DxC

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/66958/crack.jpg"></center><p>
no, no crazy angry flame here, just objective realization that stoptech sucks. im just realizing now that stoptech sells a 332 brake kit for $2200

replacement calipers are $500 each
replacement rotor rings are ~$230 each
replacement hats are ~$220 each
(i also think its funny how they now say they should be considered a wear part, when they were marketed as "now you can just change the rings, save!")
replacement brackets = NOT SOLD SEPARATELY?!

i must say the calipers are pretty nice - the bridge is a great design idea (except for the seized bridge bolt problem) and they do perform pretty well when the material is ok (but the quality of aluminum is crap)

i have soo many rotors AND caliper brackets that have the galvanic corrosion issues aka CRACKING ...

what a life hazard ... im surprised a car hasnt crashed catastrophically because of the design flaws. *knock on wood-i hope no car does*

but seriously, the caliper mounting brackets, and the caliper hats have serious failure because of the ****ty metal - imagine a rotor ring letting go? or imagine a mounting bracket letting go?! damnnnn. i mean when would you ever check for cracks on a caliper bracket?!

i think the worst part about this, is the way stoptech is handling it. they just say, yea salt does it, buy these zinc rotors, and new hats, no discount, pay these high prices so we make more money off of you ... i mean is it so hard to sell parts at cost or at a discount to help users of your product?

TO THE OTHER STOPTECH OWNERS WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED THE SAME: can i get an AMEN?

- also i realize this is just S4 owners. i wonder how other platforms feel about this issue

in invite stoptech, or zeckenhausen to respond. i have great respect for matt weiss and david zeckenhausen, they are both very knowledgable and im happy to have the pleasure to have spoken with them.

Slave IV

brake company like Brembo or Alcon.

B56

when the time comes, i'll hope to be getting brembo's

DxC

im going to fix all the design issues myself. get a machinist to make me the same part using better quality aluminum. sure the material will cost more, but its a critical component of a car!

Slave IV

and since that's pretty much all they make, it makes them a pretty useless company. I gave them many chances and argued w/ my friend over Stoptech brakes where I said they couldn't be as bad as he was saying. After a lot of research by both of us, we came to the conclusion that they are all about hype and selling inferior products that they copied/modified from real companies for their own "designs". The manufacturing materials and process are even more important for brake parts because of the environment they work in so it just doesn't make sense to buy brake products from anyone but the best you can find (definitely not stoptech).

TwentyValveB5+S4

+1 for California

DxC

but it will be a nice feeling to know that i took a nicely designed product with some problems and fixed them.

save the brakekit, save the world

FYI if you like reading. stoptechs patents are interesting. what is interesting is that the aerohat they said was "patent pending" - did not get approved ... looks like it wasnt "novel" and there was prior art suckaaaz

http://www.google.com/patents?id=bqMQAAAAEBAJ&amp;dq=6796405

http://www.google.com/patents?id=ODIJAAAAEBAJ&amp;dq=6357561<ul><li><a href="http://www.google.com/patents?id=QIwHAAAAEBAJ&amp;dq=6302243">http://www.google.com/patents?id=QIwHAAAAEBAJ&amp;dq=6302243</a</li></ul>

Slave IV

yeah, that is pretty cool...let me know how it goes and what it took to do. Thanks.

DxC

pretty much. an anode and a cathode.

the funny thing is other kits are running aluminum on cast iron too and despite the large difference in the materials' electronegativities - they do not exhibit the same behavior (cracking)

Slave IV

quality control and better grades of similar materials....