is a large company and probably has better QC procedures in place. I also like that you can get them from Tirerack.

Could be. Last I looked in the boxes, I think the larger box had tiny pads inside, and the smaller box had larger pads. Seems backasswards. I'll double-check.

Yeah, that would be great if you checked your rotors for wear and rust now that you're at 5K. Thanks, Kevin.

I do have some misgivings about not going with 6th gen brakes, or a BBK. But we all draw the line for upgrades according to our own particular values. For me and my daily driver, (and my 17" SE rims, and my 16" steel snows), the OEM specs for fitment are good enough. And I'll put the money elsewhere.

Off topic - I've seen a car by where I live with tags "SSA BKWD".

Lucky Bass-turd.

Off topic to be sure... where are the moderators when you need them?

Hey, I had to double-check that and follow up. They are labeled correctly, Kevin. For whatever reason, the larger front pads are in the smaller box, and the smaller rear pads are in the larger box.

The rears are shrink wrapped and come with a grease pack. The fronts are raw. Weird packaging. Maybe because I bought the rears from Tirerack.com, and the fronts last Fall during that crazy PepBoys deal.

I put the Centrics and Hawk HPS pads on the front of my '02 around 6k miles ago. This combo is easily THE best I've ever put on any car. Far better than the junk Brembo blanks I used on my wife's '91. My brakes have a better feel than stock and are much, much quieter. My everyday commute is not a very typical one either. My house is almost 700' higher than my work so the brakes get a big workout. One half mile stretch drops 200' in a half mile with a stoplight at the end. Many times I miss the light and have to stop from around 50 mph on that hill in a short distance. I usually warp rotors within a few thousand miles, but these are still smooth as silk.

The rotors still look like the day I put them on. I think they were only around $40 a piece too. What a bargain! I'll only use this combo on any vehicle I change from now on.

I have had a set of RTP dimpled rotors on all 4 corners for almost a year now... still in great condition.

Awesome testimonial feedback, kbohip. Thank you. I can't wait for Spring.

Here are a couple pics of the driver's side front rotor. There is at least 5 or 6k miles on these right now, probably a lot more. I honestly can't remember and I forgot to write down the date/mileage that I installed these. I know it's been the better part of a year though, so there may be upwards of 10k miles on them.




Edit: Just checked my Tire Rack order history. I installed these around the 15th of July 2009. With the amount of miles I drive in a month, that means these have around 7 or 8k miles on them...roughly. Something else I should mention. I followed the bedding in procedures (making a bunch of 30-50mph hard stops, etc.) for these. Judging from how well mine are holding up, I recommend this.