Brake Rotors are an essential part of the awesome brake systems fitted to the Aston Martin DB9 and Vantage.  They are also a routine wear item, and will eventually need replaced.  You can safely expect to get 20K miles or more from a set of Rotors (unless you track your car all the time).  When it is time to replace them I wanted to share you have more options than just going to the dealer and retting a set of the original OEM brake rotors.   As I’ve discussed in my other article on “Everything you might want to know about your Aston Martin Brake System” (check it out here) our brake system is made by Brembo, and was fitted to other high performance cars of the same era like the Corvette ZR1.  This is good news for us since it has led to a few more brake rotor options to choose from.

One misnomer is that you always have to change your brake rotors when you change your pads.  This simply isn’t the case.  You need to change the rotors when they have no service life left.  I’ve written another article on how to inspect your brakes and rotors so you’ll know when they are needing changed (check it out here).

If you’ve determined your rotors do need changed here are a number of your options to replace them.

Remember brake rotors are usually sold individually (Qty 1) but of course you need to change them in sets (Qty 2), so make sure you consider this when reviewing prices.   Brake rotors are also VERY heavy, so shipping them has a considerable cost.  If one vendor is $10 more expensive than another but offers free shipping, you should factor this in.

Note:  I’ve written this article about my car, a 2005 Aston Martin DB9 coupe with the standard 4 piston steel brakes.  This article does NOT apply to cars fitted with the awesome Carbon Ceramic CCM brake option.  The brakes on my car are by far the most common for all the Aston’s, and span 2004 though a least 2016.   Just double check that the rotors you go to purchase are also designated for your car.

Aston Martin OEM Brake Rotors

The default choice for most of us is just to get a set of new brake rotors from Aston Martin.   You may have not even thought about it since you just took the car to the Aston dealer for brake service.  While this is certainly a fine solution, its also a very expensive option.   There is no reason you can’t do the job yourself just as well (which is what this blog is all about), or you can take your car to a specialist and ask them to do the work.

Aston doesn’t actually make their own brake rotors, they certainly source them from someone else that is expert at making rotors.   Since the system was designed by Brembo, it wouldn’t surprise me if they are Brembo rotors just stuck in a generic Aston Martin box.   Whoever makes them, this is our reference standard.    Here is what you need to know if you want to get a set of these:

• Front Rotors
  • Aston Martin part number 4G43-28-10265
  • Dimensions: 355mm x 32 mm (14” x 1.25”)
  • Weight:  about 26.5 pounds
  • Cost
    • Redpants.lol sells a pair of them for about $525 USD online here ($262.50 each)
    • Scuderia Car Parts USA sells them for about $209 online here
    • If you are in the UK or EU, HWM England can sell them to you a little cheaper at about $187 USD each (£144.06+vat).   Contact their Parts Team and let them know you read about it here and they will hopefully hook you up with a good price
• Rear Rotors
  • Aston Martin part number 4G43-28-10266
  • Dimensions: 330mm x 28 mm (13” x 1.1”)
  • Weight:  about 20.5 pounds
  • Cost
    • Redpants.lol sells a pair of them for about $550 USD online here ($275 each)
    • Scuderia Car Parts USA sells them for about $218 USD each online here
    • If you are in the UK or EU, HWM England can sell them to you a little cheaper at about $195 USD each (£149.95+vat).   Contact their Parts Team and let them know you read about it here and they will hopefully hook you up with a good price.

Depending on where you get them from, a full set of Aston Martin OEM Front and Rear rotors may cost you $1,075 USD (plus tax and shipping).  Check out the next option for a cheaper alternative.

Brembo Rotors

Brembo sells brake rotors direct.  I hadn’t realized this until recently when a few readers have left comments on the blog that they were able to buy them from various sources.   I’ve dug in an found that Brembo does in fact make rotors for the DB9’s and Vantages.    The Brembo direct website can be found here.   What became confusing is that the part number and availability seems to vary by country.  I’ve found two part numbers for each of the front and rear rotors.  I’ve also discovered that they aren’t well stocked.

I think if you can track a set of these down they will be identical to the OEM rotors from Aston.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they were the exact same rotors.   The good news is that they are considerably less expensive, and you can probably contribute that to the massive markup that Aston probably applies to them if they resell them.

Here’s what I have found:

• Front Rotors

  • 

    Brembo Part Numbers

    • 09.8780.21 is what I found if I lookup my car on the Brembo direct website
    • 4G43-28-10265-BRE is what I found by recommendations from other readers.  Notice that it’s the same part number as the original Aston Martin OEM rotors, but with a –BRE added to the end.
  • Dimensions and weight are essentially the same as the Aston OEM rotors
  • Cost – This is where it got trickier.
    • The USA Brembo Direct website only listed the front rotor 09.8780.21 part number, and it was out of stock currently when I wrote this article.   If it was in stock, they were selling it for about $129 USD, about $133 less EACH than the Aston OEM rotor.  Check out the link here.
    • Scuderia Car Parts USA sells the 4G43-28-10265-BRE part number online for just $89 each.  That’s a whopping $173 USD EACH savings over the Aston OEM rotors.
    • Google searching the 4G43-28-10265-BRE part number turned them up on eBay from what looks like a reputable seller located in Beverly Hills, CA (an Aston dealer selling out the back door?).  You can check out the auction here.  They had them listed on eBay for about $180 USD each, a $82 savings over the Aston OEM rotors.   I don’t think there would be anything wrong with snagging a set off eBay.
• Rear Rotors
  • Brembo Part Numbers
    • 09-8781-21 is what I found if I lookup my car on the Brembo direct website UK website.  The US website doesn’t even list rear rotors for the DB9.  I have no idea why not.
    • 4G43-28-10266-BRE is what I found by recommendations from other readers.  Notice that it’s the same part number as the original Aston Martin OEM rotors, but with a –BRE added to the end.
    • Dimensions and weight are essentially the same as the Aston OEM rotors
    • Cost – This is where it got trickier.
      • As I mentioned the Brembo Direct US website didn’t even list them.  If you use the UK website, it appears you can get them for about £ 94.26.   Great if you are in the UK or EU, but for the US you’ll need to explore other options below
      • Scuderia Car Parts USA sells the 4G43-28-10266-BRE part number online for just $82 each.  That’s a whopping $193 USD EACH savings over the Aston OEM rotors.
      • Google searching the 4G43-28-10266-BRE part number turned them up on eBay from the same seller as the front rotors (check out the auction here).  They had them listed on eBay for $176 USD each, a $99 savings over the Aston OEM rotors.   Again, I don’t think there would be anything wrong with snagging a set off eBay.

The next time I need a new set of brake rotors, I would definitely buy a set of these Brembos instead of a new set of Aston OEM rotors.   For just $342 you can have a set of all four, and that’s a whopping $733 USD total savings over the Aston OEM rotors and get a near identical product.

Wilwood 2 Piece Rotors

One of the largest and well known aftermarket brake system manufacturers is Wilwood Disc Brakes.  You see them fitted to almost all the aftermarket custom cars you’ll see on Jay Leno’s Garage, Bitch’in rides, etc.  From what I’ve discovered the quality is excellent, and the company is in the USA.

Wilwood has designed a 2 piece brake rotor that is a direct replacement for the stock Aston OEM brake rotors.  Take the old ones off, bolt the Wilwood one on.   The 2 piece design means that they rotor is made up of an aluminum central hub (that you always reuse) and a replaceable steel rotor (the part that wears).   After fitting a set, in the future when you have worn them down, you just purchase the rotor portion and bolt it to your existing hub.   Cool.

The Wilwood rotors are also significantly lighter than the Aston OEM rotors.  Richard Seidlitz over at Redpants.lol took the time to weigh the front and rear rotors and compare them to the OEM rotors (check out his article here), and he found the weight savings was about 4 lbs per rotor, adding up to 14 lbs – 6 oz.  total weight savings.   As I discussed in my other article on the Power to Weight Ratio of an Aston Martin (check out that article here), reducing weight at the wheels is the holy grail of weight reduction as it reduced rotational inertia, improved acceleration and handling.   Dropping 14 lbs – 6 oz of weight from the car is like adding about 2 bhp to the engines power.   All good things!

Wilwood only sells the rotors as a kit that includes the two front and two rear rotors.  Everything you need to replace your existing Aston OEM rotors.   The kit is Wilwood Part Number 140-13106 and costs a hefty $2,432 USD if you buy them direct from Wilwood.   Wow, that’s nearly $2,090 USD more than buying a full set of Brembo rotors I described above.

You can also purchase the Wilwood rotor kit from other vendors:

• Redpants.lol offers them for $2,172 USD online here
  • My recommendation is buy them from Rich at Redpant.lol
• Speedway Motors offers them for $2,172 online here

Even buying them discounted for $2,172 (about $1,830 more than the full set of Brembo’s) that’s a lot of extra money to drop 14 pounds from the car (at a price of $915 per bhp gained).   There are a lot cheaper ways to make your car faster and lighter.  You won’t save that back in future brake jobs by just changing the rotor discs, a set of them costs $1,275, still three times more than a complete set of Brembo rotors.   You can’t discount the cool factor though, a set of 2 piece rotors looks super cool.   I’d consider putting these on my car if I was running a set of rims that would really show off the mechanical beauty of the brake rotors and calipers.

Aston 6 Piston Front Brake Kit

Aston Martin offered an even larger set of front brakes on the V8 Vantage S.  They upped the rotor size to 380mm ( up from the original 355mm) and fitted massive 6 piston calipers and pads (versus the 4 piston calipers that were standard).   These larger brake rotors, larger brake pads and stronger calipers means you can really stomp on the brakes and haul it to a stop in a hurry.   Richard Seidlitz offers a complete conversion kits (rotors, calipers, pads, hardware) etc. over at Redpants.lol check it out here).   For about $6,195 USD you can really upgrade your cars braking performance.  You can order the calipers in Black, Grey, Silver or Red colors.  What’s cool about this is that its still all Aston Martin parts, so you can be sure it works with your car and will just add to the value.

Should you?   If you aren’t tracking your car regularly or driving very aggressively, there is no point.   These brakes won’t be any different in stop and go urban traffic.   You will also need to consider if these larger brakes will fit inside your existing rims.   They are a larger diameter, so you need clearance inside the rims for them (I’d suggest you talk to Richard about the fitment prior to ordering them from him, he probably knows if they will fit within the stock rims).

Notice that this is just for the Front brakes.  There is no 6 piston upgrade for the rear brakes since there is no need.   About 70% of the braking is done by the front brakes on any car, and the Aston OEM brakes on the rear are plenty powerful enough.   You would just choose between the other rear rotor options noted above.

Brembo Big Front Brake Kit

Similar to the Aston Martin 6 piston front brake upgrade noted above, Brembo also has a large brake kit.  They offer the kit with a few options you can choose from:

• Slotted brake rotors for venting (similar to the Aston OEM rotors) or Drilled brake rotors (which looks really cool)
• Choice of Red, Black or Silver brake calipers emblazoned with the Brembo logo in white.

From what I understand the kits will include everything you need including rotors, pads, calipers, brake lines and hardware.   The same challenge will exist to make sure they fit within your rims.

I found the Brembo kits listed online here at the Brembo website.

I found them for sale online over at TireRack.com for about $4,411 USD.   This is significantly less expensive than the Aston Martin 6 Piston upgrade noted above, but still a ton of money.   As with that upgrade, I think you should only take this approach if you drive the heck out of your car and/or want to show them off as a styling queue.

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What’s Stopping You?

Well there you have it, a number of options to choose from for your car.  I’ve created a simple poll below to find out what you’ve decided to run on your car.   Please take a second to add your vote.  I think its kinda cool to see what people are choosing, and sometimes it gives me the confidence to take the leap.

If you know of some other brake rotors options or sources I haven’t mentioned here, PLEASE share them in the comment section below so we can all benefit from what you’ve learned.

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Looking for Brake Pads Too?

If you are looking for a set of brake pads to go with your new rotors, you also have a number of aftermarket options.  I’ve done the research and writing an article (check it out here).