Carbon ceramic brake discs - refurbishment now possible.

[Schermerhorn]

Hi guys,

if you have carbon ceramic brake discs that are now fairly old, rope and don't work as good as they once did and DON'T want to spend tens of thousands replacing them, there is an option to refurbish them to as good as new, if not better.

SICOM in Germany offer this service. The old discs are machined, levelled and a surface polymer layer made from carbon silicon replaces the worn away surface. The results are fantastic and braking just as impressive. All for 25% of the OEM price. A 12 month warranty is also given.

Here is a Ferrari F430 that recently had them done

Before


After (other side)



There is also a running discussion on the Porsche forum about these discs and the refurbishment process.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

While all the latest updates can be found on the Twitter page.

https://twitter.com/SicomBRAKESUK

[tony h]

that's very interesting and high time someone stepped in to offer an alternative to replacing the whole disk. are the disks x rayed or suchlike first to determine if there are any hidden cracks/faults?

[F355GTS]

i've been talking to Sicom for nearly a Year now and the issue was always about the dash reset. It seems there is a solution to this now which is great news

[Schermerhorn]

As standard, every new refurbished disc will get new nuts and bolts.


Edited by Schermerhorn on Wednesday 22

Regarding the refurbishment, the process is something like this

- Discs are weighed and depending on wear and wear pattern and rotors are x-rayed and examined for structural damage.
- Brake pad residue or contaminates is chemically steamed off
- Discs are machined until they are level
- Napped are vacuum soaked in polymeric carbon
- Pyrolyze the discs at 1100°C
- The last two steps are repeated three times
- Discs are siliconized at 1500°C
- Top layer (ca. 1mm thick) is now restored, and trough the pyrolysis it is chemically and physically bonded with the structure
- Final sanding of top layer
- Disc is reassembled and weighed once more and precision-balanced
- The disc now has gained about 30-50g and is at desired value once more

I've copied and pasted this from the SICOM site as it's more elaborate than how I would have been able to explain it.

[tony h]

thanks for info

[Schermerhorn]

tony h said:

thanks for info

Here's a Porsche GT3 disc that was refurbished vs a non refurbished one

Edited by Schermerhorn on Tuesday 12th May 17:30

[Schermerhorn]

More info for you guys

[Adrian-5erfh]

Hi

I’m buying an RS6 with Carbon Ceramics, from an Audi main dealership with 22000 miles. I know Audi guarantee the brakes for 100000 miles, but do they last this long and is there a service cost to them? I saw this thread and wondered what the cost was for a refurb too. Also at what point do they become hard to sell, 50k, 60k, 70k??

Thanks in advance

Ady

[MDL111]

I am very surprised they guaranteed the brakes - what if you took it on track and shagged them within a few thousand miles?
In any case, I am sure somebody will be along great who had his/hers refurbished - from memory it is something like 1-1.3k per disc (maybe a little more) - I seem to remember that some people waited quite a long time to get theirs back in the past (Sicom possibly now rebrake namechange)

[Adrian-5erfh]

I called Audi uk as the salesman hasn’t put it in writing yet for me as promised and they have stated they are not at all guaranteed as they are a wear and tear item. I haven’t paid a deposit but the problem now is I have been approved for finance. I’m not sure what to do now. 🤔

[Gary C]

Adrian-5erfh said:

I called Audi uk as the salesman hasn’t put it in writing yet for me as promised and they have stated they are not at all guaranteed as they are a wear and tear item. I haven’t paid a deposit but the problem now is I have been approved for finance. I’m not sure what to do now. ??

Buy it, put steel disks and appropriate pads, then put them back on to sell ?

I know porsche owners have done this. I imagine the parts are available for an audi.

[Adrian-5erfh]

Do the front and rear discs generally wear out at the same time? I know it’s a Quattro, but it has a front wheel drive bias.

[Gary C]

Adrian-5erfh said:

Do the front and rear discs generally wear out at the same time? I know it’s a Quattro, but it has a front wheel drive bias.

Braking will be biased mainly to the front (2 to 3 times more) as weight transfer under braking means the fronts always do most of the work. So the front disks will take much more of the wear.