OEM Pads/Discs vs Brembo?

irelandbuyer · #1 9th January 2020, 07:41 PM

Hey chaps. Apologies in advance. I had the old lady in for a good look over and i've a few jobs to get done. I wanted to ask for some advice on a few topics (which I'll put into the appropriate threads).....

First one is I need new brake pads and discs.

The Audi OEM part numbers for the discs are:
Discs:4e0615301p front £149.00 x2
Discs: 4e0615601d £88.00 x2 rear

I have seen OEM parts on Fleabay for £199 for a pair of fronts. THis looks good value.

My question is, should I go with the OEM ones or some of theother brands of drilled discs such as Zimmerman etc?

Is there a discernable difference? If you were buying the car which would you prefer? To see all OEM parts?

Finally, what kind of labour should I be looking at, rough estimate to change front and back. And presumably a brake fluid change or top up also...

Oh, btw i've a D3 3.2 FSi Petrol

Many thanks....

H-M3 · #2 9th January 2020, 11:09 PM

I bought the Zimmerman from autodoc and TSW pads. Couldn’t fault them to be honest. 2 year warranty too

MikkiJayne · #3 10th January 2020, 08:26 AM

Textar and Mintex are good (same company - TMD friction). They come painted so they don't go rusty which is nice. TMD make a lot of OEM stuff, as do Brembo so you can't go wrong with any of these tbh. There is no point paying extra for genuine Audi parts since they will likely have been made by TMD or Brembo anyway.

MTec are good if you want drilled, grooved, etc. Personally I wouldn't put drilled discs on an 8 as they can be quite noisy but grooved is usually ok. Plus, drilled discs can crack around the holes.

I'd expect a day's labour to do all four corners plus a fluid change.

Ronin · #4 10th January 2020, 02:47 PM

I've been using ATE for ages their finish tends to last for years, downside is they are one of the priciest brands around.

ainarssems · #5 11th January 2020, 08:45 AM

I have never used Brembo but I have plenty of experience with other aftermarket brands and OEM .

In essence regular brake discs are pretty simple and made of relatively cheap cast iron but real life use results vary a lot.

I have used plenty of cheap discs, none of them have shuttered or caused a catastrophic failure and braking efficiency does not seem to suffer but they do seem to wear a lot faster and really when you need to change pads you also need to change discs as well while OEM can do 2-3 sets of pads on the same disc, but then again some of those cheap discs have been as low as £12 so economically speaking it does not make difference. Most of the cheap discs does not have any coating while others including OEM have some coating. Zimmermann Z-coat is highly rated but in my experience they were no better than OEM or ATE, about 2 years before they are all rusted up. To my surprise Febi fared much better, 2 years and no sign of corrosion.

The biggest difference I have noticed is if you leave car without driving outside for 1 month+. The cheap discs corrode a lot more, eat up outside of pads and basically become unusable pretty soon. OEM discs on the other hand can easily take 3 months of no use with just a little bit of surface rust which cleans up nicely as you drive again and does not cause any issues.

To sum it up I would say that if you do little mileage and leave car unused for 2+ weeks go with OEM, they will last forever. if it's a daily driver some of the cheap discs are cheap enough to change them every time you change pads without compromising safety or braking efficiency and the money you saved would be better invested in good tyres.

Just another note. Pagid was decent quality brand a while ago but from what I understand EuroCarParts have bought the rights to use that brand name in UK but actual parts can be made by any Tom, Dick or Harry so quality will vary and in most of times parts will be provided by lowest bidder and quality may suffer.

MikkiJayne · #6 11th January 2020, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ainarssems

Just another note. Pagid was decent quality brand a while ago but from what I understand EuroCarParts have bought the rights to use that brand name in UK but actual parts can be made by any Tom, Dick or Harry so quality will vary and in most of times parts will be provided by lowest bidder and quality may suffer.

Cross those off my list then. I had heard rumours about something going on in that regard, and my last set of Pagids have been very poor indeed but I put that down to duff Brembo calipers on the S8. Handy to know the reason for it now.

The last car I did got proper TMD Mintex and those worked out quite nicely.

BLAKEY · #7 11th January 2020, 06:24 PM

I've just changed (november) my front discs and pads with Brembo from Euro car parts 50% off. About £225 for parts from memory. No complaints. My brother changed them for me and they took an hour to change (£60 labour) but no fluid change.

Nognar · #8 11th January 2020, 07:14 PM

Never had any decent results with Pagid, noisy and nothing special if not outright poor in performance.

Brembos on the S8 and Mintex on the A8 are currently working very well.

Nognar · #9 11th January 2020, 07:20 PM

I should also add just fitted some Brembo pads to the A2 and they are doing a good and decent job.

Though the M9 thread stripped in the upright that holds the calliper pin in

2 minutes work turns into two hours but all done and fixed none the less

Adrian E · #10 11th January 2020, 09:57 PM

Full set of Brembo discs and pads went on the S5 a couple of years/12k miles ago - easy to bed in and they're still working and looking spot on

added bonus was that with discount codes etc the full set of x4 discs and x2 sets of pads was only £250, with some change.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, there have been issues with ECP owning the UK rights to market products made cheaply in Asia, that were previously known for their Germanic/UK engineering. Some of these brands still exist in Europe (e.g. Pagid IIRC) and if the product is made in Germany it's actually still the good stuff. Not sure how much of an issue that still is - sounds like it's not entirely gone away.

On the question of pad to disc life with OEM, our S5 got through 2 sets of front pads before the original discs were too worn to be able to take a 3rd. The (original) rear discs were, in theory, still thick enough for just a pad change. Luckily I decided to change them anyway, as on removal the inner face was rusty as hell and the bells were looking very crusty.