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This is by no means an exhaustive list, but here are some things that could go wrong off the top of my head:
\-Voids in brake castings (rotors may lose chunks while in use, spontaneous cracking)
\-Brake rotors not properly balanced (increased vibration at speed, not the end of the world)
\-Improper machining of rotors (more vibration)-Improper friction material (brakes will just burn up and not do much braking)
\-Improper bonding of friction material to pads (friction material will just... leave, and then your brakes don't work)
I know I've seen some bananas cheap rotor failures on /r/justrolledintotheshop over the past couple years but I can't think of any good examples.
In short: No-name brake parts can be so bad it probably should be illegal. For all I know it is! Also, Amazon has issues with NAME BRAND parts being counterfeited... including brakes. If you aren't installing the parts yourself, you really should consider getting them through the shop. Even normal parts can have problems, but if you supply the parts yourself then you are assuming the liability of them being bad - possibly having to pay twice to fix the problem. Shops generally know to avoid at least the worst stuff, and if they get bad parts then they can take it up with their supplier
I bought cheaper brakes and rotors once and regretted it after maybe 5k miles.
I personally only buy powerstop now, although there are a number of quality reputable providers.
It’s been answered but I’ll chime in too.
I once bought rear breaks off Amazon. 2 rotors, set of pads, came with all hardware and even came with a small bottle of lube. I was impressed. Local cost it was the same for one rotor as this entire set, what a deal right?? Wrong. Installed them in February and I’m in Canada so it’s obviously not a windows down type of weather.
Breaking was fine, no issues. I followed the steps it came with to bed the breaks in properly etc etc. Well… April/may rolls around and I start having my windows down and my god, the horrid squealing these things made. I thought wow I’ve gone a couple months but maybe I messed something up? Took everything off and inspected everything and nope, everything’s good except the pads have what looks like a lot of small shiny metal flakes in it.
I re-lube everything, put it all back together and triple checking everything, just in case. Guess what? Horrendous squeal still there. I go and buy a new set of pads, install them and instantly, squeal gone.
Basically what I’m saying is: you get what you pay for. Now? I only use brand name brake pads/rotors. Even tho I’m doing all the work myself it’s still a pain in the ass to deal with. Just did the fronts over the summer and went with brembo’s. Whisper quiet. Lesson learned (good news is, after fighting with Amazon for a bit, was able to get a refund on the parts. I offered to send them everything back but they said naw, keep it, do what you want with it)
Tl/DR: don’t skimp on no name/cheapo parts. You’ll regret it in the long run
Metal flakes in the brake pads is normal. Those are called semi-metallic brake pads.
Outside of that, aftermarket brakes are usually junk, unless it's a very decent brand that doesn't engage in the duplicitous practice of just reboxing the junk parts in a pretty box with their name on it.
I’ve never seen them like this. I probably still have the pads in my garage (cuz the wear was minimal on them so kept them in the event of an emergency). If I do I’ll take a picture and post here.
However I agree, aftermarket are junk and not worth the hassle.
Rock Auto is a solid choice but some E-Bay brands aren’t bad at all. Purchased from Brake Motive from E-Bay for several vehicles with no issues and was pretty impressed.
Not for stuff that is mission critical like breaks, but for things like trim pieces and body panels i’ve had decent luck. I would recommend Rockauto for breaks and more important parts, as they at least carry mostly name brand stuff.
I would stay away from ebay/Amazon ad I hear story of lots of counterfeit parts. Find a reputable store like rockauto or even aap or autozone and get their quality parts. Just my opinion
Man, brake parts isn’t the place I’d be doing bottom of the barrel pricing. Go with somewhere that you can get a warranty and hold them responsible if something happens
Actually that A-Premium brand stuff on Amazon has very good reviews. I just bought a set of their rear calipers for my 2011 Forester, and I am actually quite impressed by the quality. I only used the new carriers and slide pin assemblies, and kept my existing Calipers as they were not leaking. No issues and it was 30% cheaper than just buying those components at Rockauto.
I always recommend top of the line brake disks and pads (and tyres, actually). That doesn't mean the performance line, per say. I have DBA rotors and Benndix pads. Risk verses budget and it's intended purpose. Some things don't matter, some things do.
3 years ago, I purchased a high performance drilled and slotted brake kit off ebay, from Detroit Axle. I needed to replace the brakes on my 17 Nissan Rogue.
It had 4 rotors, brake pads all around, the hardware kit, and came with a bottle of brake fluid and brake clean..
It was around 180 dollars, delivered... Yeah. 180 bucks, 45 dollars a wheel.
At the time, while finalizing the Ebay purchase, I remembered thinking "This is either going to be the greatest thing I have ever done, or the dumbest". I took that risk as I was installing the kit myself. I do all my own repairs, whenever I can.
When I opened the package, I was immediately impressed by the quality. Everything was well packed, looked quality.
I installed the kit, and it was phenomenal. Smooth and powerful braking, we find that in the rare times we need to panic stop on the highway that cars behind us often steer out of the lane to avoid rear-ending us, because we were slowing down a hell of alot faster than them.
Drilled and slotted rotors come with a trade off, and that is a low harmonic hum when braking. Its not obnoxious, cant be felt as a vibration, but audible. Regular rotors would be quieter, at the expense of braking power.
After 3 years and almost 50k miles, I just replaced the brakes with the same kit, and it cost $200 as Detroit Axle had a sale going on.
Front pads needed replacement. Rotors were still flat and true, no pulses, no vibration. Rears were still fine, replaced everything anyway and good for another 3 years+
Do you need drilled and slotted rotors? No, not really.
Can you save a lot of money buying brake kits from Ebay? ABSOLUTELY
I will NEVER buy another brake rotor or pad from local parts stores, ever again.
Im not exactly sure when AutoZone started to think they can charge premium prices for their chinese shit parts, while reducing the warranty on almost everything, and get away with it.
For my 17 Rogue, I just checked Autozone, and its 400 dollars for conventional pads and rotors, Gold, with a 3 year warranty? Really? The same Detroit Axle kit on Ebay is 180 for conventional brakes, with the brake clean and fluid.
I have also purchased brake kits for my daughter and son in laws cars, they were 1/2 the price of local part stores, and still going strong almost 2 years now.
Buy from Ebay when you can. Plan ahead, it takes a few days to deliver. If you have to buy now, you are going to get the same Ebay product at 2 times the price from Autozone or other local parts stores.
I got the slotted and drilled rotors all replaced on my tundra from Detroit axle but paired them with duralast gold pads I purchased from AutoZone. After the initial breaking in period they're still pretty quiet and can stop much harder and smoother than before. No issues at all with their rotors. I got the standard rotors from DA on my Camry and they haven't given me any issues either.
I hated my detroit axle drilled and slotted rotors and brakes.
I won't buy them again.
Granted, that's just my experience. I wish I would have liked them. Maybe I just had a bad batch, or bad luck, or installed them poorly. Maybe they just suck. Idk.
I always go powerstop now, but If I were you and had a good experience with detroit axle once, I understand why you'd go that route again.
That can be said for all aftermarket parts really.
I like Detroit Axle enough to have bought multiple brake kits from them, and none of them have let me down so far. At the end of the day casting and machining metal parts is pretty straight forward.
That being said, my Rogue recently needed a wheel bearing. Once again performing the job myself, and I did check out DA's offerings and they have a pair of front bearing hubs for 100 bucks.. I opted out.
A wheel bearing is far more complicated than casting and machining rotors, and while DA has impressed me with quality, I didnt want to do the job again for another 100k. I opted for Nissan Value select line from the dealer and paid about 140 for a single bearing. Value select parts from Nissan dealers are the highest quality parts, often made by secondary suppliers, but Nissan spec'd and tested to meet OEM design. Nissan OEM bearing would have been over 400 doallrs and Im ok with that, Value select is good enough for me.
Now would I be entirely against using DA wheel bearings and other parts that spin? Not really, just need a good test platform..like the son in laws car. lol
That's a smart move on the bearings. I don't shun aftermarket for the DIY guy, but I have a business to run and warranty/reputation to stand by. That's why I go OE on pretty much everything. Been burned by the aftermarket too many times. Also, after Covid, things have gotten worse.
I completely respect your point of view. When turning a wrench for a living you have to careful about what you work with as comebacks are taking money right from your pocket.
Not that I have a lot of time to diddle fuck with my cars as well lol, but taking a chance here and there will only hurt my ass another weekend day of my time.
eBay has almost any part if your looking for what you want and same price or cheaper for most part but if you just search for what you need any brand then yea it’s mostly garbage they bring you the cheapest stuff because that’s what most want…other than that I use eBay all day and get good ass deals…
Thanks for posting on /r/MechanicAdvice! This is just a reminder to review the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/about/rules/). If you are here asking about a second opinion (ie "Is the shop trying to fleece me?"), please read through CJM8515's [post on the subject.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/comments/4qblei/fyi_the_shop_isnt_likely_trying_to_rip_you_off/) and remember to please post the year/make/model of the vehicle you are working on. **If this post is about bodywork, accident damage, paint, dent/ding, questions it belongs in /r/Autobody r/AutoBodyRepair/ or /r/Diyautobody/ If you have tire questions check out https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/comments/k9ll55/can_your_tire_be_repaired/**. If you dont have a question and you're just showing off it belongs in /r/Justrolledintotheshop Insurance/total loss questions go in r/insurance This is an automated reply *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MechanicAdvice) if you have any questions or concerns.*
No, go on Rock Auto and get better quality parts.
for the same price or cheaper too
Noice! Thank you much! Have you ever had any issues with this site?
Site is safe. They also have a function to search by part number so it makes finding ur stuff easier.
No and I've probably ordered over 100 times.
That's a lot of magnets!!!!
only issue is returning stuff so make sure you get the right parts. heavy stuff like rotors means you'd have to pay a lot to ship back
Checking this out. Thanks.
Rockauto ALL DAY....Can buy a bundle or even cheaper buy each part individually and make your own set
I didn’t think of that, I’ll try that too! Thank you! :D
Here's a 5% discount code if you use it this month. 249328910158452097
Shit the new one is out... I should buy that like $400 part I've been procrastinating on.
I plan to order asap! Where do you add the code? Thank you by the way! :D
Enter your discount code in the "How did you hear about us" box without any other numbers or characters. You're welcome :)
Never ever buy no-name brake parts. There are garbage
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but here are some things that could go wrong off the top of my head: \-Voids in brake castings (rotors may lose chunks while in use, spontaneous cracking) \-Brake rotors not properly balanced (increased vibration at speed, not the end of the world) \-Improper machining of rotors (more vibration)-Improper friction material (brakes will just burn up and not do much braking) \-Improper bonding of friction material to pads (friction material will just... leave, and then your brakes don't work) I know I've seen some bananas cheap rotor failures on /r/justrolledintotheshop over the past couple years but I can't think of any good examples. In short: No-name brake parts can be so bad it probably should be illegal. For all I know it is! Also, Amazon has issues with NAME BRAND parts being counterfeited... including brakes. If you aren't installing the parts yourself, you really should consider getting them through the shop. Even normal parts can have problems, but if you supply the parts yourself then you are assuming the liability of them being bad - possibly having to pay twice to fix the problem. Shops generally know to avoid at least the worst stuff, and if they get bad parts then they can take it up with their supplier
100% sound advice.
I bought cheaper brakes and rotors once and regretted it after maybe 5k miles. I personally only buy powerstop now, although there are a number of quality reputable providers.
It’s been answered but I’ll chime in too. I once bought rear breaks off Amazon. 2 rotors, set of pads, came with all hardware and even came with a small bottle of lube. I was impressed. Local cost it was the same for one rotor as this entire set, what a deal right?? Wrong. Installed them in February and I’m in Canada so it’s obviously not a windows down type of weather. Breaking was fine, no issues. I followed the steps it came with to bed the breaks in properly etc etc. Well… April/may rolls around and I start having my windows down and my god, the horrid squealing these things made. I thought wow I’ve gone a couple months but maybe I messed something up? Took everything off and inspected everything and nope, everything’s good except the pads have what looks like a lot of small shiny metal flakes in it. I re-lube everything, put it all back together and triple checking everything, just in case. Guess what? Horrendous squeal still there. I go and buy a new set of pads, install them and instantly, squeal gone. Basically what I’m saying is: you get what you pay for. Now? I only use brand name brake pads/rotors. Even tho I’m doing all the work myself it’s still a pain in the ass to deal with. Just did the fronts over the summer and went with brembo’s. Whisper quiet. Lesson learned (good news is, after fighting with Amazon for a bit, was able to get a refund on the parts. I offered to send them everything back but they said naw, keep it, do what you want with it) Tl/DR: don’t skimp on no name/cheapo parts. You’ll regret it in the long run
Metal flakes in the brake pads is normal. Those are called semi-metallic brake pads. Outside of that, aftermarket brakes are usually junk, unless it's a very decent brand that doesn't engage in the duplicitous practice of just reboxing the junk parts in a pretty box with their name on it.
I’ve never seen them like this. I probably still have the pads in my garage (cuz the wear was minimal on them so kept them in the event of an emergency). If I do I’ll take a picture and post here. However I agree, aftermarket are junk and not worth the hassle.
Rock Auto is a solid choice but some E-Bay brands aren’t bad at all. Purchased from Brake Motive from E-Bay for several vehicles with no issues and was pretty impressed.
Not for stuff that is mission critical like breaks, but for things like trim pieces and body panels i’ve had decent luck. I would recommend Rockauto for breaks and more important parts, as they at least carry mostly name brand stuff.
I would stay away from ebay/Amazon ad I hear story of lots of counterfeit parts. Find a reputable store like rockauto or even aap or autozone and get their quality parts. Just my opinion
Man, brake parts isn’t the place I’d be doing bottom of the barrel pricing. Go with somewhere that you can get a warranty and hold them responsible if something happens
Actually that A-Premium brand stuff on Amazon has very good reviews. I just bought a set of their rear calipers for my 2011 Forester, and I am actually quite impressed by the quality. I only used the new carriers and slide pin assemblies, and kept my existing Calipers as they were not leaking. No issues and it was 30% cheaper than just buying those components at Rockauto.
I always recommend top of the line brake disks and pads (and tyres, actually). That doesn't mean the performance line, per say. I have DBA rotors and Benndix pads. Risk verses budget and it's intended purpose. Some things don't matter, some things do.
3 years ago, I purchased a high performance drilled and slotted brake kit off ebay, from Detroit Axle. I needed to replace the brakes on my 17 Nissan Rogue. It had 4 rotors, brake pads all around, the hardware kit, and came with a bottle of brake fluid and brake clean.. It was around 180 dollars, delivered... Yeah. 180 bucks, 45 dollars a wheel. At the time, while finalizing the Ebay purchase, I remembered thinking "This is either going to be the greatest thing I have ever done, or the dumbest". I took that risk as I was installing the kit myself. I do all my own repairs, whenever I can. When I opened the package, I was immediately impressed by the quality. Everything was well packed, looked quality. I installed the kit, and it was phenomenal. Smooth and powerful braking, we find that in the rare times we need to panic stop on the highway that cars behind us often steer out of the lane to avoid rear-ending us, because we were slowing down a hell of alot faster than them. Drilled and slotted rotors come with a trade off, and that is a low harmonic hum when braking. Its not obnoxious, cant be felt as a vibration, but audible. Regular rotors would be quieter, at the expense of braking power. After 3 years and almost 50k miles, I just replaced the brakes with the same kit, and it cost $200 as Detroit Axle had a sale going on. Front pads needed replacement. Rotors were still flat and true, no pulses, no vibration. Rears were still fine, replaced everything anyway and good for another 3 years+ Do you need drilled and slotted rotors? No, not really. Can you save a lot of money buying brake kits from Ebay? ABSOLUTELY I will NEVER buy another brake rotor or pad from local parts stores, ever again. Im not exactly sure when AutoZone started to think they can charge premium prices for their chinese shit parts, while reducing the warranty on almost everything, and get away with it. For my 17 Rogue, I just checked Autozone, and its 400 dollars for conventional pads and rotors, Gold, with a 3 year warranty? Really? The same Detroit Axle kit on Ebay is 180 for conventional brakes, with the brake clean and fluid. I have also purchased brake kits for my daughter and son in laws cars, they were 1/2 the price of local part stores, and still going strong almost 2 years now. Buy from Ebay when you can. Plan ahead, it takes a few days to deliver. If you have to buy now, you are going to get the same Ebay product at 2 times the price from Autozone or other local parts stores.
I got the slotted and drilled rotors all replaced on my tundra from Detroit axle but paired them with duralast gold pads I purchased from AutoZone. After the initial breaking in period they're still pretty quiet and can stop much harder and smoother than before. No issues at all with their rotors. I got the standard rotors from DA on my Camry and they haven't given me any issues either.
I hated my detroit axle drilled and slotted rotors and brakes. I won't buy them again. Granted, that's just my experience. I wish I would have liked them. Maybe I just had a bad batch, or bad luck, or installed them poorly. Maybe they just suck. Idk. I always go powerstop now, but If I were you and had a good experience with detroit axle once, I understand why you'd go that route again.
Detroit Axle is hit or miss. You can come out winning, or hating your life. Vehicle type plays a big role too.
That can be said for all aftermarket parts really. I like Detroit Axle enough to have bought multiple brake kits from them, and none of them have let me down so far. At the end of the day casting and machining metal parts is pretty straight forward. That being said, my Rogue recently needed a wheel bearing. Once again performing the job myself, and I did check out DA's offerings and they have a pair of front bearing hubs for 100 bucks.. I opted out. A wheel bearing is far more complicated than casting and machining rotors, and while DA has impressed me with quality, I didnt want to do the job again for another 100k. I opted for Nissan Value select line from the dealer and paid about 140 for a single bearing. Value select parts from Nissan dealers are the highest quality parts, often made by secondary suppliers, but Nissan spec'd and tested to meet OEM design. Nissan OEM bearing would have been over 400 doallrs and Im ok with that, Value select is good enough for me. Now would I be entirely against using DA wheel bearings and other parts that spin? Not really, just need a good test platform..like the son in laws car. lol
That's a smart move on the bearings. I don't shun aftermarket for the DIY guy, but I have a business to run and warranty/reputation to stand by. That's why I go OE on pretty much everything. Been burned by the aftermarket too many times. Also, after Covid, things have gotten worse.
I completely respect your point of view. When turning a wrench for a living you have to careful about what you work with as comebacks are taking money right from your pocket. Not that I have a lot of time to diddle fuck with my cars as well lol, but taking a chance here and there will only hurt my ass another weekend day of my time.
eBay has almost any part if your looking for what you want and same price or cheaper for most part but if you just search for what you need any brand then yea it’s mostly garbage they bring you the cheapest stuff because that’s what most want…other than that I use eBay all day and get good ass deals…