Cheapie discs are they worth it?

[Justin S]

Been to my local Cafco's who list the non-ABS 1800,2000cc sierra front vented discs at under £12+vat each!!!!I was going to put some grooved discs and EBC greens on it,but at that price,is it worth the risk?I guess that they must come with some kind of safety standard.So £120 ish for groovy discs with greens or £65 for the cheapy discs and greens? Anyone?

[johno]

Personal opinion...

Did not get on with Green stuff pads and felt they contributed to cooking one set of disks. Not the sole reason at all but felt they played their part.

Cheap disks are cheap 'cos the material they are made of is crap. Therefor putting decent fast road pads onto cheap discs will not improve the braking and will probably result in knackered discs. High disc wear and possibly warped discs.

advice...

Buy decent grooved and drilled disks with good fast road pads. Green STuff if you like them but I'm currently using Pagid Fast Roads pads and think they are far better. Could not get fade on track day with them. Using them with grooved and drilled standard size dics.

Additionally consider strongly replacing standard brake lines with braided ones and the fluid for Dot 5.1.

IMHO ....

Cheers

Mark

[Dave_H]

Marks right,

When my standard disks need replacing, I'll be taking the advices he's given.

Never cut corners with anything as fundimental as brakes - It's not worth it.

[woody]

Dont' do "cheap" brakes . Many years ago I put cheap pads and disks on a car - only to find 4 months later that the "cheap" pads were so hard that they'd worn the "cheap" disks so much that it all needed replacing again. So don't do it on the cheap as you'll end up doing it twice.

I put EBC diskc and pads on my S3 a couple of months ago - great investment. Got them from R and M carspares - www.rmcarspares.co.uk

Chris

[Justin S]

Cheers all.Just wanted another opinion on it.Will get them from RM as they seem the cheapest around.

[JSG]

I agree on not using any 'cheap' bits anwhere on a TVR, especially the braking system.

One point though, I seem to remember something about drilled discs cracking and a view that grooved were the prefered upgrade. Anyone else remember this?

Cheers,
JSG.

[johno]

I remember it and tend to dismiss it although I have cooked a set of drilled discs which then cracked.

The reason being that any disc subjected to consistent and excessive heat will on its surface 'blue' and then 'crack'. Be they drilled or not.

I have drilled and grooved on the car currently and no issues.

Check out the brakes on Porsches - all cross drilled and no grooves & I haven't heard any bad rumours...

Cheers

Mark

[spnracing]

I bought a set of cheap (£50/pair) drilled disks for my Golf racer in September 2000. They're still on the car now with no signs of wear or cracks and they get the most extreme use possible - though the car is light.

I never had to replace the disks on my S but if TVR wanted £100 and I could have got a set for half the price I would have done them myself. A disk is a disk - especially for road use.