350PsDMeuP

iTrader: (1)

Thanks again guys for all the advice, again im not going for better performance I just want the "LOOK". I'm just trying to figure out who makes some quality drilled rotors.

I figured if OEM is close to $400 a set i might as well get something a little more jazzy for a cheaper price and look better than the OEM rotors.

All I want are some descent rotors that do not squeak and look cool, as long as I can stop I'm good, HA

passnu2

iTrader: (33)

You can pretty much get them anywhere around here local to you. Lost of shops in the states mfg these here local or somewhat local to you. Some of the places, regardless of make of car, that sell on eBay are the actual MFG. I came across one and had purchased them for my NSX and I had them on the car while I was the owner and never once had any problems. It was all looks but I did it for the same reason you did they needed to get done and Acura wanted 2 arms and 1 leg Go to your local AutoZone or Auto parts store and they should also be able to help I would think.

al503

Slotted and/or drilled rotors serve a couple of different purposes.
1. Looks: no question that they look better
2. Peformance: for pads that produce a lot of gas, they will help with braking performance as the conditions turn to the extreme.

Why do certain manufacturers put them on as OEM? Number 1 definitely applies. Also, the drilled rotors give the manufacturer the option of using a higher performance brake pad that may gas a lot more than your typical street pad and therefore be incompatible with a blank rotor.

One of the biggest differences between the factory drilled rotors and aftermarket drilled rotors are the number and size of the holes. Look at the holes on rotor of a Ferrari and look at the holes on a popular aftermarket kit like Stoptech. The Stoptech rotors will have more holes and they will be noticeably bigger. Stoptech will be the first to advise that there is no warranty for cracking on these rotors regardless of whether they see any track time.

In short, whether a drilled rotor will crack depends on:
1. number of holes
2. size of holes
3. thickness of the rotor
4. total mass of the rotor.

kuuqi

before you go out to buy a set of brakes, make sure they're designed specifically for your car. i believe stoptech explained this saying that if a set of brakes are not specifically designed for a car, the ABS system will not know this and attempt to pump the brakes as normal under braking. because the whole braking system is now different, the ABS can go on and off as it's not working correctly with the new brakes, thus increase stopping distance.

just a heads up

Byprodrive

iTrader: (1)

Why do all Porsche with their Hi-po brake option have drilled rotors?

Slots use up pads faster

Byprodrive

iTrader: (1)

Stoptech is in Torrance, CA and they are a OEM fitment although I forget what vehicle. I am sure they would tell you.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

For looks. Really. Drilled does -nothing- for braking performance.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Brake pads haven't "gassed" like that since the 1950s. Which was the last time drilling holes in rotors was for anything but show. Look at the brakes on a Nascar of F1 car... Notice no drilled rotors?

suicidesam

hey "op" if you go for slotted post up a pic...thanks!

badx33

iTrader: (53)

i sent you a pm

carlos

iTrader: (1)

I had Rotora slotted rotors on my last car with EBC green stuff pads. They made noise every time I used the brakes. The noise was from the slots going through the pads. It was annoying as hell. I'm not sure if it was because of the pads, installation error (I doubt it), or just the way it is.

al503

Drilled and/or slotted rotors also help with the removal of brake dust from between the pad and rotor. Definitely a worthwhile performance benefit if the car is fitted with pads that dust heavily. I agree that it's probably more aesthetic v. performance, but as I stated earlier, it may give the manufacturer options that they might not have with blank rotors.

There are/could be several different reasons you don't see this in Nascar/F1:
1. just like restrictor plates or no slicks in F1, drilled/slotted rotors may simply be against the rules.
2. F1 uses carbon rotors and pads designed to operate up to 1000 degrees celsius (nascar probably to a lesser degree.) Not even an apples to oranges comparison here to production street cars.
3. Since the players here have arguably no real budget limit (especially in F1), they can probably spend an inordinate amount of money for brake components that gas and dust under a particular threshold. If these considerations aren't an issue, a blank rotor will provide useful, additional heat capacity.

al503

I had an Endless kit with slotted rotors on my last car. No noise.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Again, "gassing" hasn't been a problem with brake pads in a good 50 years or so.

Race cars don't generally use drilled rotors because they're inferior. They have a lower heat capacity because you're removing mass from the rotor, and they crack more easily.

The only time you'd use a drilled rotor in a race application would be if you didn't care about anything but lowering rotating mass as much as possible...to the point that you don't mind -down-grading your brakes (and decreasing their longevity) to accomplish this.



I give you the "those poor rotors" insert from Pulp Friction-

Those Poor Rotors
Let's look ot some common rotor "modification" and "performance" upgrades that you may have been exposed to. We'll try to separate the marketing from the engineering: Bigger rotors will make your friends think you are cool, bigger rotors look sexy, but bigger rotors do not stop the car. What a bigger rotor will do is lower the overall operating temperature of the brakes--which is a GREAT idea IF your temperatures are causing problems with other ports of the braking system.

Take, for exomple, a Formula 500 racer, a small 800-pound, single-seat formula car. While the brakes are certainly much smaller than those found on a 3000-pound GT1 Camaro, that does not necessarily mean that they need to be made larger. In fact, installing o GT1 brake package onto our formula car would probably do more harm than good. That's a lot of steel hanging on the wheel that needs to accelerate each time the gas pedal is pushed. So the motto of this story is bigger is better until your temperatures are under control. After that point, you are doing more harm than good, unless you really like the look. (And hey, some of us do.)

Crossdrilling your rotors might look neat, but what is it really doing for you? Well, unless your car is using brake pads from the '40s and 50s, not a whole lot. Rotors were first drilled because early brake pad materials gave off gasses when heated to racing temperatures, a process known as "gassing out." These gasses then formed a thin layer between the brake pad face and the rotor, acting as a lubricant and effectively lowering the coefficient of friction. The holes were implemented to give the gasses somewhere to go. It was an effective solution, but today's friction materials do not exhibit the some gassing out phenomenon as the early pads.

For this reason, the holes have carried over more as a design feature than a performance feature. Contrary to popular belief, they don't lower temperatures. (In fact, by removing weight from the rotor, they can actually cause temperatures to increase a little.) These holes create stress risers that allow the rotor to crack sooner, and make a mess of brake pads--sort of like a cheese grater rubbing against them at every stop. Want more evidence? Look at NASCAR or F1. You would think that if drilling holes in the rotor was the hot ticket, these teams would be doing it.

The one glaring exception here is in the rare situation where the rotors are so oversized that they need to be drilled like Swiss cheese. (Look at any performance motorcycle or lighter formula car, for an example.) While the issues of stress risers and brake pad wear are still present, drilling is used to reduce the mass of the parts in spite of these concerns. Remember that nothing comes for free. If these teams switched to non-drilled rotors, they would see lower operating temperatures and longer brake pad life, at the expense of higher weight. It's all about tradeoffs.

Slotting rotors, on the other hand, might be a consideration if your sanctioning body allows for it. Cutting thin slots across the face of the rotor can actually help to clean the face of the brake pads over time, helping to reduce the glazing often found during high-speed use which can lower the coefficient of friction. While there may still be a small concern over creating stress risers in the face of the rotor, if the slots are shallow and cut properly, the trade-off appears to be worth the risk. (Have you looked at a NASCAR rotor lately?

al503

Again, I'm not disagreeing with you. For the third time, I'm saying that slotted or drilled rotors MAY OFFER THE MANUFACTURER MORE OPTIONS with choice of pads, etc. Built correctly, (total mass, spacing/size/number of holes, etc.) Drilled rotors can be just as robust as a blank for a particular application. In other words, a manufacturer can over-build/over-design a drilled rotor to be more than adequate given the specs of the car it will go on.

Besides, do you know for a fact that Ferrari or Mercedes (and whoever else currently offers drilled brake rotors) haven't developed a new material/alloy/compound pad that may offer more mu but produce a lot more gas? Maybe they've developed a new pad composition that offers better heat resistance or less dusting, or better longevity, or all of the above but it just produced a little more gas than they prefer with a blank rotor.