RexNuts Subaru Forums

Hey guys,

so i have the car booked in on monday at pulse for a service and i thought that i might as well give the brakes a bit of an update. i was thinking of putting on my braided brake, new pads and better fluid as well as some new rotors. i was speaking to paul and he recommended the rda rotors to me. i have looked into the dbas and was going to get a set of dba4000.

what is everyones thoughts / experiences with the rdas. are they any good? or should i just go with the dbas

thanks guys

I run RDA's all round, and i love them.

What's the difference between the two?

do you find that they are noisy? ive heard that they can have a tendency to cause noise. but ive also heard they they are great.

For the price, they are great. I also run them in the slotted versions front and back and have found them to be very good.

Just be wary of what pads use use with them (and with ANY discs really). I have Bendix Ultimates all around, and whilst they are known for excellent stopping power, they also tend to wear out rotors quicker than other pads.

I'd also strongly advise painting the hub centres before you install them, because they will rust quickly and look terrible. Pics in my build thread in this section: formaudio-f79.html

RDA rotors got eaten by my brake pads and they warped very quickly. I have DBA 4000s all round. love them

My pads are noisy, because i forgot to grease the shims.

My brother has RDA rotors, no noise. My mate has RDA rotors with track pads, no noise.

As been said, after you clean them with brake cleaner (they are coated in oil in the box to protect them), give the hubs a quick coat of black caliper paint. Neatens it up a heap!

In terms of price, i went for the Gold Slotted/dimpled rotors up front, and standard slotted on the rear. This set me back around $600 for the whole lot! It was going to cost me $500 for the fronts alone if i went DBA.

I dont know what pads are going to be used. i will need to speak to pulse. but i do like the sound of painting them black as thats the look that im going for and will look good behind my wheels...

does it take long for them to be dry before they can be installed?

Whilst my brother was pulling his old brakes off, i was spraying his new ones. Once the old ones were off, we put the new ones on.. they dont really need to be dry, just touch dry.

I didnt worry about making a template, i just used a piece of cardboard as a cover, and roughly sprayed them, then used a turps rag to wipe any excess overspray off the rotor. The brake pads will clean the paint off.

Depends. We did mine with 2 pack black (my dads a painter) and it took me a couple of hours to mask them up before that.

I'm not a fan of letting the brake pads scrape away the paint, but thats just me.

that was the other thing that i was thinking, will the paint wear away with the pads so over time it will look faded?

You dont spray the rotor face. Only the hub.

Any paint in the rotor face will scrape away in a few seconds.

Yep, make sure you do that.

I've heard horror stories where guys haven't masked up the rotor at all, and just painted the whole thing, installed them and let the pads scrape it off. Then wondered why they get hairline cracks and fractures in their discs soon after...

Oh ok that makes more sense now. will have a chat with the guys a pulse and get them to sort it out for me. was thinking that it would have looked awesome if the actual face was black.

Would be impossible with any sort of paint or coating, as it will rub off. In order to get black rotors, the rotors would need a black pigment in the steel when casting.

i wonder if i could get them.. they would look good on a black car..

RDA's don't disperse heat properley, ive seen the slotted ones melt a set of rb74 pads on the track. i was running dba4000 slotted with rb74's and they held up fine