Dba 4000 T3 Rotors - Catastrophic Failure At Track

[GTofuS-T]

They are marketed as road and track but warranted only for road.

The best answer to this is either Dixcel or Project Mu.

And only warranted for 12 months,

Agree that they should be notified for engineering/quality control improvements if possible, saying that would make a pretty cool clock.

[dan.1337]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm dealing with DBA on the matter now and will let you guys know the outcome after they digest the info which has been requested.

I'm not expecting a replacement set or anything like that from DBA. I'd rather that they can find out what the issue is and tell me if it's the way I drove, a bad batch, or something else so that it can be rectified and doesn't happen to anyone else.

I was lucky that nobody was in front of me at the time who was also in the braking zone, and also lucky that there was heaps of space for me to run off into. I carry a spare set of rotors when tracking so was able to also swap them out pretty easily and drive home.

[MrStabby]

DBA have form with this for quite a while http://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/186532-are-you-cracking-dba-rotors/

I spoke with them at the SAU NSW tech night, and they indicated that the metallurgy is strictly specified to give the right balance (for them) of a number of properties. To oversimplfy, you could consider the composition to be either long wear life (hard & brittle) selection, or a short life (soft & tough). IMO DBAs are too far down the hard/brittle end of the spectrum for track use and they shouldn't market their rotors for track.

The cheap arse RDA and D2/G4 etc rotors dont seem to have the same issue.

[GTRPSI]

To the two points I've highlighted in red;

I did a factory tour last year with Members of SAU NSW for one of our most excellent Tech Arvo's organised by the Club Execs.

1; According to DBA; ALL 4000 Series and 5000 Series are cast in a proprietary grade of cast iron in a foundry based in Sydney. This is to guarantee the quality & consistency of their flagship product.

2; In the standard R33 GTS-t rotor size; there is no DBA 2 piece rotor available, so you are left with the 1 piece 4000 series T3 slotted rotor OP has quite reasonably decided to use for trackwork on what I'd assume is a modified STREET CAR, not a dedicated track car.

6 track days and 2000km of street use doesn't "seem" like a great deal of time, and the nature of the failure isn't something that you'd expect; and even DBA suggest that an amount of radial surface cracking in tracked rotors is perfectly normal, and to be expected (as you have also pointed out).

I'd definitely be approaching DBA, and asking for their guidance, and possible ways to move forward; they are (in my experience) excellent to deal with, and are very understanding of enthusiasts who use their product as it was designed.

Simply telling people that they have misused the product and that they should suck eggs is hardly helpful.

Cheers, Dale.

Well being a large account in the brake game i have some DBA senior management on my speed dial....so i made a quick call for clarification from higher up the food chain.

I was told "partially" what i posted over the phone, its all made here and O/S regardless of range...yep i initially thought maybe what i was told in the industry was wrong after what you posted and was preparing to apologize about my post.

So i thought id get some proof for you in writing, obviously having seen the plant, you may have "assumed" its all made here as the senior management pointed out to me.

So i emailed their team anonymously to get it in writing.....i have sent you a copy in your inbox of that whole email ping pong.

Certainly not all made in Australia, as you will see in your message i even tried to weed it down to the T3 or club spec or 2 piece range to say its 100% Australian made, apparently not so.

Not taking away from the brand, they make some good stuff, just clarifying what you didn't know or miss interpreted.

OR maybe senior management and sales team dont know the upper end all made here.

In case you want the china ones direct......

http://zhengnuogroup.en.made-in-china.com/product/NbVmiaIDXyYh/China-Excellent-Dba-Brake-Rotors-for-Australia-Market.html

[Daleo]

Well being a large account in the brake game i have some DBA senior management on my speed dial....so i made a quick call for clarification from higher up the food chain.

I was told "partially" what i posted over the phone, its all made here and O/S regardless of range...yep i initially thought maybe what i was told in the industry was wrong after what you posted and was preparing to apologize about my post.

So i thought id get some proof for you in writing, obviously having seen the plant, you may have "assumed" its all made here as the senior management pointed out to me.

So i emailed their team anonymously to get it in writing.....i have sent you a copy in your inbox of that whole email ping pong.

Certainly not all made in Australia, as you will see in your message i even tried to weed it down to the T3 or club spec or 2 piece range to say its 100% Australian made, apparently not so.

Not taking away from the brand, they make some good stuff, just clarifying what you didn't know or miss interpreted.

OR maybe senior management and sales team dont know the upper end all made here.

In case you want the china ones direct......

http://zhengnuogroup.en.made-in-china.com/product/NbVmiaIDXyYh/China-Excellent-Dba-Brake-Rotors-for-Australia-Market.html

Hey Peter,

Read your email exchange; thanks for taking the time.

I guess it's like everything now; I'd like to say I'm surprised, but it's more like disappointment really.

Their "Premium product; locally made" quality assertion seems plausible, and as an enthusiast customer, you'd certainly want get behind them.

I took them at their word; perhaps I was being naive, but I did hope they would be honest, not just give us enthusiasts the standard sales guff.

[omnigear]

will this suit your needs? never had a problem with their stuff.

http://www.zshop.ca/parts/r33-performance-friction-front-dimpled-rotors-v-spec-brembo/

[sweefu]

Did DBA get back to you about this?

[dan.1337]

will this suit your needs? never had a problem with their stuff.

http://www.zshop.ca/parts/r33-performance-friction-front-dimpled-rotors-v-spec-brembo/

The PFC stuff did cross my mind, but it's just so damn expensive. I'm a budget racer so don't think I want to drop that sort of money on a set of rotors!

I'm considering just going for RDA blanks. Expansion and contraction should be better without the slots, they are cheap to run, and more surface area for the pad.

Did DBA get back to you about this?

I've send them photos of the rotor and my phone number which they requested, but that's all unfortunately.

[omnigear]

well if you get extra coin, they are worth every coin.

The PFC stuff did cross my mind, but it's just so damn expensive. I'm a budget racer so don't think I want to drop that sort of money on a set of rotors!

I'm considering just going for RDA blanks. Expansion and contraction should be better without the slots, they are cheap to run, and more surface area for the pad.

I've send them photos of the rotor and my phone number which they requested, but that's all unfortunately.

[dan.1337]

Quick update:

A DBA rep came out to have a look at the rotors today, then took them away for further analysis, and will send me a new set of the same rotors even though the others were well past their warranty period and I have no proof of purchase.

He did say that they have never seen the rotor separate from the hub before, so they wanted to investigate it further internally. Overall happy with their customer service.

[GTofuS-T]

That's great news!

It would be good to get feedback on what might have been the cause too for other prospective enthusiasts.

[GTSBoy]

Yeah, that's pretty bloody good service considering the warranty situation. I also await the forensics

[Daleo]

Brilliant result.

[MrStabby]

That's great - just keep a close eye on the new ones.

[Duncan]

Awesome response from DBA, great to see

[sweefu]

That's the type of service I would hope for from a company like DBA.

It's a strange one, I'm sure tonnes of people are running them without issue.

I've ran mine through hillclimbs, tarmac rally, drifting, time attack events plus 20,000km of street driving too - no issues so far.

[dan.1337]

I asked him to give me an update after they complete their investigations as I'm pretty curious to know why they failed, so will post the results once I hear back.

[Roy]

You are running a 324mm rotor with a spaced caliper?

That could likely to be a contributor to the cracking due to pad being in a different offset to what it is designed for. You can end up withba higher than ifeal temp differential across the rotor face

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

wow, that's insane!

I've had the older DBA4000 (the older straight slots) crack on me but not like that! You're so lucky nothing happened!

[Dan93]

Far out! Any updates from DBA?