Hello All

I want to purchase new front rotors for the KJ with no slots or holes so they match the rear pair.
I need the AWD/Ralliart ones. The DBA's for this are DBA417.

On enquiring about cost I can get DBA's from $159 to $189 each.
I can get RDA's for $110.

Thats a fair price difference. Is there a difference in quality between the two?
Does anybody here have any experience/comments with both brands?
Are there other brands I can chase up?

On a side note - If you have a good used pair of these rotors, OEM or after market and want to sell let me know.
I will also list shortly my current front rotors which are AWD/Ralliart and are slotted. PM me if you want more details.

Depends what you want them for. General street use RDA will be fine. Spirited driving and or occasional track use, DBA all the way. RDA are known to crack and warp quite easily from excessive heat.

They will be for general street use. No track work.

[QUOTE=Disciple;1259903] RDA are known to crack and warp quite easily from excessive heat.


*GROAN* Now he tells me . . . put a pair of RDA rotors and pads on the front of my TS 2.6 manual a couple of weeks ago. Cost $170, seem to be good at the moment. I kept the original rotors just in case I get the above problems. lol

Where to buy? Any car parts place can order them in for you. You will need new pads as well.

all I have to say on the matter, I was chasing slotteds for the TH (not cross drilled, just slotted), got quoted $720 by all 4 auto shops for the set of DBA's (front and rear) got quoted $390 for fronts, rears and pads by RDA. Saw a post on a thread by a well known parts supplier, who sponsors a lot of car forums, stating it was his belief that DBA were only superior to RDA at the 4000/ 5000 series level, below that too hard to call.

Based on that, I kept my money in my pocket and bought the RDA's. Been on for a few months now, probably approx 3k km. Do the job, stop me better than the stocks and no issues to date.

There are plenty of threads debating this topic. When I searched I read that the DBA's crack and not the RDA's. This is a reply that Greg from GSL rallysport sent to me when I asked about the cracking...

"Those were RDA rotors, which is our preferred option with regards to quality and performance. Too many people are having cracking issues with DBA rotors, so we'd only recommend them if you were looking at a 2 piece rotor. We can price the DBA if you want, and as much as they'll be far more expensive and we'd love to sell them to you, I personally would choose the RDA. I've got RDA in both my road and rally cars, and in 4 years never had a single drama."

I put the HPX pads on with them and with a new set of Pirelli P7's on my TJ AWD have had no dramas. I have driven the car for general road use but when I drive I am an A to B driver and the stopping performance is MUCH improved.

Let me know if anyone wants part numbers or more details and I will post them up.

Cheers,

DJ

RDA over DBA is a complete revelation to me and probably the entire car enthusiast industry. No offence to that guy, I'm sure he's a great guy, but I can't agree on what he's saying at all.

My dba 9000 rotors are cactus after only about 10,000 kms, surface cracks all over the place, they hum under low to medium brake application, i'm looking into replacing them with rotors and calipers from a 380 but i need bigger rims to do so making it a rather expensive operation meaning the screwed dba's stay, which sucks.

Maybe the lower end DBA stuff is no good, but the DBA 4000/5000 series rotors are the choice for track and street work for all performance car enthusiasts. They wouldn't touch RDA with a barge pole.

Saw a post on a thread by a well known parts supplier, who sponsors a lot of car forums, stating it was his belief that DBA were only superior to RDA at the 4000/ 5000 series level, below that too hard to call.


RDA over DBA is a complete revelation to me and probably the entire car enthusiast industry. No offence to that guy, I'm sure he's a great guy, but I can't agree on what he's saying at all.


Maybe the lower end DBA stuff is no good, but the DBA 4000/5000 series rotors are the choice for track and street work for all performance car enthusiasts. They wouldn't touch RDA with a barge pole.

Sorry, but you just agreed with what he said.

To the OP, this is probably one of the most subjective topics on AMC, do a Google search on DBA vs RDA, DBA issues and RDA issues. Do the research then decide for yourself.

Sorry, but you just agreed with what he said.

To the OP, this is probably one of the most subjective topics on AMC, do a Google search on DBA vs RDA, DBA issues and RDA issues. Do the research then decide for yourself.

I wasn't replying to your post tho, rather "djnewy"'s post. His post didn't stipulate if the DBA rotors he was rubbishing were 4000/5000 or base spec.

Personally I actually use Protek, they are as good as if not better than the cheaper DBA stuff, I have not had these warp even on the old V8 before it was stolen.

They are cheaper, same quality as both above brands and given that most ABS stores use them, there are that many of them out there, many do not even know they have them on their cars and have still not had any issues at all.

I had same advice from teh guy at GSL Rallyspeed, bought two sets front slotted RDA rotors, and full sets of QFM HPX pads (none of the rear pads fitted as yet).

I am NOT a competition driver, not really the shadow of a hoon and drive a fair bit of country highway miles with some dirt as well. No issues with the RDA rotors as yet, and quite happy with the combo of rotor/pad over stock brakes on my KJ ei sedan and TJ II Sports (man).

Slightly off topic, but I put some RDA pads in my Renault, and they are bloody awful....:( No bite, no power and a horrible wooden pedal feel.

Luckily they were very very cheap (hence they were worth a shot), but they have now cost me more as I have to have my new Bendix discs skimmed (to get the RDA pad material off....) and replace the pads again (this time with TRW/Lucas...).

RDA discs might be ok, but the pads are crap...

As he said - I have RDA rotors and pads fresh on the front of a 2.6L TS, very wooden feel and little retardation initially (to the point of being scarey) , have improved but they need a heavy shove to work well. Not likely to lock up the fronts in a panic stop with these pads on. Have cleaned out the calipers and changed brake fluid, so I can't blame that. I will run them for a year and then inspect the discs and replace the pads with something better. If the rotors warp before then I've still got the discs that came off the car that will get skimmed and go back on with Bendix pads. A disappointing use of money though.

Afterthought - the RDA pads act like they are too hard for street use, no bite when cold, get better when they heat up. Any thoughts on this possibility? Could also be the pad material, xyloid fibre, resin, graphite. Classed as organic, non asbestos. Expected life of 45,000 km.

RDA pads on the car are RDB1203SM, coefficient of friction 0.4, hardness HRR80. Pads that came off were bmxp 203. Possibly Bendix?

I wasn't replying to your post tho, rather "djnewy"'s post. His post didn't stipulate if the DBA rotors he was rubbishing were 4000/5000 or base spec.

I wasnt rubbishing anything lol. I was only sharing information from someone that sells both products and for MY needs of a heavy foot around town and not on a race track he reccommended the RDA's.

I read about the RDA PADS being no good hence why I went the QFM. I couldnt find a negative thread on the QFM pads.

He also recommended these:

"The other available option if you're after a premium 1 piece slotted rotor would be Project Mu SCR Pure Plus 6. These are light years ahead of either RDA or DBA, but are $539 per pair front or rear."

These were too expensive for my TJ AWD which my wife mainly drives.


These are the part numbers if it helps anyone:

RDA7625 RDA Disc Rotor
RDA7624 RDA Disc Rotor
$445 total delivered

DB1223HPX QFM HPX BRAKE PADS
DB1231HPX QFM HPX BRAKE PADS
$158 total delivered


This combination has stopped both my wife and myself in a couple of tricky situations so I can recommend them for general driving use.

DJ

RDA pads have a list price of about $30 for the gen 2 Magna, Bendix are a lot more, like $80. You get what you pay for. lol

The RDA pads are adequate, they just don't have that confidence inspiring initial bite that most people want from (softer) pads. The same bite that locks up the wheels in a panic stop on non ABS equipped cars. lol

Afterthought - the RDA pads act like they are too hard for street use, no bite when cold, get better when they heat up. Any thoughts on this possibility? ?

Nice to know its not my imagination - exactly what I thought! But I think they are just designed for economy and are a harder compound - I'm betting they last for ages! But I'm also betting they're hard on discs... I'd rather go through two sets of soft pads to a rotor, then suffer hard pads that long... Are racing pads simply "harder"? I'm betting there is more to it though...

Might be good if you are really really hard on your brakes, but I only do 4000 km a year and a lot of that is highway - I need the bite and feel, and can give away longevity and fade resistance quite happily!

Oh well - $30 pads end up costing me $180.... 30 for binned RDAs, 110 for genuine Renault TRW pads and 40 for the new rotors to be cleaned up.... :( Oi.

Trying to remember what I put in Mum's TS - they were cheapies from Repco and they seem fine. They were some odd brand I had never heard of...

My RDA pads took an unusually long time to bed in and give me an acceptable performance, so I guess they will last a long time. Unless I chuck them first! lol Usually the cheap pads are soft pads with lots of cold bite, donno why the RDAs are different.

To the OP, this is probably one of the most subjective topics on AMC, do a Google search on DBA vs RDA, DBA issues and RDA issues. Do the research then decide for yourself.[/QUOTE]

I started this thread as the search for 'DBA' and 'RDA' resulted in nil which surprised me. Might be limitation of search tool?

Thanks to all for your comments. Prefer to hear first hand experience of the product rather than heresay which is like chinese whispers.