LA964RS

looking to purchase car w/PCCB w/lots of cracks in rotors...in between holes, etc. I'd guess this may be a prob. Low mile car w/no track time says owner. As such, looked but did not find pic(s) of cracks on PCCB Gen 1. Anything would be helpful. thanks.

Rob in VA

What car/year are you looking at? I thought Generation II comes on 2004+ cars.
Might be a good idea to take it to a dealer for a PPI?

guykoken

To my knowledge, PCCB Rotors don't crack. Rather, chunks fall out of them. I suspect that the front ceramic rotors on that car have been replaced with steel ones. Are there grooves in the front rotors? If so, then for sure they're steel ones. It's possible that the rear rotors have also been replaced. Examine them closely. If there is any visable sign of wear, they too are probably steel. You can also check by scratching them with your fingernail. Ceramics are harder. If the rears are ceramic, then when it's time to replace them, do so with the rear steel rotors for a 997 GT3, as to use the rear steels for a 996GT3 necessitates different rear calipers than the ones which came on a 996 GT3 with the ceramic brake option.

From your description, it's likely the rotors need replacing. There are lots of threads on that.

All factory installed ceramic rotors on 996 GT3s are Generation I.

Richard Bain

Greg A

These pics do not show cracks, but you may find them useful anyway.

More groovy PCCB photos

Greg A

iLLM3

PCCB's do indeed get cracked as well has surface errosion if that is the right word.. Im running GT3 steele rotors on my GT2 right now with Pagid Yellow's and the setup is awesome, but i was thinking of putting the ceramic discs back on which is probably stupid! I will post up pictures and see what you guys think, of the life left in the rotors

Moogle

Lots of people use the GT3 or Cup rotors and keep the PCCBs for potential resale - saves $$$, performance is mostly the same, only downside is more brake dust.

stuka

So the GT3 front steel rotors are direct bolt on?

And if I plan on keeping my PCCB rears with stock pads, what pads should I get for the GT3 steel rotors to keep the brake bias?

And yes, I am paranoid about my still pristine PCCB's.

LA964RS

the discs I've seen are cracked between the cooling holes. on virually every hole. Car has under 6k on it....so wondering if these are throw aways or got life. No chunks out...just cracks.

guykoken

I had mine taken off my GT3 when it had about 7,500 miles on it. The car had been tracked, but not hard. They look brand new. The ones you're talking about sure sound like they're steel. Are the discs at all grooved? If so, they are steel, not PCCB.

Richard Bain

Edgy01

None of the non-PCCB rotors are steel. They are iron.

Bob Rouleau

Do a search on the 996 GT2 forum back in 2003 you will find photos of destroyed ceramic rotors there. I don't recall if I had cracks. I had chunks come out of the surface and in the rear a large chunk came off the rotor right at the edge. When I say large, the chunk was over 1.5 inches long and left a crater about 1/2 inch deep.

LA964RS

I've seen the cheese grated rotors. I did a search on-line here and on 6speed. More interested in normal wear "look" as in, do they all crack between the holes or is that a sign that they are about to fail.

Bob Rouleau

LARS - when mine failed I do not recall cracks. The first indication was surface discoloration. Then the discolored areas got rough and would wear out pads in one day. Then chunks came off. Then I discovered that rotors cost $8,700 EACH.

AllanJ

Here's a pic of my front Gen I rotor. You can see the crack between a pair of holes (there are several of these on my rotors) and I have no idea how long it'll take these rotors to go from this stage to Bob's example of a complete failure. Due to how these rotors look normally, cracks may be hard to see with a casual glance so have a close look at them. I can catch a fingernail on a couple of them but definitely not all. Also, the cracks I see on mine are only on the top surface, they don't go all the way through the rotor.

BTW, even though this crack is fairly easily seen in this pic, it's due to the lighting with the camera. If I handed you the rotor in person it's much harder to see because the cracks look like the fibers in the rotor construction.

LA964RS

The ones I saw were like that but in essentially every hole!