Anyone have experience with cross drilled or slotted rotors?

[nunya]

for optimal performance, if you are running with cross-drilled or slotted rotors, you should get matching cross-drilled brake lines.

http://kalecoauto.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1

[Tungsten]

http://kalecoauto.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1

 

by Br Lann Date Added: 12/10/2008

I put these on my car and immediately raced a Honda Civic but when I went to stop I hit a telephone ..

 

Rating: 1 of 5 Stars [1 of 5 Stars]

 

 

 

Seriously? You will be fine with a good set of replacement brake rotors which will work just as good as the slotted or cross drilled. I run a set of Brembo rotors front and back and they work just as good as any slotted or cross drilled I tried on a WD21. I do recommend using the Akebono ceramic pads if you get decent rotors. Also, make sure your Master Brake Cylinder doesn't leak fluid and you're golden.

[piste]

for optimal performance, if you are running with cross-drilled or slotted rotors, you should get matching cross-drilled brake lines.

 

Gotta be careful with that...you need to stay consistent and only use that setup with cross-drilled pads!

[piste]

 

 

Seriously? You will be fine with a good set of replacement brake rotors which will work just as good as the slotted or cross drilled. I run a set of Brembo rotors front and back and they work just as good as any slotted or cross drilled I tried on a WD21. I do recommend using the Akebono ceramic pads if you get decent rotors. Also, make sure your Master Brake Cylinder doesn't leak fluid and you're golden.

 

Well....if regular plain old rotors "will work just as good as slotted or cross drilled." then why do they put slotted or cross drilled in high end performance vehicles?? So all of that is just a scam? No performance gains whatsover? Seriously?

 

According to the guys in this link....a cross drilled rotor set up led to dramatic braking improvement...together with metal matrix pads and stainless braided lines. Then again...they thought 4x4parts.com service was good so that should make one suspect right there.

http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/tabid/59/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/898/Project-Pathfinder-Brakes.aspx

 

Anywho...thanks for the tip on the Akebono's and my master brake cylinder is doing well...so far.

[shift220]

Well....if regular plain old rotors "will work just as good as slotted or cross drilled." then why do they put slotted or cross drilled in high end performance vehicles?? So all of that is just a scam? No performance gains whatsover? Seriously?

Because high performance vehicles are made to brake from 160+ mph where cross drilling and slots will make a significant difference. Under normal driving, these aren't needed and generally won't make a big difference in braking. Most of the time when switching to new brakes, people are replacing old, glazed over pads and rotors so the braking will feel much stronger to begin with.

 

You won't see slotted or drilled rotors on big 3/4 ton trucks and there's a reason for that. This is the type of braking system we need, not performance car.

[esy]

as most have already said, x-drilled and/or slotted rotors are unnecessary. even when i was auto-xing my cars a while back (mainly my S13 FB and Z32), i didn't even use x-drilled or slotted rotors. i did on my S13 for a bit, but found that ate away at my pads a lot faster than necessary while not providing proper enough of a braking improvement to warrant changing my pads out as often as i had to.

 

with my Z32, when i did a simple brake upgrade of CZP stock fitment brake upgrade which included front and rear blank rotors, PBR MM pads, CZP SS lines, full fluid flush with ATE super blue brake fluid, and a CZP brake master cylinder brace, my braking improved drastically. i wish i could've done the mods one by one to see how each affected braking feel and which affected it more, but i can say that those few things improved braking ability significantly.

 

as someone had already said, x-drilled and slotted rotors are usually used for vehicles stopping from much higher speeds that our trucks don't frequent much at all, as well as from an aesthetic standpoint. i had plans to get a BBK for my Z32 before i sold it, but i was simply going to go with blank rotors once again, anyways, with the BrakeMan BBK where you get a 13' rotor, 4-piston caliper, and much improved cooling vanes on the rotor.

 

either way, i'd go with blank rotors, and improve some of the pieces around the stock system. that's just me.

[johnm]

According to the guys in this link....a cross drilled rotor set up led to dramatic braking improvement...together with metal matrix pads and stainless braided lines. Then again...they thought 4x4parts.com service was good so that should make one suspect right there.

 

According to that link, they are towing 1000 lb over the rated vehicle load and have oversize tires. In other words, major stupidity. It's no surprise they think the OEM brakes are not good enough, since they were engineered to match a given tire size and vehicle gross weight. Also, notice that they didn't post any actual braking data (i.e. distance to stop) ...they only say the brakes make them feel "more confident."

 

I'm sort of getting the feeling that you just want to have drilled and/or slotted rotors?

[edicer2]

i wonder if z32 brakes will fit? I put the z32 brakes on my z31 with the turbo hubs off a 88t z31 and floating rotors and damn did that make a difference. I was told get sloted rotors for daily driving dont get drill or sloted and drilled because the drilled ones cool to fast and warp much quicker.

[XPLORx4]

Here's my 2 cents.

 

Some years ago, I replaced the stock rotors with cross-drilled/slotted Powerstop rotors and Akebono pads. Maybe I don't need them, maybe I could have gone with blanks. All I know is this:

1) With my 32" Goodyear MTRs, the stock brakes refused to engage the ABS on dry pavement, no matter how hard I stomped on the pedal. With the new brakes, that's no longer an issue.

2) When I purchased them, the cross-drilled/slotted rotors were actually CHEAPER than blanks.

3) They look cool.

 

Do what you wish.

[piste]

Thanks for all the input guys. It's not that I just want drilled or slotted rotors at all... its that I want to make an informed decision. Let me elaborate. I am the original owner of this '97 SE and in the 140K miles I've driven it...as best my records and recollection indicate...I've had the front brakes done twice..once at 90K miles and again at 128K miles including turning the rotors both times. NEVER had the rear drum brakes serviced yet after 13 years and 140K miles. Rotors in front are original ones. So as you can tell and ironically I'm not very hard on brakes due to anticipatory driving style. And I'm not one to pull off perfectly good rotors to be a whore for performance...it's simply that mine are toast at 1.003" (or so the garage sez..I plan to verify) and it's time to replace so it's an opportunity to seek a performance bump if it makes sense. On the other hand...the OEM setup has stood me quite well so there's an argument that sez don't fix what ain't broke and go OEM rotors and pads and be done with it.

 

Back to the slotted/drilled/blank question...I don't mind spending an extra $100 or so for say slotted and maybe compromise a few years of rotor life and somewhat reduced pad life even if that only gets me SLIGHTLY better performance given the rotors will likely last me 10 years give or take. But I also don't want to throw money away unnecessarily. Drilled are out for me...so it's between blanks and slotted....and while I hear you guys who are suggesting just stick with blanks....there's tons of people raving on tirerack about their slotted setup especially those who got the Hawk Performance Truck/SUV pads so that's kind of hard for me to conclude there's not much to that. And if you look at the reviews for the Hawk Truck/SUV pads it indicates what rotors people have and tons of people with light trucks and SUVs put slotted rotors on....were they all just that uninformed??

 

Am I overthinking all this? Maybe...but I did that with tires and glad I did. Revo 2's rock! Thanks again to all for your thoughts and opinions!

[MY1PATH]

Diminish useful life? That's kind of a hard answer to define. Performance parts, whether it brake rotors or something else, generally have less useful life, the trade off is higher performance. But like I said, unless you are doing a LOT of heavy breaking, the added performance isn't going to be noticeable to the everyday use.

 

I would suspect that new rotors, pads, drums and shoes, along with a good fluid flush should renew your braking system quite adequately.

 

Oh, I forgot, stainless steel brake lines are meant to eliminate the slight (read: barely noticeable) loss of braking performance from regular brake lines. When I was autocrossing, I replaced the ones on my car...the only difference it made was a slight difference in the feel of the pedal...I didn't notice any difference in performance.

 

slotted and drilled rotors are not a dimished as you would think, given proper care and use their nature (staying cooler, keeping the pads clean) prevents them from needing to be turned as often. So given the optimal situation, slotted/drilled rotors would end their life when they are too thin because they did not distort enough to need surfacing.

 

stainless lines make a much bigger differance on a 20 yr old rig who's old dry rubber lines stretch more than crisp new ones.

[piste]

slotted and drilled rotors are not a dimished as you would think, given proper care and use their nature (staying cooler, keeping the pads clean) prevents them from needing to be turned as often. So given the optimal situation, slotted/drilled rotors would end their life when they are too thin because they did not distort enough to need surfacing.

 

stainless lines make a much bigger differance on a 20 yr old rig who's old dry rubber lines stretch more than crisp new ones.

 

Well actually slotted wouldn't be turned AT ALL because they CAN'T be turned...right?

 

And you hit the nail on the head in terms of my thinking on the lines. I'm running 13 year old rubber ones and figure it's good preventive maint and likely braking benefits to spending the $100 to dump the old ones for stainless lines and be done with it for full remaining life of the vehicle.

 

Also curious if anyone has input on rear drums/shoes...I mean is my situation typical with 13 years without servicing the drums/shoes? Given I'm going to put in stainless lines, new rotors/pads, flush...should I add another $50 for new shoes to help REALLY tighten up the whole braking system? I suspect the drums are still fine. Everything just passed inspection...cept the rotors....but I suspect the shoes gotta be getting thin after 13 years.

[shift220]

Well years doesn't matter, its how many miles and how you brake on a regular basis. Most times I've heard drum brakes lasting into the 200,000 mile range without service.

 

Slotted rotors can be turned. Anything can be. Most automotive places will not though.

[adamzan]

I got slotted rotors and the Akebono ceramics as well. I just did a 15,000km road trip and am glad I put those on before I left. I didn't have any brake fade in the mountains and it actually brakes better (well to me anyway) than a wd21 with the 4 wheel disc. (I have drum rear)

[Kingman]

I noticed a difference with drilled/slotted rotors and ceramic pads. The brakes barely fade at all going down steep mountain roads anymore, towing a trailer down used to be pretty sketchy. It doesn't seem to stop in a much shorter distance, but it's more consistent. I'll be upgrading to stainless lines sometime soon as the pedal is beginning to get a little too mushy for me.

[MY1PATH]

I noticed with the drums that every time I did a bleed (every 2 yrs or so) I would have to manually dial back the ajuster because they were locking up, or just grabbing hard before the fronts were doing hardly anything.

[piste]

At this point I'm leaning toward keeping it simple and stay with blanks. Being as I got 13 good years out of OEM rotors I'm debating between those at $272 or Brembo at $122. Might just go with OEM pads too being as I've had zero noise or dust out of them. Pretty well set on braided lines....MY1PATH nailed my thinking on those.

[jasonb]

my $.02 on the slot/drill thing: if they are not suitable for track then they are not a performance upgrade. they are an aesthetic upgrade only imo.

 

 

from tirerack.com:

 

IMPORTANT REMINDER: Slotted, drilled or dimpled rotors offered as OEM replacements should not be considered appropriate for high-speed track use.

 

While grooved, drilled and slotted rotors offer an enhanced appearance and add some resistance to the boundary layer of gasses that can build up between the pad and rotor, they are not designed to withstand the extreme temperatures that are produced on the racetrack. If they are used on the track, it is very important that the rotors be carefully inspected and should not be driven on if even minor signs of deterioration are seen. Note, too, that if any products are used on the track they are not warrantable.

 

EDIT: found a neat pic on cobalt friction web site (I just ordered XR3's for my miata). This is probably not a cross drilled rotor

 

Edited August 19, 2010 by jasonb

[jasonb]

I was pretty unhappy with the braking performance of my '96 until recently. it didn't seem like the rear brakes were doing much of anything and the front napa pads were doing kind of a poor job.

 

So i got new but cheap front rotors and rear drums. I wanted a little more braking from the back so i found porterfield R4S shoes for R50 (horsepowerfreaks carries) for $78. I have this compound on my M3 and they are quite good street pad. I then called up Hawk for advice on the fronts and they said their high performance street compound or the light truck compound would be a good choice. They said the R4S compound is slightly more aggressive and would shift braking balance slightly towards rear. this is what i was after so i went with HPS front pads (LTS was sold out at the time). (I believe LTS is a little more aggressive than HPS).

 

I installed the HPS fronts first and braking improved. Then i put the rears and it further improved by a noticeable amount. So it is worthwhile to watch which compound you put in back. now i am planning on going to rear disc in back and selling my drum setup.

 

IMO put your money in the pads. the rotors are all the same unless you start warping them. if they warp, upgrade from chinese blanks to brembo blanks and your good. i have seen arguments for slotted rotors that they help with evacuating the gas from the pads. in my experience, if your pads are outgassing enough for that to make a difference, you are using them outside of their designed temp range and you should change pads.