Lesson learned: Don't try to cheap out on brakes.

[hotlavaaaa]

Amazon had a great price going on Centric C-Tek rotors that fit my car and I had a $5 off $25 promotion, so they were going to be about $26 shipped and I figured how bad could they be. Well I found out exactly how bad. The first rotor got to me on Tuesday and at first I just noticed a few little nicks on the rotor face that I thought I could live with. Then I turned the rotor around to find that there was a chunk of metal missing from the inside lip. Contacted Amazon and they shipped a replacement. Guess what, it was even worse. The rotor is supposed to have a non directional finish and it had that, but it also had a directional groove around the rotor face that was about a quarter inch wide all the way around the rotor. And that's not all. On the inside of the rotor I found a partial ring of loose metal that probably went a third of the way around the rotor. So now both are going back along with the third rotor that I didn't receive yet. I know they are the bottom of the rung from Centric, but it's insane that they would sell such a piece of shit product. Oh well, lesson learned.

 

[T2urtle]

Amazon had a great price going on Centric C-Tek rotors that fit my car and I had a $5 off $25 promotion, so they were going to be about $26 shipped and I figured how bad could they be. Well I found out exactly how bad. The first rotor got to me on Tuesday and at first I just noticed a few little nicks on the rotor face that I thought I could live with. Then I turned the rotor around to find that there was a chunk of metal missing from the inside lip. Contacted Amazon and they shipped a replacement. Guess what, it was even worse. The rotor is supposed to have a non directional finish and it had that, but it also had a directional groove around the rotor face that was about a quarter inch wide all the way around the rotor. And that's not all. On the inside of the rotor I found a partial ring of loose metal that probably went a third of the way around the rotor. So now both are going back along with the third rotor that I didn't receive yet. I know they are the bottom of the rung from Centric, but it's insane that they would sell such a piece of shit product. Oh well, lesson learned.

I've had good luck with ctek centric rotors. I think I bought about 5 pairs so far off amazon. Nothing close to what you mentioned. But this might be the 3rd bad posting of ctek I read this week.... Maybe something is up.

 

[Q]

Go to corporate and complain, that's insane.

 

[Howard]

Centric is probably the OEM for a lot of other branded rotors too.

 

[phucheneh]

A lot of the 'these rotors are junk, they came from the store warped/damaged' complaints are shipping and storage related.

I used to think more expensive rotors were made of higher quality materials. Or rather, said material (iron) was more pure or lacked trace imperfections. If that ever was the case, I don't think it is now. They all seem to be cast out of the same crap; whether it's parts store house brand or dealer OEM. Then you're just left with machining and balancing. And China seems to have mastered that well enough.

Now pads are a totally different animal. Christ some of those cheap ones (Duralast) are complete trash. Attn: China. Rotors are cast iron; you got that one. But pads should not be.

There may be some bias built in to my observation, though- the people who install those pads generally don't know how to lubricate things, they discard hardware, ect, so it's going to exacerbate the shittiness of the pad.

 

[hotlavaaaa]

Go to corporate and complain, that's insane.

I did, and here was the response.

"We do not have any relationship with Amazon. Amazon does not carry our products or ship them. All Centric product sales made by Amazon are sold via unidentified third party fulfillment which may or may not actually supply our products.

As such, it is not possible to comment further without part numbers, invoice data and most importantly images of packaging and product.

Your description of the product is not in alignment with anything we offer. We have found product sold via various online sources represented as Centric, but in fact, is something completely different. "

Not sure if it's worth the trouble of taking pictures of everything. Seems weird that Amazon has 37,330 parts from Centric on their website that say "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com." and they are trying to claim that they don't have any relationship with Amazon. Amazon usually tells you when something on their site is from a different seller. The reply came from the president of the company so that's kind of cool.

 

[T2urtle]

Maybe amazon bought it from someone else. Amazon doesn't exactly have to buy from centric, you think they would. It came up a couple times for warranty issues. Amazon isn't an authorized vendor in some cases.

 

[mvbighead]

Sucks op. I just recently brought some rotors from amazon. Raybestos Advanced Technology blah blah blahs. Not a problem with them.

Could be a vendor issue, or it could be your local shipper. I suppose returns and re-shipments are a good thing for the local shipping guy?

 

[SpatiallyAware]

I have seen back-to-back-to-back rotor brand changes with the same brand/model pads and realized noticeable differences.


Rotor brands DO matter, and it's quite a bit.


Your life depends on your brakes, tires, steering components. These are not things to cheap out on.

 

[JCH13]

Makes me wonder if some company/group/individual is selling QA rejects through Amazon as Centric rotors.

My experience with Centric rotors has only been positive. However, now I'm nervous to get them through Amazon if they're not a proper reseller.

 

[JTsyo]

I did, and here was the response.

"We do not have any relationship with Amazon. Amazon does not carry our products or ship them. All Centric product sales made by Amazon are sold via unidentified third party fulfillment which may or may not actually supply our products.

As such, it is not possible to comment further without part numbers, invoice data and most importantly images of packaging and product.

Your description of the product is not in alignment with anything we offer. We have found product sold via various online sources represented as Centric, but in fact, is something completely different. "

Not sure if it's worth the trouble of taking pictures of everything. Seems weird that Amazon has 37,330 parts from Centric on their website that say "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com." and they are trying to claim that they don't have any relationship with Amazon. Amazon usually tells you when something on their site is from a different seller. The reply came from the president of the company so that's kind of cool.

Might be the same problem as those pirate airbags from China. Someone along the line is committing fraud but everyone else is unaware.

 

[brainhulk]

so which rotors are definitely made in the usa or japan

 

[JCH13]

so which rotors are definitely made in the usa or japan

Quick web search indicates that no one other than Wilwood (and just their high-end rotors with a proprietary alloy I guess) actually makes brake rotors in the USA. Some are machined, but most of the casting is done in China and some in the UK, and maybe Mexico and Canada.

 

[halik]

I had a set of centric rotors on my S4, no problems at all. Maybe you got some counterfit goods?

 

[T2urtle]

Wonder if rockauto is a proper centric vendor. Their prices are similar to amazon before shipping.

The term "get what you pay for" isnt valid now a days. Everyone even the big brands are made in China, Taiwan, mexico,Brazil. Moog, raybesto, Spicer, fel-pro, akebono all are brands I bought this year.... None were made in the USA. So paying $20 for a ctek rotor vs $80 for a stop tech and both are made in China. You don't exactly win or get a better product. The higher names make a better attempt at hiding where its made.

 

[WackyDan]

Maybe amazon bought it from someone else. Amazon doesn't exactly have to buy from centric, you think they would. It came up a couple times for warranty issues. Amazon isn't an authorized vendor in some cases.

Happens all the time in IT... Numerous counterfeit Cisco routers being sold out there whose source is in China...And they are either utter crap or some have found out that they were purposely counterfeited to gain access to that network. Same deal... Cisco will not warrant, service or so forth... a lot of "Cisco" customers got burned... Not Cisco's problem... Either you buy from an authorized Cisco dealer or you don't. They make it easy enough to.

Auto part? Probably more issues there as you are looking at higher volume, low cost goods. Wouldn't surprise me one bit that those rotors are exactly Centrics... Based on their response they aren't surprised either.

 

[hotlavaaaa]

I sent the following pictures:

http://imgur.com/a/lLLwH#0

http://imgur.com/a/QLi9M#0

And got this reply:

"I can’t explain your experience regarding this product. Our current inventory doesn’t look like this. And we would never approve this sort of thing. I can guess that our supplier slipped us some secondary product.

I am going to ship you a pair of our Premium rotors, no charge for Monday delivery "

I'm definitely a happy camper and hopefully he will do something to track down where Amazon is sourcing Centric parts because I feel the rotors I received would have been seriously unsafe to put on a car.

 

[yhelothar]

Wonder if rockauto is a proper centric vendor. Their prices are similar to amazon before shipping.

The term "get what you pay for" isnt valid now a days. Everyone even the big brands are made in China, Taiwan, mexico,Brazil. Moog, raybesto, Spicer, fel-pro, akebono all are brands I bought this year.... None were made in the USA. So paying $20 for a ctek rotor vs $80 for a stop tech and both are made in China. You don't exactly win or get a better product. The higher names make a better attempt at hiding where its made.

Why does Taiwan get lumped into the group of cheap third-world labor countries?

 

[deadken]

In the first pictures, the 'chunk of metal' that is 'missing' was where the 'blank' wasn't complete and when it was machined the lathe skipped over the low part. IOW: It didn't break of later, it was never there from the start. Honestly, it was on the inside of the rotor and wouldn't have affected its operation.

The second pictures with the partial ring of loose metal is where the lathe trimmed off the excess material from the blank, but didn't completely cut the excess material off. So, it was left 'dangling'. Again, this was on the inside of the rotor and wouldn't have affected operation. You likely could have just pulled it off. As for the ring around the surface, something happened during the surfacing procedure and it didn't get properly crosshatched. It might have been fine, but it might have been noisy until it 'broke in'.

 

[wirednuts]

the $20 rotors tend to warp in my experience. you can use them, but dont get mad when your brakes pulse eventually. and they overheat very quickly, and one good hard stop and you can warp them without much effort.

 

[deadken]

Good point. I was going to mention that the rotors the OP bought were likely the economy ones. I believe that the 'premium' Centric rotors would have cost around $35 each. That's still pretty cheap.

 

[railer]

I would have probably slapped those rotors on and been on my merry way. Nice of Ctek to send you some new rotors.

 

[phucheneh]

the $20 rotors tend to warp in my experience. you can use them, but dont get mad when your brakes pulse eventually. and they overheat very quickly, and one good hard stop and you can warp them without much effort.

I doubt this. Warping is overwhelming controlled by driving habit and choice of pad. Cheap rotors don't build extra heat and shouldn't be mre succeptible to said heat.

Again, we're talking about a component made of just about the most basic material out there. The only way I could see the aboe being somewhere true is if the rotor has impurities in the iron that make it more likely to gain 'hot spots', 'heat checks', or some other kind of small, localized defects.

But I've done plenty of cheap rotor/good pad installs without issue. I've also seen people warp the shit out of OEM pads and rotors in a few thousand miles.

 

[deadken]

Not all warping is noticeable / noticeable to everyone. But, if it is warped, it'll likely get worse as time / mileage goes on.

A while back (maybe 15 years) I got a warped rotor right out of the box.

Has that been my typical experience? No.

Is it probable / possible that the cheaper rotors don't get the same level of quality machining that the more expensive ones do? Yes.

FWIW: I just picked up a set of Centric 'premium' rotors and the better pads (can't remember, ceramics?). For less than $35 each rotor it was a no brainer. I don't need to skimp on the brakes I put on my daughters car. Especially when the difference in price is less than $50 - $60.

BTW: The brake parts were bought locally and after I read this post.

 

[wirednuts]

well the #1 cause of warped rotors is stuck caliper bolts. no matter what, if you have a caliper bolt that doesnt allow the caliper to slide you will put too much heat and pressure on one side of the rotor and it will warp.

some cars's brake systems can muddy out the wobble in the pedal.. you dont notice it much. but on my truck even the slightest wobble can be felt in your feet. but also, in my example, i cut my rotors down when i change my brakes, and witch cheap rotors you just dont get a lot of metal to work with. they are thinner, and they do get hotter because they cant dissipate the heat as well. the internal rib design and rotor thickness varies.