When was the last time you ...

...checked your brake rotors ?

A lot of you reading this blog might think that as far as your braking system is concerned all you need to regularly change are pads and brake fluid but that's not all !

Go outside and take a look at your disc rotors ! Make sure though the car has cooled down enough and so did your brakes before you touch anything !

If the system is cool, run your fingers over the surface of the rotor ! Do you feel anything uneven ? little grooves here and there ? Does the surface look cracked ? is it ? can you see any warping in parts of the rotor ? better yet, take the wheel off and measure the thickness of the rotor ! The chances are after using agressive pads and/or frequent circuit driving your rotor has undergone significant changes and needs replacing. The most common visual symptoms of rotor degradation are a reduction in thickness, formation of a hard ridge on the edge and visible cracks. If your rotor is warped, well then you'll feel a pulsating brake pedal under your feet as the pads run over high areas then low areas of the rotor.

In my car's case it is the reduced thickness and early stages of surface cracking which are prevailing !

As you can see on the left the gap is over 1 mm (1 square on the card = 4mm) which in the case of Brembo 4 pot calipers warrants a replacement.

So what's next now ?

I had many choices for a replacement ranging from OEM Honda rotors (which I believe are Brembos) to aftermarket ones (Project Mu, Endless, DIXCEL etc). In the end I settled for DIXCEL SD (slotted disc) which comes highly recommended and allows for far superior cooling over the OEM version. I didn't choose Project Mu's as they didn't have rotors which would suit a Brembo caliper without major modifications and Endless not being a truly brake technology company I just couldn't convince myself for.

More to come when the new rotors arrive ...