Brake pads options for 370mm Brembo 4 pots

[Slickric21]

I wouldn’t the Zimmerman are ‘better’.

They are a better value, half the price of OEM, weigh virtually the same, and have an anti rust coating on parts OEM doesn’t have.

 

[Andyoxon]

I wouldn’t the Zimmerman are ‘better’.

They are a better value, half the price of OEM, weigh virtually the same, and have an anti rust coating on parts OEM doesn’t have.

I was asking if there are any other options other than OEM, I also wanted confirmation that the Zimmerman ones are of good quality not just cheap with an anti rust coating

 

[Slickric21]

Quality wise, no worse than OEM anyway as far as I could tell.

Upgrades over OEM (according to guys on a Cupra FB group) would be DBA, Vagbremtech, maybe Reyland, and Tarox.

If I wanted to pay OEM prices I’d go for one of the above probably.

 

[Andyoxon]

Cheers most helpful

 

[TheSwede]

So reading this thread I’m still not sure if the Zimmerman disks are better than the OEM ones or just cheaper, need to replace my disks sometime soon are there any other options looking for the least likely to warp don‘t need to be the cheapest. I don’t track my car but do spend several weeks at a time on the Isle of Man early morning drives allow hard use of car especially coming over the Sloc.

Could this be an alternative for you ATP-autoteile.de? 262 EUR per unit.

SHW Performance. The OE no on my discs are 8J0615301K. SHW performance no is AFX41521 (Hersteller). "SuperV8" has metioned SHW above.

https://www.atp-autoteile.de/de/product/4118508-shw-performance-bremsscheibe-belueftet-vorderachse

“SHW” is punched into my OE discs. They are from the day the car was new (Leon Cupra R -18). So far no problem with them.....

PS I just found ATP-autoteile today, haven't had any contact with them.

/Peter

 

[SuperV8]

I wouldn’t the Zimmerman are ‘better’.

They are a better value, half the price of OEM, weigh virtually the same, and have an anti rust coating on parts OEM doesn’t have.

I'm not sure what prices you found?
But quick searching I see the Zimmerman at £415 each discs (autodoc) and the OEM £585-£560 for a pair of discs! £292-£280 each.
Just found an ebay link for the Zimmerman's at £600 for a pair so similar price to the OEM!

The OEM does have anti-rust coating on the cast iron friction ring.

 

[SuperV8]

Could this be an alternative for you ATP-autoteile.de? 262 EUR per unit.

SHW Performance. The OE no on my discs are 8J0615301K. SHW performance no is AFX41521 (Hersteller). "SuperV8" has metioned SHW above.

https://www.atp-autoteile.de/de/product/4118508-shw-performance-bremsscheibe-belueftet-vorderachse

“SHW” is punched into my OE discs. They are from the day the car was new (Leon Cupra R -18). So far no problem with them.....

PS I just found ATP-autoteile today, haven't had any contact with them.

/Peter

Yes as I mentioned previously, SHW is the German company who make the OEM discs - they also Patented this pinned style of composite discs, used by many of the full fat M/AMG/RS cars.

More often than not I would say that an aftermarket brand's product is NOT the same as the Genuine product carrying the same name - but in this case I would be more inclined to think it is the same - obviously we'll never know 100% as the fine detail of the machining tolerancing and casting composition will never be known.

 

[Slickric21]

I'm not sure what prices you found?
But quick searching I see the Zimmerman at £415 each discs (autodoc) and the OEM £585-£560 for a pair of discs! £292-£280 each.
Just found an ebay link for the Zimmerman's at £600 for a pair so similar price to the OEM!

The OEM does have anti-rust coating on the cast iron friction ring.

View attachment 33636

View attachment 33637

I paid £400 for the pair from Autodoc for my Zimmermans, couldn’t find any OEMs at the time for less than £680, but this was a few months ago.

To be honest, even priced the same I would have probably choosen the Zimmermans, my OEM ones were rust buckets so I’d be keen to try something else.
Time will tell how they hold up, but I short term impressions are very good for the (what looks now like a bargain) price I paid.

 

[SuperV8]

I paid £400 for the pair from Autodoc for my Zimmermans, couldn’t find any OEMs at the time for less than £680, but this was a few months ago.

To be honest, even priced the same I would have probably choosen the Zimmermans, my OEM ones were rust buckets so I’d be keen to try something else.
Time will tell how they hold up, but I short term impressions are very good for the (what looks now like a bargain) price I paid.

Wow some price increase! Currently £415 each! Though no stock!

 

[Slickric21]

Yep double the price !!!!
I was given the heads up on them by another R ST owner who paid £380 for a pair a few weeks before me, so I was annoyed paying £415 (not £400 previously said) for a pair !

 

[pauly1299]

On my Cupra R ST ABT I was starting to get the occasional faint squeal from the front brakes, so pulled one of the front pads. The thickness of the friction material was down to 6mm, and the pins were just starting to show. The original discs though slightly lipped, don't seem to be marked up much. So I was thinking about perhaps getting them skimmed on the car, and fitting new original pads. Mainly because the car is still under warranty. Any opinions about if it's worth getting the discs skimmed, and the cheapest place to buy the pads? I've never paid anything like £260 for pads in the past.

 

[SuperV8]

On my Cupra R ST ABT I was starting to get the occasional faint squeal from the front brakes, so pulled one of the front pads. The thickness of the friction material was down to 6mm, and the pins were just starting to show. The original discs though slightly lipped, don't seem to be marked up much. So I was thinking about perhaps getting them skimmed on the car, and fitting new original pads. Mainly because the car is still under warranty. Any opinions about if it's worth getting the discs skimmed, and the cheapest place to buy the pads? I've never paid anything like £260 for pads in the past.

Your pads have around 10mm of friction material when new.
Its best to change your pads at 3>mm
If yours are around 6mm I would say they are around/just over 50% worn. Are they wearing evenly? Sometimes they car wear at different rates to best to check all 4 for equal wear.

What's your disc thickness?
Not the lip - the actual worn friction surface thickness - you can measure this using a digital caliper and some spacers (coins work fine), then subtract the spacer/coin thickness.
New your discs are 32mm, minimum thickness is 30.4mm

Personally I'm not a fan of on car brake disc turning.
Modern discs are machined to very high tolerances (less than 10microns thickness variation!) and on car 'lathes' are relying on your own wheel bearing for running accuracy and stability!

The only specification I can find (they normally don't say what runout & DTV tolerance you can expect which again is a red flag!) was <20 microns. Double the requirement!
Not good enough for a modern high performance car! Probably ok for a Transit or a Landrover!

 

[pauly1299]

My friend has had 2 sets of RS3 discs skimmed on the car, without issue, so I guess a lot depends on the operator. My discs have done 17k, and I'd say the lips are around 0.5mm, so likely enough material left to clean the discs up. I've probably just caught the pads before the pins did any damage to the discs. There's a Mazda dealer locally that has the lathe to skim the discs, I'll check them out and see if they want more than the £100 my friend paid. Plus I'll check the condition of all the pads and both discs when I have the new pads in hand. Thanks for the reply .

 

[pauly1299]

So, OE pads are around £265. What part number is the same pad without the SEAT box/cost?

 

[Stefan147]

I wouldn't bother with oem pads. For the money there are plenty of real high performance options. I would go for Hawk pads or DS2500 for this kind of money. At the moment I run PFC Z-rated which is an all around performance pad. Zero noise, zero fade in the track and very gentle with the disks. The same applies for the previous set of Hawk I had which were even better when it came to initial bite.

 

[SuperV8]

The OEM pads are very good - this brake system is the same as the "sub 8" - less than 8 minutes around the ring is amazing for a FWD hatch beating many supercars - you can't do that on any old crap pads!
Those pins that keep getting mentioned are only found on very high performance brake pads - to help keep the friction material attached at very high temperatures.
None of those 'track day pads' mentioned are actually road legal - they do NOT have Reg 90 (for pads and shoes) - same as fitting track tyres that aren't DOT or European ECE Reg 30.

There's a reason none of the "track day pads" show friction coefficients from cold! below 100degs

 

[Stefan147]

You got everything right in theory. Then again who cares if the pads are not exactly legal? I would guess that this happens for cost savings since manufacturers know that this kind of pads interest very few and getting them homologated probably makes no financial sense.

In real life though, every high performance (road/occasional track) pad works every bit as good as the oem ones plus they offer the ability for some extra spirited driving/trackday. I haven't come up to pads like these that can be dangerous when cold and I've experienced DS2500, Hawk, PFC, Pagid, Carbotech xp10 etc. Then again I live in Greece where below 0 temps are very very rare.

 

[SuperV8]

You got everything right in theory. Then again who cares if the pads are not exactly legal? I would guess that this happens for cost savings since manufacturers know that this kind of pads interest very few and getting them homologated probably makes no financial sense.

In real life though, every high performance (road/occasional track) pad works every bit as good as the oem ones plus they offer the ability for some extra spirited driving/trackday. I haven't come up to pads like these that can be dangerous when cold and I've experienced DS2500, Hawk, PFC, Pagid, Carbotech xp10 etc. Then again I live in Greece where below 0 temps are very very rare.

Upto the person asking the question - just pointing out the facts. Unlikely a problem - but you'll only find out if the worst comes to the worst!
There are no 100% perfect friction materials - not mater what the marketing BS declares. There are certain physical requirements of brake friction which require opposing/conflicting properties - or compromises.
Modern brake systems with EBD probably mask the lower cold friction problem - but best not to have the problem in the first place.

 

[pauly1299]

Thanks for the replies. Not the same car I know, but a pal of mine with a later RS3 that does the occasional track day, reckoned DS2500 pads ate the discs, to the point they had to be skimmed. I don't know how hard or slow my car was driven during the first 14k miles before I bought it, but I guess I can put up with new pads every 15k miles. It seems like the original discs are only good for a couple of sets of pads, and may need a skim between each set. Also I'd rather not find out in an emergency braking situation, that the £100 I saved on aftermarket pads, was a false economy though.

 

[Andyoxon]

Are these suitable https://www.autodoc.co.uk/shw-performance/17737041 look the same as https://www.autodoc.co.uk/zimmermann/8761331 I was looking at this near the end of last year so I was ready typically the warning light has come on and I haven’t yet ordered the disc’s and pads, hopefully they don’t take long to arrive. Think the rears need doing too this time, any recommendations on discs for the rear