MTEC discs

[8bit]

Need to change the front discs on my XKR and MTEC seem to do ones in the right size and the price looks good too. Never used MTEC stuff before, are they decent quality?

[viggyp]

A lot of people in the Fiat Coupe club recommend these. My mate has them on his along with EBC yellow stuff pads and thinks they're great.

[E-bmw]

MTEC & EBC, that must be the worst possible combination of braking part on the planet!

I have used MTEC before & they cracked.

I have tried all EBC pad compounds before & wouldn't use them if they paid me.

[Kev_Mk3]

Mtec are hit and miss. I had some on a civic type r. Where ok, I would never get drilled ones though they crack to easy.

Mates cracked clean through.

Cheap for what they are.

[GreenV8S]

Kev_Mk3 said:

I would never get drilled ones though

Drilled cast iron discs are a fundamentally bad idea in any case.

[Piersman2]

8bit said:

Need to change the front discs on my XKR and MTEC seem to do ones in the right size and the price looks good too. Never used MTEC stuff before, are they decent quality?

I fitted a full set of MTEC drilled, cross cut and black painted, with EBC red pads, to my XKR at the start of last summer. Done a few thousand miles on them and haven't had any issues as yet.

I've not been using the car so much over winter and did notice that after being left outside unused for up to 5 weeks a couple of times the discs were quite corroded and took a good few trips to get the sharpness back into the brakes. But once re-bedded after a couple of hundred miles and with a few high speed quick stops they're OK again.

[thebraketester]

Whats the price difference between the MTEC and Brembo?

[Kev_Mk3]

Piersman2 said:

I fitted a full set of MTEC drilled, cross cut and black painted, with EBC red pads, to my XKR at the start of last summer. Done a few thousand miles on them and haven't had any issues as yet.

I've not been using the car so much over winter and did notice that after being left outside unused for up to 5 weeks a couple of times the discs were quite corroded and took a good few trips to get the sharpness back into the brakes. But once re-bedded after a couple of hundred miles and with a few high speed quick stops they're OK again.

The coating I found utter crap just flaked off after a good b road blast in wales once the brakes got hot

[Piersman2]

thebraketester said:

Whats the price difference between the MTEC and Brembo?

I don't know, MTEC were the only place I could find that did drilled & cut for the XKR. Not massively more expensive , roughly about the same give or take. Not the price of cheap pattern parts off Ebay, but not dealer prices either.

I think for me on the XKR a full set of front & rear discs & red pads from MTEC & EBC was £500.

[Ahbefive]

I did a track day on a new set of mtec c-hook discs and they needed replacing afterwards.

I won't buy another set that's for sure.

[GreenV8S]

Piersman2 said:

MTEC were the only place I could find that did drilled & cut for the XKR.

Drilled cast iron discs are a bad idea. If the discs are getting hot enough to need the extra ventilation then they're hot enough for fatigue cracking to be an issue, and drilled discs are much, much more vulnerable to that than plain or grooved discs. If they aren't getting hot enough to need it, all the holes are doing is causing more noise and wear and reducing the braking available.

[8bit]

Thanks all for the input. One thing I should have said; I'm well aware of the negatives of drilled discs on a road car, regards cracking. Fine on a race car where you change the discs each race but not a road motor. The MTEC ones I was considering were the dimpled or dimpled and slotted ones.

thebraketester said:

Whats the price difference between the MTEC and Brembo?

I looked today, I can't find a Brembo disc to fit this car (59 plate XKR 5.0).

[Piersman2]

8bit said:

Thanks all for the input. One thing I should have said; I'm well aware of the negatives of drilled discs on a road car, regards cracking. Fine on a race car where you change the discs each race but not a road motor. The MTEC ones I was considering were the dimpled or dimpled and slotted ones.

thebraketester said:

Whats the price difference between the MTEC and Brembo?

I looked today, I can't find a Brembo disc to fit this car (59 plate XKR 5.0).

You won't. Mine's a 2010 XKR 5.0 so the same as yours and I spent days on and off trying to find all the options. No one but MTEC had the drilled and cut discs available. I did find some place that would supply them but only after they had machined a standard set, not off the shelf.

With regards drilled discs. Well plenty of manufacturers have them as standard, my old Boxster has them fitted all round and I've retro fitted them to several other cars in the past without any issues. But I've also seen the stories and pictures of discs showing cracks around the drill holes. I guess we all take our own decisions on 'risk'. As I'm not using my XKR on track or tend to street race I'll risk it. I'll just keep an eye on the discs when I give the car a clean.

[twibs]

Check out a company called brake depot in Chesterfield.I haven't yet used them but they seem reasonable price wise and they machine blank discs with grooves etc.

[GreenV8S]

Piersman2 said:

With regards drilled discs. Well plenty of manufacturers have them as standard, my old Boxster has them fitted all round and I've retro fitted them to several other cars in the past without any issues. But I've also seen the stories and pictures of discs showing cracks around the drill holes. I guess we all take our own decisions on 'risk'. As I'm not using my XKR on track or tend to street race I'll risk it. I'll just keep an eye on the discs when I give the car a clean.

You'll usually find that OEMs offering drilled discs as standard equipment are using much more expensive parts with the holes cast in, or steel discs which are mechanically stronger and resist thermal stress better.

Drilling holes in cast iron discs is fundamentally a bad move. But they do look 'motorsporty', which I guess is the point for most people. I can't think of any other reason why you'd fit drilled discs on a car which was not being driven hard enough to suffer brake fade.

[Coilspring]

What discs (type ) are fitted currently.

Any specific issues with them or their performance? What type are the standard OE discs?

[8bit]

Piersman2 said:

You won't. Mine's a 2010 XKR 5.0 so the same as yours and I spent days on and off trying to find all the options. No one but MTEC had the drilled and cut discs available. I did find some place that would supply them but only after they had machined a standard set, not off the shelf.

With regards drilled discs. Well plenty of manufacturers have them as standard, my old Boxster has them fitted all round and I've retro fitted them to several other cars in the past without any issues. But I've also seen the stories and pictures of discs showing cracks around the drill holes. I guess we all take our own decisions on 'risk'. As I'm not using my XKR on track or tend to street race I'll risk it. I'll just keep an eye on the discs when I give the car a clean.

So it wasn't drilled/dimpled/slotted discs I was after as such, it was ones with the black coating ideally but also something cheaper than OEM discs (£330/pair). I'm aware that EBC do plain discs in the black coating but I had those on my previous 4.2 XKR and I got bad vibrations through the steering on braking after a while. This is probably due to pad deposits on the disc but I don't know where the blame would lie for that, i.e. is it that the pads (EBC Redstuff in that case) were prone to leaving deposits or the discs that were prone to collecting deposits from whatever pads they're used with.

I won't be using RedStuff again as there are better rated ceramic options now (e.g. Jurid White, I have a set of these to fit) and that may mean they'd be fine with EBC plain discs but I thought I'd ask and see what the alternatives were like, hence the reason for my OP.

Coilspring said:

What discs (type ) are fitted currently.

Any specific issues with them or their performance? What type are the standard OE discs?

As far as I'm aware the current discs are OE, car is 10 years old this year and only showing 48k miles so probably the originals. I just changed pads on the rears and the rear discs are OK, slight lip but nothing to worry about. The fronts show a bit of a lip and also prone to spot corrosion after a day or so stood still even if the car has been garaged and not gotten wet. They're a bit "grindy" when cold too.

AFAIK standard discs are made by ATE (as are the calipers). I have no concerns regards their performance other than the above, mainly just the price of a new pair from the dealer. Again, I'd like a set coated in black as the outer edges and the inner sections stay looking nice over time, but if there's a downside to that, or there simply is a significantly better-performing option without then that'll swing it.

[Piersman2]

GreenV8S said:

Piersman2 said:

With regards drilled discs. Well plenty of manufacturers have them as standard, my old Boxster has them fitted all round and I've retro fitted them to several other cars in the past without any issues. But I've also seen the stories and pictures of discs showing cracks around the drill holes. I guess we all take our own decisions on 'risk'. As I'm not using my XKR on track or tend to street race I'll risk it. I'll just keep an eye on the discs when I give the car a clean.

You'll usually find that OEMs offering drilled discs as standard equipment are using much more expensive parts with the holes cast in, or steel discs which are mechanically stronger and resist thermal stress better.

Drilling holes in cast iron discs is fundamentally a bad move. But they do look 'motorsporty', which I guess is the point for most people. I can't think of any other reason why you'd fit drilled discs on a car which was not being driven hard enough to suffer brake fade.

I might be controversial with this reply, but I'm happy enough to admit I wanted the drilled and cut for one reason only - I like the look of them.

[Coilspring]

Personal choice, not techinal reasons.

That's your choice, I would just say, be careful you dont adversely affect the performance of your brakes in your quests.

[8bit]

Coilspring said:

Personal choice, not techinal reasons.

That's your choice, I would just say, be careful you dont adversely affect the performance of your brakes in your quests.

Was that in response to my post or Piersman's?