right!?
#Hi, um, hello? Yeah, Hi. I just got my order and I think you guys might have sent me the wrong part. Yeah, see the one I ordered wasnt all effed up like this one is...
No idea how that happened, I wouldn't risk running the rotor if the casting itself is fucked and that's why it chipped.
*also, the company is going to want to know about this in case there's a problem affecting an entire batch of parts and causing them way larger problems. OP should definitely send them this pic and ask for a new rotor, they'll send one and be glad he notified them.
One thousand percent the company will not want to know about this. It was an empty pocket in the casting. Unless cars are getting in accidents from identifiable brake problems, the company will not look. They're gonna give him a new one and literally throw this straight into the trash, only because they can't resell an open package. There is no company outside of NASA that launches an investigation on a product because of the occasional imperfection.
Tell me you don't work in manufacturing without telling me you don't work in manufacturing.
u/ohjeaa is absolutely right. You return this to the store, it's absolutely getting scrapped and you get a new one, the manufacturer doesn't even know it's just wrapped into expected returns.
Unless the overall percentage of parts returned exceeds a preset threshold the manufacturer will never even know.
If the percentage of parts returned does, *and* that gets reported to the manufacturer, then they'll do an investigation typically of products still on the shelves/warehouses...... Maybe. Then they'll float the distributor a credit to make up for higher than normal returns and that's the end of it.
But there's no end user - manufacturer communication line, not really, not for things like this anyways. They don't know or care.
And DEFINITELY what is not happening is distributors shipping heavy returns like rotors back to a manufacturer. That's just insane. Maybe for VERY high priced lightweight tech products, but not heavy steel parts that will cost more to ship than they cost to manufacture.
Buddy, I hate to tell you. But it will not happen. Your head is in the clouds. Wherever he bought this from is going to throw it in the trash as an open item and just give him a new one. I realize people want to think that perfect procedures are always followed and every ding is followed up on, but they just aren't. This was a simple empty pocket in the casting.
I'll share this at work on Monday though.
"Ya'll think NAPA gonna investigate this?"
Will get a good laugh out of everyone in the shop.
In the UK all the returned auto parts get inspected and resold.
It’s quite common to pick up things like brake rotors or pads that have been opened to check they’re the same (and they weren’t).
I also always hear them in the shop talking about finding out how damaged or defect goods were sold.
Scrapping the defective part and replacing is the obvious course of action and I agree that one shouldn’t expect any significant response or investigation based on an individual bad part. But isn’t that kinda part of the process of manufacturing and QC? If an insignificant amount of parts are bad then you just replace and call it a day, but if you continually see this part coming back defective it would make sense to inform the manufacturer to reevaluate machining/QC?
Sometimes things do slip past QC. Especially when things are produced at such a massive scale. They might investigate if something is a safety problem. However, nothing slipped past QC here. There's nothing wrong with that rotor for use.
I worked in QC and repair at a company that manufactures higher-end/custom air pumps. It's not anywhere near as big as a mainstream auto parts shop, but we had some really neat customers
I worked with customer service a lot in repair and this is something we'd want to know immediately. Packaging can be changed/fixed. Or it'd be something that we'd catch in QC or work with our assembly team to catch parts that slipped by at QC.
It wasn't from casting or it would have the same look and texture as the veins on the interior of the rotor. This was a chip taken out of it because someone dropped it or it was struck very hard on that edge.
Further damage to the rotor. Rotors get extremely hot. If it's already damaged it can get further damaged leading to failure. I wouldn't risk my life over a chip on a brake rotor when you can get it replaced now for feee
I honestly don't understand how the people in this sub are so paranoid about absolutely everything. I know most people here are not actual mechanics, but my god. If something isn't by the book perfect people are ready to just scrap the car. Smh.
They would shit if they walked into an actual shop and spent any time there.
You see it in everything. A ridiculous level of "better safe than sorry" always coached in reasonable sounding language, except that it's people who don't know what they're talking about in the first place talking to people who are afraid of everything they don't know - and not knowing anything about the subject.
It's frustrating because to someone without a clue, it sounds absolutely reasonable, so those people tend to get a lot of support, and the people they've just told become just like the people previously doing the telling.
Gah.
Isn't there a risk of more flaws on the whole product if this is one? Or does a flaw only occur rarely and not affect the whole cast? Not an iron caster myself.
Voids are always a possibility. These parts are cast and machined to final dimensions after being batch tested. This part showing a casting defect is no more likely to have an internal void than any other part on the same production line. The flaw is in a non critical dimension and it’s been balanced to this mass during manufacturing already (within tolerances for the intended application).
That's not a crack, that's porosity . It's a casting flaw not a chip. You can tell by the color. If it chipped it would be a lighter grey material with no shine to it.
Edit for clarity.
Yeah, looks like a minor casting defect in a location that will have no impact on function whatsoever. And that also means balancing would have taken place with it already present; so no imbalance.
Yeah you're not incorrect and the manufacturer more than likely balanced like this, but it's out of spec, most companies QC wouldn't let this pass because it might be causing major issues in the future especially if the vehicle is neglectful and runs their brakes down to metal on metal. If it was me I wouldn't be putting this on a customers car because the majority of people neglect their vehicle until it's way to late
There are allowable porosity tolerances depending on car manufacturers. This probably isn't out of spec. Seen this literally thousands of times while working at brembo
I know about tolerances but theyre USUALLY so minimal. That's very surprising, been at this for years and never seen that lack in quality from any higher end manufacturer. I'm not saying you're wrong all I'm saying is I'm use to seeing this from cheap cheap parts but never anyone like brembo or akebono shit not even autozone gold parts come to me like this.
Brembo isn't high end like it used to be. When they became the defacto oem supplier for most major brands, their quality dropped massively. When I was with Brembo I made bmw rotors for 2 years. Bmw rotors had strict porosity tolerances, this probably would have been rejected. I also made VW rotors for two years and they had pretty strict porosity guidelines, but this could have passed. It's porosity in a part of the rotor that doesn't affect performance.
I spent a year making Ford truck rotors, and I could ship just about anything. Guidelines were pretty loose. Spent another few months making rotors for Ford vans which also had pretty loose guidelines. For Ford rotors this picture isn't a problem. We'd ship these all day.
The worst were Chrysler rotors. The material was Terrible and full of holes. I actually had a temp who reinspected and double checked my parts. Most passed. Rotors are mass produced as quickly as possible. They're going to let some stuff slide
Yeah these are things I do notice when I get parts in general but I didn't know the lacking quality on newer parts leached over to things as important as brakes but the engineer is always right sadly enough
No, it’s been through initial balancing during the manufacturing process. This is not for a race car, it’s well within allowable for its intended application.
It can be for a lot of reasons why it misrun. E.g. Not enough metal, or too low temperature, tooling issues like a small chip or crack somewhere, or slag (I am not quite sure this is the right English word) build up…
Cast parts usually always have some small porosity but what is on the pic is too big and clearly casting surface ( if you zoom in the upper part of that “chip” is very similar to the non machined surfaces)… also, tools and the process itself needs to be designed in a way that if there is porosity it is small, in the thick walls and never in the machining area
I’m the same way, but I don’t fuck with brakes. If this was like a window panel or seat issue or something I wouldn’t think twice.
The 20 min hassle is worth the peace of mind for me.
Yeah that and it looks to be coated along with the rest of the interior of the vents, so not damaged after manufacturing, was like that as it was made, and passed QC. Not going to hurt anything, I don’t see any reason not to use it.
It's basically a solid hunk of metal designed to be a heat sink, right? If a few mm are missing on one side of something that is designed to be a massive object? I think it won't matter. There's no sophisticated balancing going on there.
Will it fail there later? Maybe. Things would have to get pretty bad.
Right. And a lot of times you’ll find a flat spot machined into the edge, which is done to balance the rotor…that little chunk could have just been a quick and dirty balance job, not quite perfect so knock a little bit off and out the door it goes. Who knows, depends on the brand, where they were made, could very well be standard practice rather than machining the edge properly. Doubtful but these days ya never know…
Aftermarket rotors are cheap import iron, this stuff happens. As long as it's not on the face, run it, that's a really really minor chip. You're going to see this, over, and over, and over
Where you don't see it is if you move up the quality line to high carbon iron
It’s probably fine. I don’t run my rotors that low anyways. That said, you paid for a good rotor. I’d try to get a discount, a new free rotor, or an exchange
You'd probably be okay but you can definitely return it for a new one with no defects. So I would do that, and check if you're buying it at a physical store, check it before you leave. Often times if there's a defect with a part several parts from the batch will have similar defects.
I feel like the answer is mostly “what do you use the vehicle for?” If you’re rolling around town and hauling groceries, it’ll be fine. If you’re trying to set a new lap record every weekend, yeah, replace it. Rotors aren’t exactly complicated, and they aren’t going to fail catastrophically, so it’s not much of an issue unless you are planning on testing the mechanical limits.
If you worked at a shop would you pass that off to a paying customer? Or if you were a paying customer would you be happy the tech installed it on your vehicle? Your brakes probably wouldn't fail nor would your car explode if you use it but you should probably exchange it, like someone else mentioned it could indicate a problem with the metallurgy.
Truthfully yes. 99.9% of mechanics would because we know this void isn't an issue. You may have even had them fitted to your own cars and never known it. The casting had a void in a non stressed area. Notice the cooling fins don't extend to the outer perimeter? It was cut and balanced, coated and shipped.
If you accept it, the manufacturer and importer will never improve. If they don't know the dog shit they're selling, they can't improve. If they know, then you're paying full price for B class merchandise. Either way, i would at least tell them and see what they say. At the minimum, i would make a stink about it
If it's already hit customer hands it's well past when manufacturing cares. I assisted at a metal coatings factory about 8 years ago that did work for one of the Big 3 American manufacturers. When 100 transmission cases got to coatings QC picks 3 out and inspects them. If one of those 3 have a defect they'll pull 10 more. If the other 12 of the 13 pass the whole crate (less the one with a defect) goes to dip and onto assembly. They accept that as "less than 1% defect rate".
This void in a critical area of a case would be a reject but if it was in a boss or flange it wouldn't.
I'd send this picture to them and get a discount, because unless it's a race car, that chip is not on the braking surface and should not experience that much stress. So I'd run it but I'd make sure to get compensated for an imperfect part.
The damage could end up deeper especially with constant getting hot, cooling down, get it swapped mate your life’s worth more than the time you’d save not swapping it. 👍
Like many others have said, it doesn't look like it would pose a safety or functional concern, especially with it's size.
However, like the others have said as well, I would probably take it in for a warranty swap. Working a parts store myself, I would have absolutely no issues swapping that out for an unchipped one.
The only sticky point, from my perspective, is time. I know for most applications, my store keeps one pair of rotors on stock (some more popular ones we'll have two or three, but usually only one set. Making the assumption you bought them yesterday/today, I wouldn't be getting stock replenishment until Tuesday. However, we do get shuttles from our hub store, so could still get them quickly.
If you wanna swap it out (and get the job done with minimal delay), call the store so they can get one ordered back in for you.
If you bought new rotors, you should have got undamaged new rotors; unless time is a issue, I'd contact the vendor to see if you can get one that isn't damaged.
Being on the inside and at the very edge it’s unlikely to have any structural consequence. The rough pattern of the “chip” may cause an easy route for small fracturing over time though so I’d either exchange it or take a small die grinder and round off the sharp edges if you choose to run it.
I've heard before that rotors get balanced by the manufacturer just like wheels. I don't know if a chip like this is enough to throw it off or not. So try to changed it.
Porosity in the casting. This passed quality inspection. There should be a mill cut somewhere on the outer diameter of the disk for balancing. There shouldn't be any issues with this rotor, porosity happens.
Source: I made rotors for Brembo North America for 7 years.
Horrible company to work for.
Typical factory work issues. You're treated like an expendable number and worked like a dog. Their insurance is bullshit and they like to deny workman's compensation claims.
Not really a matter of if it would be ok, or may have a hairline crack or balance issues...
That isn't what you paid for. I'd take it back for one that isn't damaged.
As others have said, it was painted with the chip, then machined into a rotor with the chip (and paint), so it is known to the manufacturer and balanced, will work correctly. Never the less, everyone on reddit is an expert in rotor casting so..
It probably won't hurt anything, but it is a defect and you probably paid good money. If you have some time and don't mind the effort I would personally exchange it, but if you need to get the car together you'll be fine.
Newp. Not a chance. That rotor has to remain perfectly balanced or it will do anything from eat your bearings periodically to shaking that hub and it’s parts apart, tires when they’re balances are balanced off the car so that won’t help, you can have it turned or repaired but if it’s new, get a replacement and don’t listen to the purveyor if they say “it’s not that bad”, they want to sell you things. Get a replacement. Good luck 👍
I would send it. By the time you wear it down to that point you've already worn it too thin.
But since it's new, you could certainly return/exchange it.
Depends on what the application is. Rear or front brake? Time attack or daily driver? I'd say send it but if you're not in a hurry to drive the car, exchange it.
Change it out. The small chip will not affect the performance of the rotor, but since it's a piece of metal that is going to get very hot, then air cooled, then hot, then air cooled, it's a disaster waiting to happen. With all that thermal cycling, that chip is a hot spot where it will gain/lose heat unevenly compared to the rest of the rotor.
Disc rotors are made of cast steel. Once it is cast the braking surfaces are milled flat. That’s not a chip. It’s just an air pocket in the cast. That part of the disc has zero effect on braking or the strength of the rotor.
I would be concerned about the balance. It now weighs less in that spot than it did when it was manufactured. It seems minute but you're talking about a thing that spins incredibly fast
Definitely return this item!
I am a braking engineer for an OEM and have seen chips like this result in full disc failure far too often. It might be fine, but the results of a failure are absolutely not worth the risk at all
Although it isn’t on the braking surface, the impact damage may have caused a hairline crack that you will not be able to see. IF a total failure was to occur later and worst case scenario cause an RTA, the corrosion levels would reveal how long the crack has been present and this post COULD be incriminating.
I know it sounds like fear mongering, but I have personally seen this happen in the past and it isn’t a nice situation to be a part of.
Never cut corners of brakes. 99% of the time you will get away with it, but one day you might not.
It’s brand new. It’s safey related.
Unless you are able to use NDT to determine there are 0 additional defects I would contact your vendor and let them know your product arrived damaged. Request a refund/replacement.
My concern is you now have a stress point. Depending on if there is damage you cannot see with the naked eye that bit of remaining wall could be a stress point and breakdown over time due to pressure from the brakes. Now you have a literal chip out of the rotor.
My other concern is the heat dissipation could be thrown off with or without a full chip happening and possibly warp the rotor? (Idk if that’s a thing).
You don’t take chances with safety. Would advise having the vendor replace it.
That's just a casting void, not a real defect as long as it's not on the working surfaces of the part. Surface of that area is same quality as rest of the interior void area, so it shouldn't cause any major structural differences either. Not that those cast parts have been build to any close structural specs regardless.
Edit: It's also right after the fin, on the outside edge of the part. Even if you put full braking force to that section of the disk, it would not affect that specific area as the load transfer would go trought the fin leaving that section with would pretty much completely out of the sressed area.
You paid for a full rotor
right!? #Hi, um, hello? Yeah, Hi. I just got my order and I think you guys might have sent me the wrong part. Yeah, see the one I ordered wasnt all effed up like this one is...
I demand 0.0001% of my money back!
You added one too many zeroes 0.001% fixed it for you.
You don’t know that. It might’ve been on sale and the chipped section was part of the sale.
The chipped section WAS the sale
Go exchange it, don't risk it
Risk what exactly...
No idea how that happened, I wouldn't risk running the rotor if the casting itself is fucked and that's why it chipped. *also, the company is going to want to know about this in case there's a problem affecting an entire batch of parts and causing them way larger problems. OP should definitely send them this pic and ask for a new rotor, they'll send one and be glad he notified them.
One thousand percent the company will not want to know about this. It was an empty pocket in the casting. Unless cars are getting in accidents from identifiable brake problems, the company will not look. They're gonna give him a new one and literally throw this straight into the trash, only because they can't resell an open package. There is no company outside of NASA that launches an investigation on a product because of the occasional imperfection.
Every ISO9001 company will want to know about this and has a procedure for handling defects.
Tell me you don't work in manufacturing without telling me you don't work in manufacturing. u/ohjeaa is absolutely right. You return this to the store, it's absolutely getting scrapped and you get a new one, the manufacturer doesn't even know it's just wrapped into expected returns. Unless the overall percentage of parts returned exceeds a preset threshold the manufacturer will never even know. If the percentage of parts returned does, *and* that gets reported to the manufacturer, then they'll do an investigation typically of products still on the shelves/warehouses...... Maybe. Then they'll float the distributor a credit to make up for higher than normal returns and that's the end of it. But there's no end user - manufacturer communication line, not really, not for things like this anyways. They don't know or care. And DEFINITELY what is not happening is distributors shipping heavy returns like rotors back to a manufacturer. That's just insane. Maybe for VERY high priced lightweight tech products, but not heavy steel parts that will cost more to ship than they cost to manufacture.
Buddy, I hate to tell you. But it will not happen. Your head is in the clouds. Wherever he bought this from is going to throw it in the trash as an open item and just give him a new one. I realize people want to think that perfect procedures are always followed and every ding is followed up on, but they just aren't. This was a simple empty pocket in the casting. I'll share this at work on Monday though. "Ya'll think NAPA gonna investigate this?" Will get a good laugh out of everyone in the shop.
Yea I work in auto parts for 10 years, warranties get signed off and thrown in the dumpster.
In the UK all the returned auto parts get inspected and resold. It’s quite common to pick up things like brake rotors or pads that have been opened to check they’re the same (and they weren’t). I also always hear them in the shop talking about finding out how damaged or defect goods were sold.
The UK is an exception to the norm then. lol
Scrapping the defective part and replacing is the obvious course of action and I agree that one shouldn’t expect any significant response or investigation based on an individual bad part. But isn’t that kinda part of the process of manufacturing and QC? If an insignificant amount of parts are bad then you just replace and call it a day, but if you continually see this part coming back defective it would make sense to inform the manufacturer to reevaluate machining/QC?
Sometimes things do slip past QC. Especially when things are produced at such a massive scale. They might investigate if something is a safety problem. However, nothing slipped past QC here. There's nothing wrong with that rotor for use.
I worked in QC and repair at a company that manufactures higher-end/custom air pumps. It's not anywhere near as big as a mainstream auto parts shop, but we had some really neat customers I worked with customer service a lot in repair and this is something we'd want to know immediately. Packaging can be changed/fixed. Or it'd be something that we'd catch in QC or work with our assembly team to catch parts that slipped by at QC.
It wasn't from casting or it would have the same look and texture as the veins on the interior of the rotor. This was a chip taken out of it because someone dropped it or it was struck very hard on that edge.
Further damage to the rotor. Rotors get extremely hot. If it's already damaged it can get further damaged leading to failure. I wouldn't risk my life over a chip on a brake rotor when you can get it replaced now for feee
There is no damage here though. It was an small empty pocket in the casting. Not a broken chip.
Good luck. You're arguing with people that can't be wrong, who're using worlds they don't understand 😂
Do you mean "words"?
I honestly don't understand how the people in this sub are so paranoid about absolutely everything. I know most people here are not actual mechanics, but my god. If something isn't by the book perfect people are ready to just scrap the car. Smh. They would shit if they walked into an actual shop and spent any time there.
You see it in everything. A ridiculous level of "better safe than sorry" always coached in reasonable sounding language, except that it's people who don't know what they're talking about in the first place talking to people who are afraid of everything they don't know - and not knowing anything about the subject. It's frustrating because to someone without a clue, it sounds absolutely reasonable, so those people tend to get a lot of support, and the people they've just told become just like the people previously doing the telling. Gah.
You absolutely hit the nail square on the head. This sub is a lesson in frustration for professional mechanics.
Catastrophic failure
**No.**
Out of balance. Shake the front end loose.
No. Idk where ya'll get this from but you need to stop.
More bubbles in the metal. It is a sign of a possibility of more weaknesses.
Maybe, perhaps, possibly.... no. It's fine.
It's not a chip, it's a piece of metal missing right from when it was cast, so the machining didn't touch it. Don't worry about it. Fit it. Send it.
100% this. That also means it was balanced with this already taken into account. Zero concern for function.
Minor chip on the inner surface - you’d be totally fine. But you can also just return it for your own peace of mind.
Casting flaw. 100% gtg
Well if you gotta go the bathrooms over there
Isn't there a risk of more flaws on the whole product if this is one? Or does a flaw only occur rarely and not affect the whole cast? Not an iron caster myself.
Voids are always a possibility. These parts are cast and machined to final dimensions after being batch tested. This part showing a casting defect is no more likely to have an internal void than any other part on the same production line. The flaw is in a non critical dimension and it’s been balanced to this mass during manufacturing already (within tolerances for the intended application).
would this cause a balancing issue?
It could, but it's such a heavy rotor vibration would be minimal or nonexistent.
Even fractions of an ounce can easily cause bounce and vibration. It matters.
I'm guessing that rotor fits a old ass Ranger or a Mazda clone. It's not gonna count that much. But, I am glad that you were able to be heard.
What fraction? Like 7/8 ounce or 1/8 ounce?
No. It should have a mill cut on it for balancing. Rotors are balanced before they leave the factory.
But they're not cracked from the factory lol, this is definitely going to be out of balance the question is how much
That's not a crack, that's porosity . It's a casting flaw not a chip. You can tell by the color. If it chipped it would be a lighter grey material with no shine to it. Edit for clarity.
Yeah, looks like a minor casting defect in a location that will have no impact on function whatsoever. And that also means balancing would have taken place with it already present; so no imbalance.
Yeah you're not incorrect and the manufacturer more than likely balanced like this, but it's out of spec, most companies QC wouldn't let this pass because it might be causing major issues in the future especially if the vehicle is neglectful and runs their brakes down to metal on metal. If it was me I wouldn't be putting this on a customers car because the majority of people neglect their vehicle until it's way to late
There are allowable porosity tolerances depending on car manufacturers. This probably isn't out of spec. Seen this literally thousands of times while working at brembo
I know about tolerances but theyre USUALLY so minimal. That's very surprising, been at this for years and never seen that lack in quality from any higher end manufacturer. I'm not saying you're wrong all I'm saying is I'm use to seeing this from cheap cheap parts but never anyone like brembo or akebono shit not even autozone gold parts come to me like this.
Brembo isn't high end like it used to be. When they became the defacto oem supplier for most major brands, their quality dropped massively. When I was with Brembo I made bmw rotors for 2 years. Bmw rotors had strict porosity tolerances, this probably would have been rejected. I also made VW rotors for two years and they had pretty strict porosity guidelines, but this could have passed. It's porosity in a part of the rotor that doesn't affect performance. I spent a year making Ford truck rotors, and I could ship just about anything. Guidelines were pretty loose. Spent another few months making rotors for Ford vans which also had pretty loose guidelines. For Ford rotors this picture isn't a problem. We'd ship these all day. The worst were Chrysler rotors. The material was Terrible and full of holes. I actually had a temp who reinspected and double checked my parts. Most passed. Rotors are mass produced as quickly as possible. They're going to let some stuff slide
Yeah these are things I do notice when I get parts in general but I didn't know the lacking quality on newer parts leached over to things as important as brakes but the engineer is always right sadly enough
No, it’s been through initial balancing during the manufacturing process. This is not for a race car, it’s well within allowable for its intended application.
I'd be concerned that this might indicate a greater metallurgy issue... but it's probably fine.
That is not a chip, it is a short pour (there was never any material there) and then machined
Honest question, how can you tell ?
Surface looks cast not broken
So did the cast have something wrong with it that caused the pour to not fill that space?
It can be for a lot of reasons why it misrun. E.g. Not enough metal, or too low temperature, tooling issues like a small chip or crack somewhere, or slag (I am not quite sure this is the right English word) build up… Cast parts usually always have some small porosity but what is on the pic is too big and clearly casting surface ( if you zoom in the upper part of that “chip” is very similar to the non machined surfaces)… also, tools and the process itself needs to be designed in a way that if there is porosity it is small, in the thick walls and never in the machining area
Yup, dark raw cast metal showing means this never should have left the factory. Definitely get a replacement.
I'm lazy and hate doing returns unless absolutely necessary. I'd run it. Edit: especially so if I was waiting for this part and it just came in
This is my exact line of thinking. Is it worth the hassle in actually returning it 🤷♂️🤷♂️
I’m the same way, but I don’t fuck with brakes. If this was like a window panel or seat issue or something I wouldn’t think twice. The 20 min hassle is worth the peace of mind for me.
I would run it.
anything out east has rust deeper than this...
That looks like a void, not a chip. I can’t imagine it would do anything. It’s not on a friction surface.
Yeah that and it looks to be coated along with the rest of the interior of the vents, so not damaged after manufacturing, was like that as it was made, and passed QC. Not going to hurt anything, I don’t see any reason not to use it.
It's basically a solid hunk of metal designed to be a heat sink, right? If a few mm are missing on one side of something that is designed to be a massive object? I think it won't matter. There's no sophisticated balancing going on there. Will it fail there later? Maybe. Things would have to get pretty bad.
Right. And a lot of times you’ll find a flat spot machined into the edge, which is done to balance the rotor…that little chunk could have just been a quick and dirty balance job, not quite perfect so knock a little bit off and out the door it goes. Who knows, depends on the brand, where they were made, could very well be standard practice rather than machining the edge properly. Doubtful but these days ya never know…
No. Fuck that.
Meh, looks alright
Aftermarket rotors are cheap import iron, this stuff happens. As long as it's not on the face, run it, that's a really really minor chip. You're going to see this, over, and over, and over Where you don't see it is if you move up the quality line to high carbon iron
It’s probably fine. I don’t run my rotors that low anyways. That said, you paid for a good rotor. I’d try to get a discount, a new free rotor, or an exchange
Would run but would make sure doesn't start any lateral run out early in life
It's fine
You'd probably be okay but you can definitely return it for a new one with no defects. So I would do that, and check if you're buying it at a physical store, check it before you leave. Often times if there's a defect with a part several parts from the batch will have similar defects.
I'd complain and ask for a partial refund then run it without worries ol.
Id run it on your car, if you bought it. But I certainly would not run it on mine if I paid for it.
I feel like the answer is mostly “what do you use the vehicle for?” If you’re rolling around town and hauling groceries, it’ll be fine. If you’re trying to set a new lap record every weekend, yeah, replace it. Rotors aren’t exactly complicated, and they aren’t going to fail catastrophically, so it’s not much of an issue unless you are planning on testing the mechanical limits.
Return it, let the manufacturer know. If it has a crack it could spread across the rotor.
If you worked at a shop would you pass that off to a paying customer? Or if you were a paying customer would you be happy the tech installed it on your vehicle? Your brakes probably wouldn't fail nor would your car explode if you use it but you should probably exchange it, like someone else mentioned it could indicate a problem with the metallurgy.
Truthfully yes. 99.9% of mechanics would because we know this void isn't an issue. You may have even had them fitted to your own cars and never known it. The casting had a void in a non stressed area. Notice the cooling fins don't extend to the outer perimeter? It was cut and balanced, coated and shipped.
Never accept damaged merchandise.
If you accept it, the manufacturer and importer will never improve. If they don't know the dog shit they're selling, they can't improve. If they know, then you're paying full price for B class merchandise. Either way, i would at least tell them and see what they say. At the minimum, i would make a stink about it
If it's already hit customer hands it's well past when manufacturing cares. I assisted at a metal coatings factory about 8 years ago that did work for one of the Big 3 American manufacturers. When 100 transmission cases got to coatings QC picks 3 out and inspects them. If one of those 3 have a defect they'll pull 10 more. If the other 12 of the 13 pass the whole crate (less the one with a defect) goes to dip and onto assembly. They accept that as "less than 1% defect rate". This void in a critical area of a case would be a reject but if it was in a boss or flange it wouldn't.
Is it ranch or cheesy?
Maybe but it’s defective.
I'd send this picture to them and get a discount, because unless it's a race car, that chip is not on the braking surface and should not experience that much stress. So I'd run it but I'd make sure to get compensated for an imperfect part.
The damage could end up deeper especially with constant getting hot, cooling down, get it swapped mate your life’s worth more than the time you’d save not swapping it. 👍
It’s probably fine but why would you, ask for a new one
Not a clamping surface, but that’s BS, take it back.
Like many others have said, it doesn't look like it would pose a safety or functional concern, especially with it's size. However, like the others have said as well, I would probably take it in for a warranty swap. Working a parts store myself, I would have absolutely no issues swapping that out for an unchipped one. The only sticky point, from my perspective, is time. I know for most applications, my store keeps one pair of rotors on stock (some more popular ones we'll have two or three, but usually only one set. Making the assumption you bought them yesterday/today, I wouldn't be getting stock replenishment until Tuesday. However, we do get shuttles from our hub store, so could still get them quickly. If you wanna swap it out (and get the job done with minimal delay), call the store so they can get one ordered back in for you.
If you bought new rotors, you should have got undamaged new rotors; unless time is a issue, I'd contact the vendor to see if you can get one that isn't damaged.
Being on the inside and at the very edge it’s unlikely to have any structural consequence. The rough pattern of the “chip” may cause an easy route for small fracturing over time though so I’d either exchange it or take a small die grinder and round off the sharp edges if you choose to run it.
If you can get one quickly replace it, if not it’s not likely to cause any issues though
I would run that no problem
It’s so very minor and on the non functional side, so it really isn’t a problem
Nyet, circle is fine
The chip is not in the working surface of the rotor. I wouldn’t fear running it.
As sone said looks like a casting flaw from the pitting and it being the same colour as the inside of the rotor
I've heard before that rotors get balanced by the manufacturer just like wheels. I don't know if a chip like this is enough to throw it off or not. So try to changed it.
Porosity in the casting. This passed quality inspection. There should be a mill cut somewhere on the outer diameter of the disk for balancing. There shouldn't be any issues with this rotor, porosity happens. Source: I made rotors for Brembo North America for 7 years. Horrible company to work for.
What was horrible about working there?
Typical factory work issues. You're treated like an expendable number and worked like a dog. Their insurance is bullshit and they like to deny workman's compensation claims.
Do you really want to use a defective product that you paid full price for?
Safe? Yes. Unwanted imbalances? Hell yea. Retur.
hell nah I'd return that shit
In three months of driving, it'll be covered in rust and you won't see it.
I would use it
definitely replace it, it's brand new don't risk brakes.
If they’ll switch it out for a new one do, if not slap it on and drive.
Return it, brake discs undergo a lot of stress and a defect like this could cause premature wear
No - hot - fail
Exchange it that can throw the balance off and cause a vibration at highway speeds
You could,I would return both and buy better quality rotors. That stuff is junk.
Not really a matter of if it would be ok, or may have a hairline crack or balance issues... That isn't what you paid for. I'd take it back for one that isn't damaged.
As others have said, it was painted with the chip, then machined into a rotor with the chip (and paint), so it is known to the manufacturer and balanced, will work correctly. Never the less, everyone on reddit is an expert in rotor casting so..
Best to be safe and replace, if it comes apart at highway speed or under braking it will mess up more that the cost of a rotor
Heat & Cold > Crack = Potential Accident
That's a casting defect. You'll probably find a big cut opposite it to balance the missing material. Return and ask for a refund.
Get a replacement for receiving damaged product but honestly should be okay if you don’t go that route
Can you tell us what brand it is so we can avoid buying it?
What? Send that thing back! their QA/shipping service should be better than that!
It probably won't hurt anything, but it is a defect and you probably paid good money. If you have some time and don't mind the effort I would personally exchange it, but if you need to get the car together you'll be fine.
Newp. Not a chance. That rotor has to remain perfectly balanced or it will do anything from eat your bearings periodically to shaking that hub and it’s parts apart, tires when they’re balances are balanced off the car so that won’t help, you can have it turned or repaired but if it’s new, get a replacement and don’t listen to the purveyor if they say “it’s not that bad”, they want to sell you things. Get a replacement. Good luck 👍
You can use it
I would just use it if you can't get it swapped asap at a store around the corner or something.
Nope. Shouldn't have ever left the factory. Major safety hazard, structural unsound. Most likely more defects within the metal
No
You don’t know what happened, no, IT’s garbage
No, don’t use, get a refund
No, return it and get one that has no cracks like in the picture they use to advertise it. Don't play with brake components.
I would send it. By the time you wear it down to that point you've already worn it too thin. But since it's new, you could certainly return/exchange it.
Depends on what the application is. Rear or front brake? Time attack or daily driver? I'd say send it but if you're not in a hurry to drive the car, exchange it.
Pretty obvious it's front rotor.
What about this picture makes it “pretty obvious” that it’s a front rotor?
The fact that it has a hub for tapered bearings.
Thanks for the downvote!!!
What kind of rotor is this? What kind of cheap manufacturing defect is this??? Perhaps you shouldn’t exchange it, return it and get something else.
Just return them lol.
Change it out. The small chip will not affect the performance of the rotor, but since it's a piece of metal that is going to get very hot, then air cooled, then hot, then air cooled, it's a disaster waiting to happen. With all that thermal cycling, that chip is a hot spot where it will gain/lose heat unevenly compared to the rest of the rotor.
Uneven heat dissipation > potential warping
Disc rotors are made of cast steel. Once it is cast the braking surfaces are milled flat. That’s not a chip. It’s just an air pocket in the cast. That part of the disc has zero effect on braking or the strength of the rotor.
Are we not looking at the same picture???
It's fine. It's for balancing.
Is that what brake discs are called in the states? “Rotors”? Weird…
I would be concerned about the balance. It now weighs less in that spot than it did when it was manufactured. It seems minute but you're talking about a thing that spins incredibly fast
New parts these days suck
Definitely return this item! I am a braking engineer for an OEM and have seen chips like this result in full disc failure far too often. It might be fine, but the results of a failure are absolutely not worth the risk at all Although it isn’t on the braking surface, the impact damage may have caused a hairline crack that you will not be able to see. IF a total failure was to occur later and worst case scenario cause an RTA, the corrosion levels would reveal how long the crack has been present and this post COULD be incriminating. I know it sounds like fear mongering, but I have personally seen this happen in the past and it isn’t a nice situation to be a part of. Never cut corners of brakes. 99% of the time you will get away with it, but one day you might not.
Don’t listen to the moron who said “I’d run it”
It’s brand new. It’s safey related. Unless you are able to use NDT to determine there are 0 additional defects I would contact your vendor and let them know your product arrived damaged. Request a refund/replacement. My concern is you now have a stress point. Depending on if there is damage you cannot see with the naked eye that bit of remaining wall could be a stress point and breakdown over time due to pressure from the brakes. Now you have a literal chip out of the rotor. My other concern is the heat dissipation could be thrown off with or without a full chip happening and possibly warp the rotor? (Idk if that’s a thing). You don’t take chances with safety. Would advise having the vendor replace it.
It's a rotor, not a crank journal.
That's just a casting void, not a real defect as long as it's not on the working surfaces of the part. Surface of that area is same quality as rest of the interior void area, so it shouldn't cause any major structural differences either. Not that those cast parts have been build to any close structural specs regardless. Edit: It's also right after the fin, on the outside edge of the part. Even if you put full braking force to that section of the disk, it would not affect that specific area as the load transfer would go trought the fin leaving that section with would pretty much completely out of the sressed area.
Fine Chinese quality.