Oh come on...you can see the heat marks clear as day. To say you weren't pushing them is a lie. You ran a rotor that wasn't designed to be used on a track. To think budget "drilled" rotors are safe is being naïve in the extreme. Even I know better then that and I don't run tracks.
Wow! What reason do I have to lie? I'm not looking for anything from Brakemotive, or Powerstop! The heat mark is from coming to a dead stop in the gravel with hot brakes. Not from pushing very hard. That's is the mark the pad left on the rotor, and will happen every time you get your brakes hot on track and just come to a dead stop while they cool.
Well hey, I appreciate that!:cheers:
I’m not sure what you’re getting at here. I’m somehow to blame for overheating the rotors?
I don't think he is saying that, just that they got hot for whatever reason. Could they have gotten so hot as a result of the failure?
The disk looks normal other than the mark the pad left in the upper right of the pic. That was caused by coming to a dead stop with hot brakes and allowing them to cool. I've seen this many times at the track especially in the novice group when they come directly off track after pushing hard and don't cool down the brakes in the paddock before parking. Or when setting the parking brake with hot brakes.
Apologies, brakes are a huge part of our business. I'm simply asking questions to understand the failure better. I do not have the parts in front of me. The pictures tell one story but only about the failure. This is a casting that developed a stress fracture caused by X. X could have been anything from impact fracture, casting flaw, material flaw, heat fracture. Maybe it was dropped somewhere along the line before you received it, maybe the expansion rate of the rotor ring exceeded the ability of the hub section to stretch and contract. Maybe it was hot and quickly cooled, maybe a heat treatment or normalizing operation was faulty. Looking at the pictures shows it was fractured and failed quickly. That points to a expansion failure. Heat is not to blame necessarily but still can be the cause. A lot goes into casting a rotor, just the getting the material chemistry correct for the intended properties takes effort and costs money. Post casting is another process that costs money. OEM rotors have to meet certain standards and they are produced on a massive scale while the car is in production. The selling price is based on the cost, as the car goes out of production the cost goes up as the volume goes down meaning the price goes up. When another company invests in all the tooling to produce a replacement casting; and I understand that all 4 rotors can be purchased for around $200 while One OEM front rotor is more than $100, you have to ask how much is invested in the production of the part. We see rotor failures all the time on track cars, they are consumable parts, when low cost rotors are used it is a given that it may not be as able to live in an environment it was not designed for. Powerstop, to my knowledge does not recommend this particular style rotor to be used with their track day pads. They typically recommend an OEM premium rotor that is solid or slotted. Powerstop also states that slotted rotors are recommended for track use over drilled rotors. Very few Companies can warranty brake products due to the nature of the use. Premium brands will usually take care of isolated issues. True race quality parts rarely fail in use and when they do it usually is related to an outside source that caused the failure. We have had products covered even when the root cause was an installation issue. Typically the best resolution is to reach out to the manufacturer privately first.
I’m not looking to reach out to the manufacturer for any reimbursement. I’m looking to prevent anyone else from having this happen to them. I’ve now found three cases of the exact same failure from these rotors. There is clearly a manufacturing or casting issue with these that is a serious safety concern. Yes this is most likely only going to show it’s face when on track after multiple hard stops but IMO it’s just not worth the risk even on a street car.
