Front Rotors for '10 Quattro 3.0T
 

I'm driving a 2010 A6 Quattro 3.0T with about 25,000 miles on it. Our dad had this car before he decided it was too small (yes, you read that right!) so we did a swap around and I have the A6 while he tools around in his A8L. Unfortunately our dad is BRUTAL on brakes and the brakes pulsate with light braking. So I figure it will be WAY cheaper to just replace the rotors myself than have the dealer turn 'em when next it goes in for service but finding rotors has turned into a much harder quest than I anticipated. As soon as I put in my model on any of the parts sites all the brake options disappear, including the parts guide on this site. I've been lurking and searching for nearly a month here to get the lay of the land but finally have gotten frustrated enough to just ask!

So... anybody know what the correct size front rotors for a 2010 Quattro 3.0T is and where the heck to get 'em?? I don't mind going to something slotted but I'm enough of a track day guy (not in this car!) that I won't do cross-drilled.

Thanks!

Unless the newer cars are doing something really different with the rotors, it seems like it would be a lot cheaper to have them turned than to replace them. My wife's not easy on brakes either, but I just had mine done at NAPA on Saturday for $15 each. I haven't found any less expensive options than that.

Promissing thread
 

1. You have a nice new car free of charge.
2. You diagnosed brake pedal pulsation as rotor issue.
3. You are not willing to take proper care of your under warranty expensive car.
4. You have not searched the forum - (rotors are designed and manufactured not to be machined anymore).
4. What is your frustration based on - for a month of fooling around one could make $ to take proper care... or to find sponsors to pay for the repairs..

Get a complete proper brake job - if you could not afford it - you could hardly afford the car as in whole.

Wow why not calm down a little this is the second thread you have lashed out at someone for no reason today!

1. whats it matter if he got it free of charge or paid for it? it still needs maintenance???
2. 9 times out out of ten a brake pulsation is a warped rotor especially given the background info that his dad is hard on brakes. I know several people like that that just melt brakes and rotors off of their cars simply due to driving style.

3. If he is trying to fix the rotor problem then he is trying to see that maintenance is being done and rotors are not covered under warranty so what in the h@** are you talking about??

4.Have you ever turned a wrench in your life??? rotors can still be turned and have published minumum thickness's for just that reason those tolerences have gotten smaller as they have lightened up the rotors over the years but still very possible.

4. first off you used 4 twice learn how to count!!! I feel dumber for reading your rant on this one unless you would like to sponser some repairs for some of us stfu!


Now back to the subject at hand you can turn your rotors if they are not warped beyond what turning can take out of them. If thats the case you dont have many options given it is a 2010 no aftermarkets that I know of are offering these rotors yet. But one thing you can do is get the part number for your rotors from a dealer and ask them to see if it is the same part number as is used on earlier model year cars such as an 08 or 09 if it is then check the after markets for rotors for those model years thats how I have done it in the past.

I hope this helps but I am unsure since the 3.0T is such a new engine that I am unfamiliar with what is shares across the platforms. Worst case is you have to buy rotors from the dealer not cheap but will save you a pile of labor charges.

Oh and just ignore Nemohm I think someone wizzed in his go juice this morning not everyone here is so rude.

Padog,

It might look as for no reason, sorry I called the things with their real names!

Rotors do not warp - well discussed on the forum - there are certain transformations happened that are usually connected to warp, that is not correct-the surface gets uneven due to cementite formed.

If you are very positive your rotors are manufactured metallurgically correctly - you might enjoy machining them.
With the labor involved - I'd replace everything (unless I enjoy repetitive operations).

BTW :what is the $ of rotors at the dealers?
Many reputable dealers will honor brake claim under warranty.

I consider the post to be about efficiency and the proper course of action.

Sometimes not helping as expected is a better help down the road.

So telling someone to run to the dealer and have them install all new parts is helping this situation?? If everyone followed your line of thought this forum wouldnt exist! I have never seen any dealer honor brake rotors once you are past the one year/12,000 mile mark they use the "normal wear and tear" clause written into their warranties.

And call it whatever you like but in simple terms that everyone understands if the rotor surface is not flat then its warped you can call it whatever you like and you can turn them. I personally agree with you I do not turn my rotors but I do own my own shop and have some regular customers that because I know their driving style I will reccomend turning them as they are not the type to be pushing any limits on their vehicles. I also have customers that roll in with brakes and rotors that look like they just ran the Daytona 500 with them. For those people i will reccomend the extreme duty rotors or a performance cross drilled and vented rotor to give better life.

But my simple point is if your only suggestion is to tell someone to run to the dealer and throw money to them then why bother?? I look to these forums to do just the opposite I wrench on my own cars not because I have to but because its something I enjoy. and have gotten lots of good advice from people drawing on their own wrenching experiences.

rotors
 

Don't listen to Nemo, he's never turned a wrench in his life and he's independently wealthy, so he's in a different state of mind about repairs. If you think the rotors are warped, take them to the local machinist (NAPA), have him check for warpage and specs for turning. Turning is 10-20 dollars per unit.
You should also speak to your Dad about his "two-footed" driving. Two-footed drivers tend to rest the left foot on the brake pedal, making lots of heat and causing lots of wear. You'll find a lot of "ol'timers" and farmers are two-foot drivers.

I don't know if the front rotors I have are original to the car, but they have the Audi logo cast into them. I bought the car with 80K miles on it, so I suppose they could have been replaced, but even if they were, they've been great through the last 160K miles with only a couple turnings along the way. I bought a cheap set of Chinese rotors when I first got the car so I would always have a set ready to go when I change the brakes and you can certainly tell the difference. Even though I rarely leave the cheap ones on for very long, they warp very quickly. By comparison, the Audi rotors stay true for a long time once they've been cleaned up on the lathe.

As long as you measure the thickness to make sure they're still okay, I can't imagine turning them would cause any problems if you have a qualified shop do it. I'm not saying that it's necessarily better than just buying new rotors at the dealer every time you do the brakes, but it certainly is less expensive. Besides, if you pay someone else to fix your brakes, you're missing out on a great opportunity to get to know your car (and check out all of those other parts under there)!

Are you sure the rotors are warped? Pulsation is often caused by excessive pad deposition. As in, pad material building up and getting baked onto the surface of the rotor. Here's a simple fix:

1. Find a safe place to perform quick decelerations from 60 mph (i.e., NOT the highway).
2. Accelerate to 60 mph.
3. Without engaging ABS, threshold brake to 40 mph and release the pedal.
4. Repeat step 2.
5. Repeat step 3, decelerating to 30 mph this time.
6. Repeat step 2.
7. Repeat step 3, decelerating to 20 mph this time.

Then, the next time you brake under normal conditions, observe the pedal feel. Is it still pulsating? You may actually have warped rotors. 9 times out of 10, though, it's pad deposition. Yes, I pulled that figure out of my a*s, but I do speak from experience.

As a supplement to JediJoker7169's post, there is an article of interest:

http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp...rakedisk.shtml

My point here is to do things right: brakes are too critical to have experiments on them.
Having an expensive, new, supposedly HP car and being cheap about details is not something that is reasonable for me. There are many other areas on the car where one could excel in savings, but to consider your brake condition or just to ignore it while driving is not something I'd suggest. Personal choice, one could say.

When I said 'less expensive,' I didn't mean to somehow imply that I would compromise on safety. Quite the opposite. I'm pretty sure that Audi has at least a few good lawyers who wouldn't let them put minimum thicknesses on their factory rotors if they weren't safe to operate within those dimensions. Also, given the "occasional" bad experience that people are known to have with dealership service, I wouldn't automatically assume that paying a lot more to have your brakes fixed means that they are somehow done better at the dealer. I'm happy to say that I have no personal experience with Audi dealers, but I've had some very bad service work done on other vehicles at other dealerships, so you have to be careful no matter who works on your car.

Some rotors are just funny from the factory. I had a rotor that developed pulsation on a brand new Honda after 15,000 miles. Dealer claimed that it was my driving style and turned (resurfaced) them. Within 5,000 miles the pulsation came back. I put on a fresh set of Brembo blanks. Had the car for another 60K miles and never had an issue.

With that said, modern european rotors from the factory are really soft. Get yourself an aftermarket rotors such as Brembo and they will work better than the OEM. FYI there is no need for drilled and slotted rotors for stock cars, unless you want the look.

Wow.... I thought this thread was DOA because I had subscribed to updates and never gotten an e-mail and here I see there's been actual conversation and even an attack on my character by someone that has no idea who I am, excellent! Glad to know the Internet remains true to form.

I took it to the dealer today to have the 25k maintenance done and as I expected they want $450 to turn the fronts. OK I can afford to pay this money but it GALLS me to pay that much when I know I can do it myself in an hour or so for half that using new parts. Maybe that kind of thinking is why I can afford to have it done but still be smart enough not to throw away my money on dealer hourly rates??

Just to give some background.. I do my own brakes all the time but I just moved and I don't have my lift setup at the new place yet to make this easier to do, which is why I had the dealer look. I track my 2008 Z06, which by the way I paid cash for dipwad and I could afford that too, and I do my own brakes, including rotors, pads and bleeds. Guess what, when I hit my pedal over & over again at 150mph @ VIR turning into the hogpen after the back straight it was solid EVERY time so I know how to do a brake job, do it well, and trust my own work with life. OK, well I need to stop letting trolls get under my skin some day, but that's something I can keep working on.

I still would prefer replacing the rotors. The more material you remove the less material their is to shed heat. I know I can get 'em cut but experience tells me once you do that they don't last, another reason not to pay $450 only to pay more than that again a few miles down the road when they warp sooner than they should. I'm still not finding a good source for the rotors online but after I get my lift setup again and pop the rotors off I'll run 'em down to NAPA and see what they have.

Thanks to those who provided USEFUL replies.

Nice
 

Nice reponce. I'm glad to see it was well written and thoughtful, while still addressing the "troll" issues.
Forums in general, are like being in a room with a hundred or so, people. All of them listening to your conversation. 90% will process the information and move on. Some will respond with genuine concern. And then there are the "trolls".
You'll find that the "trolls" are really, just like us in many ways, but perhaps not addressing the stress in their lives as well as they could. So what you see are these outbursts and attacks, brought on by normal conversations. It's how they "vent", because they feel they are not allowed to "vent" in there "real" lives.
You will notice that my responce to your post was accurate, offered choices (never telling someone what they should do) and was never directed at your character.
That's because I know how to handle stress. I have lots of it, but take steps to control it, so that I don't become a "troll", I believe the secret to controlling stress is: frequent masterbation and high alcahol consumption.
Hope I made you smile! Good luck with the brakes!