Han Solo

I hope somebody is alerting Raybestos about these. I'm sure they have some exclusion in their warranty information about race track use but they still need to know about the failures. You guys should at least do an Amazon review and post these pictures to let folks know not to track them.

I am trying to recall what brand rotors I bought for my Mustang last time but I think they were labeled Raybestos. That was back in 2006 and I bought two sets. I still have the spare sets but the boxes got wet and were thrown away. They are just plain rotors. I probably have a dozen or so track days on the set on the car. I remember the boxes said Made in USA and the rotors had Made in Canada cast in them.

I understand you can't find any rotors that are not made in China now. I just bought Centric rotors for my BMW and they were made in China.

41zo6

Apologies.

1) I edited my original post to fix the brutal grammatical errors.
2) no the questions was directed at the two people who had the rotor ring separate from from centre hub area.

Supercharged111

I've been running Advance Auto C5 rotors at the track for years. I buy a fresh set in the Spring and usually warranty them mid season. Never had a catastrophic failure like what's posted here.

Craiger77

No.
I heard a loud bang and then the abs went crazy. It pulled hard right. Unfortunately I was unable to keep it on the road surface and once off I started to rotate and had no control in the wet grass.

Craiger77

I absolutely plan to let others know.

I don’t feel I was abusing my brakes. I used the rotors in a manner consistent with how the car is designed to be used. but, I know the manufacturer will say otherwise.

I’m not willing to disclose much right now.
I’m in the process to see what recourse I may have with what I feel was a defective and unsafe product

I posted here because I saw that I was not the only one who experienced this failure in this manner.

Craiger77

So it’s been sone time since I first alerted all of you of my NAPA rotor failure and I think it’s time and appropriate for an update:

Here is link for you to follow.

But I know some don’t like links so here is quick rundown;
I was at Pocono North course for a Hpde. We did a Warm-up for the first session (a very cold morning) and then we went out for the second session. A few minutes into the second session, the center of the rotor separated from the friction ring.
When the rotor failed I heard a loud crack and the car pulled right very hard. I tried to correct it to stay straight but I was pulled off the surface and the abs was going nuts. It started to spin and once I was in the wet grass - I was just on for the ride. It slid through a chain link fence and I destroyed the quarter and a wheel. Other small parts were damaged all over and most of the paint is damaged

The rotors were brand new, replacements for a another pair I timed out. They only had a bed-in and the first warmup session that morning since, thankfully, I trailered the car that weekend.
After I got it home I found the passenger side rotor had failed in the same hat area but not separated yet.

The rotors are Napa rebranded raybestos, so I didn’t think they were complete junk... I was clearly wrong. I had been communicating with Napa since the failure. I sent all information requested.

I held off on this since then. They are denying any assistance or responsibility.

They fell back onto legal language stating I violated the use and warranty agreement when I operated the car on a track surface.

I’m not going to deny what I was doing while enjoying the car for what it was designed to do. (I mean, there are directions in the owners manual on prepping it for track days.)

Besides, with everyone Youtubing, posting pics, etc. those days are now gone. They’ll find it if they look hard enough.

At this point, I want you to know so you can make appropriate choices.
Clearly mistakes and poor choices were made and hard lessons learned, but I’m sure there might be some of you running these rotors or may think about it in the future.

Good news is the car is being repaired. Some parts have already been located and I’m planning to have it ready by Spring.

froggy47

Thanks for update

DaOtherOne

NAPA .. UFB ..

JimmyS5600

Sorry to learn of your problem,and no help at all from Napa,thats terrible.
Glad you did post this problem. I was going to order the same rotor from
NAPA,not anymore.
Is there a decent "safe" rotor rto use on a mostly street driven Vette?

449er

Another example of "You get what you pay for"

Craiger77

I dont disagree and I could have accepted a rotor that faded easily or even warped and chalked it up to T&E.

But I don’t think it’s too much ask for one that won’t break apart so easily. This was simply picked up at my local NAPA, and any other corvette owner could have, and probably has, unknowingly done the same

Budwise

I bought the Raybestos version of these for the street. They look nice, will probably be fine for the daily grind. I'll stick with DBA's for track work.

NSFW

GM: When driving your Corvette on a track, take these steps first...
Napa: Yes, we make brake rotors for your Corvette.
(Crunch.)
Napa: No, we never claimed our rotors are good enough for track use.

I'm no lawyer, but if Napa claims that these parts are as good as OEM, then I think you might have a case, because GM clearly feels that OEM parts can handle track days. But, given that the damage is repairable, a lawsuit probably wouldn't be worth the hassle.

It's good that you're sharing this publicly. If someone else has a much worse accident as a result of rotor failure, Napa can't claim they weren't aware of their products's shortcomings. And that possibility might even motivate them to improve their product before it's too late.

Craiger77

Agreed.

froggy47

Used to be NAPA had better stuff than PB/Kragen/etc. Not any more.

KNSBrakes

That's an infrequent type of failure and if it happened on the same application rotor twice then there looks to be a defect. That section of the 'hat' is curved and thin on purpose to manage/limit heat transfer to the hub and to allow the friction portion of the rotor to float as the rotor heats up. These are design cues mostly learned by Brembo as they are probably the largest actual engineering company to work on stuff like that. While simple - rotors still do have many design features.

The aftermarket foundries who make these parts nowadays will brand/make it to any spec you want with options for material selection, tooling and all sorts of other options with of course varying degree's of quality and what not.

I wanted a track worthy 1 piece disc so I had DBA make them for me KNS Brakes. I addressed as many design issues as I could. We have more than a few years of mostly track use with these and the results speak for themselves. This is the first I have seen this thread - and yes it's somewhat in poor taste to 'sell' where a failure occurred so sorry if that offends.

Ask around - I'm sure you can get feedback on KNS Rotors.

Craiger77

Its all good with me. Regret is a terrible feeling. If I only would have had a KNS rotor to begin with...

fore

Man just seeing this. I posted the original failure. Glad you were okay. Sucks NAPA is not taking responsibility.

sabastian458

I wonder if they’d be liable if the rotor cracked and came apart while in the mountains? You could easily heat these rotors up a lot doing the Tail of the Dragon or any similar road. Very scary thought. I have the OEM replacement NAPA ones, the ones with the cross drilled holes not the wavy slots. No track days but many spirited drives. I do have a set of power stops waiting to go on though.

TrackAire

I think if would be an interesting sticky, especially for track rats if we could do a comprehensive list of brake rotors and components and their country of origin. Just because something is made in China (most common example) doesn't necessarily mean its going to be bad, but many companies market products under a name (Napa Auto, Power Stop, Stop Tech, etc) that may or may not be made off shore and give the impression of USA manufacture. I think a lot of people would be surprised if they researched and found out where their name brand rotors are actually made. When it comes to brake components, I've found the highest quality to be made in either the USA or Europe.

If somebody is going to be doing six or more track days a year in a fast car like a Corvette, in my experience going to a two piece rotor makes a lot of sense to me, especially the fronts.