A few days ago my brake wear indicator light came on so I took it into the dealership to get them inspected. Turns out that the outside pad on my front passenger wheel had split in half. I had not noticed any difference in brake pedal feel or noise. I was told that it would be ok to lightly drive the car until my upcoming oil change date(2 weeks). Well yesterday as I was heading back from class I noticed slight grinding noise. I had completely forgotten about the brake pad issue and just figured that a piece of ice or snow was caught up in the wheel-well. (We just got hit by a foot of snow and freezing temps) After getting out at my apt, I go to the wheel-well to examine the problem and to my horror I can see deep abrasions all the way around the leading edge of my rotor on that front passenger side.

I went directly to a brake shop a few block down the street, using only the clutch and e-brake to slow the car. They pulled the wheels off for me, and sure enough the entire brake pad and fallen off. Luckily no amount of noticeable visible damage was done to the caliper.
I have now have a set of Rotex Gold Brake pads (been wanting to do the upgrade anyhow) and after market Brembo slotted rotors on order for an overnight shipment.

I was curious to know if anyone has these Brembo rotors on their Xfire, and if so how they feel about the performance. At only $200 for the front set they sure as hell are cheaper than OEM replacements.
Brembo Sport Cross Slotted Brake Rotors - Front (Pair): buybrakes.com

 

that sucks.

 

No experience with the brembos on this car, but on others they are great....

Keep us posted that is a great price for quality rotors.....

 

Let us know if you find them noisier than solid rotors. I avoided drilled/slotted on my A6 for that reason. I've already replaced the rotors on my SRT6 and wish I had done d/s for looks, but they won't need to be replaced again for many years.

 

Well unfortunately, the Brembo Sport rotors are on back order until early March and I just can't wait that long. The customer service department at BUYBrakes.com is top notch. The lady took my phone number and name and called me back with in the hour after she got off the phone with one of their other warehouse's and then she called their Brembo importer to get the date of USA arrival. She then transfered me to one of the companies brake specialist, I described to him my situation and he then gave me the part numbers of what would fit the OEM specs that they had in stock. On top of all of this he also gave me a promo code that knocked 10 dollars off of my total purchase. After doing some of my own research on the different parts numbers he gave me I settled on a Set of EBC Sport rotors.(Slotted) This set of EBC rotors is a little over $50 more than the Set of Brembo I originally posted about.

I was not familar with the Brand EBC, but after reading user reviews from other sites and reading the companies history and mission statement, it sounds like my money is going towards a quality product

Here's the link to the ECB Rotors EBC Brakes-USR EBC Sport Rotor Kit; Front; 11.8 in. Dia.; Set of Two;: buybrakes.com

 

Blackbelt
The wear sensor is in the inside pad, so your brakes were shot. The outside pad coming apart would not cause the indicator light. That may have happened long ago.

 

My order arrived this afternoon. Here are few pictures of the products. I really like the appearance of the rotors and can't wait to see how they will look on the car once they get installed tomorrow.



[IMG]http://www.flickr.com/photos/50269878@N06/5449817138/

 

How many miles on your car Blackbelt?

 

I purchased it May of 2010 with 44,000 miles; I believe now I have roughly 61,000 on the odo.

This is the first thing I have done to the brakes since purchasing the car. The Subaru dealer I bought the car from claimed they had new pads installed and rotors flipped during their whole "certified 1,000,000 point checklist thingy " I am now doubting that statement. Anyways it is what it is, overall the car has been a good buy. Nothing more than basic wear and tear problems have risen up.

 

I had problems with the same pad - outboard on the passenger side. Mine didn't fall apart until I took it off the car, though. I was changing them out for Rotex Gold because I was sick of the dust and this is what I found:



Glad this didn't cause any serious problems for you...

 

Please let us know how these look once they have been used for a few thousand miles. I LOVE the look of them, but almost every one I have seen like this looks like rusted hell within a few thousand miles, I sure hope these are different, they look great!

 

My 6 spd ('07 with 57,000 miles) has just developed a high pitched squeek that doesn't happen when I brake.....it happens after a long braking episode ...like coming off a long exit ramp, then for the next few hundred yards ....like maybe a pad is still dragging .....

 

Maybe the caliper is binding. Check the pins it rides on.

 

Well I have had the new rotors on for a few weeks now, and so far no regrets. I have had no brake squeal with the EBC/Rotex pairing, and must say I do like the slotted appearance. Apparently the black appearance of the rotors when initially shipped is just a protective coating because it was nearly completing worn off by the time the shop was finished with there little drive around the block to inspect their installation. This is not a bad thing, because the bare steel shimmers just like any other after market rotor would.

I noticed that other forum members are hesitant to get slotted/drilled rotors because of the whoosing noise you get when under heavy braking. The sound of any air passing over the slots is nearly inaudible when driving normally, but I did have a chance to to take the car back on some twisties and I must say the Whoosing sound is quite exhilarating when carving through a heavily wooded region with the windows down.

As far as actually stopping performance goes I do not have much to go by. I never ran the car hard enough to notice any brake fade with the OEM setup, and never lined up any cones to measure 60-0 braking distances before and after the installation.





One Advantage of the new setup however is improved braking feel, primarily through the pedal. The pedal feels much more fluid and uniform throughout its entire travel. You can feel the pad barely pass over each slot in the rotor, (it is slightest vibration through the pedal). I really like this added feed back mainly because it helps the crossfire stray a little further away from its numbish feeling.