Are ATE brake discs OEM quality?

[kevin316i]

Are ATE brake discs the same quality as original BMW ones? Thinking about getting a set to replace my currently warped discs. Sick of paying ┚¬170 a time for a set of original BMW discs and pads

[StuBeeDoo]

ATE are an OE supplier, so the discs will be OE quality.

[fuzzy]

ATE powerdiscs and matching pads are sh1te. cant handle even medium abuse compared to my old EBC stuff.

[fuzzy]

ATE are an OE supplier, so the discs will be OE quality.

so they will warp and fade as easily as your original bmw stuff that your wanting to replace.

[E30Mike]

ATE are an OE supplier, so the discs will be OE quality.

so they will warp and fade as easily as your original bmw stuff that your wanting to replace.

So what would you recomend for us mortals with non turbo e30's??

[fuzzy]

ATE are an OE supplier, so the discs will be OE quality.

so they will warp and fade as easily as your original bmw stuff that your wanting to replace.

So what would you recomend for us mortals with non turbo e30's??

who needs turbos? the original poster of this thread is called kevin316 so i think its safe to assume he has a 316. if he has managed to warp his original bmw supplied discs in a 316 then they must be worse than i thought

[E30Mike]

Ok I'll give you that one,

However we have 2 320i's and a 325i in our household none of which have suffered from warped discs and they are all standard and driven how they should be

Perhaps the problem is seized brake calipers causing the discs to overheat and thus warp rather that blaming the OE disc's which are a lot better than some of the offerings on the market.

[fuzzy]

Ok I'll give you that one,

However we have 2 320i's and a 325i in our household none of which have suffered from warped discs and they are all standard and driven how they should be

Perhaps the problem is seized brake calipers causing the discs to overheat and thus warp rather that blaming the OE disc's which are a lot better than some of the offerings on the market.

ok ill give you that one as no one but him will know if his problem is infact caused by a seized piston and not down to shoddy 3rd world produced parts with a bmw sticker stuck to them.
i know i have slightly warped my new ATE discs within a week of fitting them and mine is really driven like it should. plus you can feel the brakes fade as they get hotter.

[kevin316i]

I have a 318is now and there has been three sets of discs warped on the car. The first set were Febi, so I put that down to sh*te quality, the second were original BMW which I fitted and my mechanic put their warping down to how I fitted them, and the third set of discs (also original BMW) have warped so there is something wrong up front - the discs are the symptom of the problem.

I'm getting a new wheel bearing fitted on front left since all the others have been replaced, and also getting a new set of wishbones.
Hopefully, the next set of discs won't warp, this is getting rather expensive!!

[abelai]

Hey Fuzzy, are you running standard 260mm discs with 282bhp or m3 280mm discs because if its the 260mm you've got no reason to complain about brake fade, it's self inflicted.

[E30Mike]

The only thing as far as I'm concerned that makes a disc warp is overheating.

This is due to the brake pads being in contant contact with the disc's due to the caliper not sliding properley on its guide pins, one pad excessively worn than the other is good indication of this.

A worn wheel bearing would cause the pads to wear at an angle and a good caliper should be able to provive the necessary clearance to prevent over heating.

To fuzzy

New wishbones would only improve the handling and ride quality of the car assuming that ball joints are worn.

They would make no difference to your brake disc problem.

Suggest you ask some other zoners for their opinion as I'm not always right before you splash the cash.

The last thing you want to do is waste your money.

Hope you get it sorted

[fuzzy]

Hey Fuzzy, are you running standard 260mm discs with 282bhp or m3 280mm discs because if its the 260mm you've got no reason to complain about brake fade, it's self inflicted.

standard sized discs. my point was the ATE stuff is crap compared to the EBC discs with red ceramic pads that i will be going back to. another poster said ATE is the same standard as original bmw parts. original thread poster says he warped his genuine discs on a 316. if he warped the genuine discs on a 316 then it wouldnt be worth using ATE stuff as he would probably do the same to them.

[abelai]

kevin316i has an on going problem with his brakes from other posts I've read and he said

the discs are the symptom of the problem.

I used to use ebc discs and red stuff pads on a Toyota Celica ST162 and although they stopped ok they only lasted 4000ish miles and evn they would fade, they just run too hot and turn discs blue all the time causing hairline cracks. Best thing I ever did was bin them and fit st205 aluminium 4 pots with 300mm x28 mm discs and standard pads lasted 25000 miles till I sold the car.

I'm not having a go, it's just you can't beat having bigger discs to dissapate the heat. If you could get E30 M3 running gear front and rear you'd have 280mm all round and a better ARB pick up on the front aswell.

[DaveD]

I have ate powerdiscs and have had no problems over 25k miles....

[E30Mike]

As a minor point to those who still plan to use BMW discs fitted by a garage, My BMW dealer is giving an extra 10% discount to trade customers during November and odds on this applies to all of them.

You could try a do a bit of arm twisting and get the garage to pass this on to you to cut your costs a little bit.

[E30Mike]

I have ate powerdiscs and have had no problems over 25k miles....

Does this mean that ATE have poor quality control or DaveD doesn't have sticking brake calipers?

[Brianmoooore]

An extremely effective way of warping brake discs is to hold the car still with the foot brake immediately after using them hard.

[Andy325i]

For the record I have never had a problem with ATE power discs and greenstuff pads. They bite very well when needed even after a few high speed stops (of course with decent brake fluid and aeroquips)

Also worth noting that a lot of brake judder problems are caused by not having the hub face perfectly clean when fitting new brake discs

HTH

Andy

[handpaper]

For general road use, yes, they'll be fine; for hard use with seriously uprated pads (Pagid RS29, Ferodo DS3000, Mintex 1155+), a very definite no.
I ruined three sets of ATE 'OE grade' front discs this year at the 'Ring; all of them died in heat-related ways, cracking, uneven hardening and warping. None got the chance to wear out.
For the same bloody price (in Germany, ATEs are much cheaper over here) I bought a pair of genuine BMW items which have put up with the same treatment without complaint.
They are not the same.

[AlpineAde]

I use ATE Powerdiscs and EBC Yellowstuff pads and have had no issues at all.

A lot of the E30 racing cars here in Oz use the same rotor/disc combination (some use EBC Blues) and I haven't heard of any complaints.

[Brian28]

Raced on ATE last year in PBMW no issues on my 318 or brothers 320, but we probably weren't going fast enough . Mintex pads, can't remember the compound but the kind they stopped making a while back we bought for £10 a set as old stock. No idea how the discs compare to BM originals.

[kevin316i]

Well, I decided to get a set of ATE discs and pads from ECP today when I ordered the new wishbones. If the the new wishbones, bushes and bearing sort the problem, the the discs should stay OK for a while. If the problem is still there, they won't have cost as much as the original BMW ones...

[E30Mike]

I'm by no means an expert on this subject but as far as I'm concerned,

The only things that should cause the disc warping problem are:-

Cheap discs, seized or at leasting sticking brake calipers, incorrect pads, maybe very bad wheel bearings or your driving sorry to say i.e. continually hard on the brakes so they are unable to cool down.

Changing anything else will only affect the ride and handling as they control the position of the complete front strut in relation to the road and make no differance to the brakes.

[kevin316i]

The last two sets of discs were original BMW, so can rule out cheap discs and pads. I'm very light on the brakes so they don't get too hot and use my handbrake whne stopped. The callipers are a possible issue, but I'm following my mechanics recommendations by getting new wishbones and bushes first. The new bearing will leave the callipers as the most likely culprit if the issues is still there, will be asking him to give them a good check also.
Fingers crossed.

[CustomX]

My drivers side rear disc cracked after a week of fitting - at BMW.

They replaced no questions asked.

Either I drove around with the hand-brake on for a week or they didn't fit them properly as I have never had that issue before.