Okay question for all you people out there. Recently I've heard from a forum member that drilled and slotted rotors are dangerous and are a downgrade for brakes. Now I personally don't see this is true. However this is not about what I believe but the facts. Since this person wouldn't tell me why they are dangerous and then called me childish I figured I would ask everyone else here. Please facts are most welcome. Even post up site or other links to help bring the correct information into the light.
Rotors. Drilled and slotted or not
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Okay question for all you people out there. Recently I've heard from a forum member that drilled and slotted rotors are dangerous and are a downgrade for brakes. Now I personally don't see this is true. However this is not about what I believe but the facts. Since this person wouldn't tell me why they are dangerous and then called me childish I figured I would ask everyone else here. Please facts are most welcome. Even post up site or other links to help bring the correct information into the light.
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Okay found a bit of info on wiki I want to share with everyone. This from that I can tell has the good and bad info about drilled and slotted. I will also link the entire page that give info and all types of brakes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_brake
"Many higher performance brakes have holes drilled through them. This is known as cross-drilling and was originally done in the 1960s on racing cars. Brake pads will outgas and under use may create boundary layer of gas between the pad and the disc that is detrimental to braking performance. Cross-drilling provides a place for the gas to escape. Although modern brake pads seldom suffer from outgassing problems, water residue may build up after a vehicle passes through water, and this can also impede braking performance. For this reason, and for heat dissipation purposes, cross drilling is still used on some braking components, but is not favored for racing or other hard use as the holes are a source of stress cracks under severe conditions.
Discs may also be slotted, where shallow channels are machined into the disc to aid in removing dust and gas. Slotting is the preferred method in most racing environments to remove gas, water, and de-glaze brake pads. Some discs are both drilled and slotted. Slotted discs are generally not used on standard vehicles because they quickly wear down brake pads; however, this removal of material is beneficial to race vehicles since it keeps the pads soft and avoids vitrification of their surfaces.
A mountain bike disc brakeOn the road, drilled or slotted discs still have a positive effect in wet conditions because the holes or slots prevent a film of water building up between the disc and the pads. Crossdrilled discs may eventually crack at the holes due to metal fatigue. Cross-drilled brakes that are manufactured poorly or subjected to high stresses will crack much sooner and more severely."
"Many higher performance brakes have holes drilled through them. This is known as cross-drilling and was originally done in the 1960s on racing cars. Brake pads will outgas and under use may create boundary layer of gas between the pad and the disc that is detrimental to braking performance. Cross-drilling provides a place for the gas to escape. Although modern brake pads seldom suffer from outgassing problems, water residue may build up after a vehicle passes through water, and this can also impede braking performance. For this reason, and for heat dissipation purposes, cross drilling is still used on some braking components, but is not favored for racing or other hard use as the holes are a source of stress cracks under severe conditions.
Discs may also be slotted, where shallow channels are machined into the disc to aid in removing dust and gas. Slotting is the preferred method in most racing environments to remove gas, water, and de-glaze brake pads. Some discs are both drilled and slotted. Slotted discs are generally not used on standard vehicles because they quickly wear down brake pads; however, this removal of material is beneficial to race vehicles since it keeps the pads soft and avoids vitrification of their surfaces.
A mountain bike disc brakeOn the road, drilled or slotted discs still have a positive effect in wet conditions because the holes or slots prevent a film of water building up between the disc and the pads. Crossdrilled discs may eventually crack at the holes due to metal fatigue. Cross-drilled brakes that are manufactured poorly or subjected to high stresses will crack much sooner and more severely."
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I'm in the midst of a brake upgrade on my car. After countless research I ended up ordering Centric rotors which are not drilled or slotted. The consensus from everyone I've talked - here, there, various companies such as Hawk, etc. seem to agree that a lot of what you said is true in regards to drilled/slotted rotors, cheaper ones in particular.
I honestly think a lot of people who go that route do it for the flash and potential bling factor. Myself, I'm a function over form guy in most all aspects of car/bike mods.
I honestly think a lot of people who go that route do it for the flash and potential bling factor. Myself, I'm a function over form guy in most all aspects of car/bike mods.
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I have heard about the stress cracks. However from what I've heard you have to do some pretty constant heavy braking to do that.
respectable brake manufacturers have put a lot of time and research into there products for safety as well as functionality. i do agree to a point that drilled and slotted rotors are for the most part superficial but on the other hand the if say you go from stock rotor size to a 13 in drilled and slotted you will have the added benefits of the larger rotor but you will save some weight. also as said above it will help if you run through some water to get your brakes back, and you would have to run them real hard to see any significant stress. and correct, you can not turn them.....in the end it depends on what you want to spend and how you like them.
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Oh I'm not saying there aren't potential benefits to slotted and or drilled rotors, I'm just saying that for most applications, they are probably overkill. Unfortunately there's a lot of crap out there (like any other automotive part) and people really need to do some research before plunking down their cash.
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If your looking into new rotors buy OEM blanks or EBC slotted an dimpled, right now i am on blanks with EBC redstuff pads. when i had the slotted an dimpled rotors they sure had some stopping power with OEM pads.
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are you for real guy?
this topic has been beaten to death.
for the record hes talking about me as being the person who said that stuff.
i've seen more warped drilled and slotted rotors then i can count, not to mention stress fractures, poor manufacturing quality.
a quality made solid rotor will provide the same braking as a drilled or slotted rotor, because most company that make drilled and slotted rotors do not know what they are doing and most people buying them don't take the time to do the research necessary to make an intelligent purchasing decision.
you want brake upgrade get stainless steel lines and better pads and a bigger rotor (SVT brakes). i tracked my focus for almost 2 years with SVT brakes...blank centric rotors, hawk HPS pads, SS lines, new fluid every 9 months. my car stopped almost on a dime. i did countless canyon runs, many full track days, lots of auto x, and i drove the piss out of my car, ask anyone that knows me or my car. my brakes NEVER once faded, i never once had a warped rotor. i did a track day in the middle of august in san diego (96+ outside) and i was hot lapping getting seat time in, no fade, no warpage nothing.
there were 2 miatas that had stress fractures on their brembo drilled rotors and 1 s2000 that had stillen (i think) slotted rotors warp. but every car running solid rotors was fine.
there was also a thread probably about a year or so back of a guy running drilled and slotted rotors on his SVT and the rotors caused fade and he went into a wall on a track at about 45mph.
don't believe me, make up your own minds whatever. i've tracked 2 cars a 400+whp turbo saturn and an svt motor swapped focus. i would NEVER run drilled and slotted rotors on any car. my jeeps that see off road time never had drilled and slotted rotors, my daily driven turbo passat never will have drilled and slotted rotors. i have a lot of seat time, i've driven cars with both, i will stick with what works. think otherwise all you want, maybe you won't have the issue with them, you won't have a problem. but why take the risk and the amount of money spent on them is not worth their supposed gain and definitely not worth the risk involved in them.
this topic has been beaten to death.
for the record hes talking about me as being the person who said that stuff.
i've seen more warped drilled and slotted rotors then i can count, not to mention stress fractures, poor manufacturing quality.
a quality made solid rotor will provide the same braking as a drilled or slotted rotor, because most company that make drilled and slotted rotors do not know what they are doing and most people buying them don't take the time to do the research necessary to make an intelligent purchasing decision.
you want brake upgrade get stainless steel lines and better pads and a bigger rotor (SVT brakes). i tracked my focus for almost 2 years with SVT brakes...blank centric rotors, hawk HPS pads, SS lines, new fluid every 9 months. my car stopped almost on a dime. i did countless canyon runs, many full track days, lots of auto x, and i drove the piss out of my car, ask anyone that knows me or my car. my brakes NEVER once faded, i never once had a warped rotor. i did a track day in the middle of august in san diego (96+ outside) and i was hot lapping getting seat time in, no fade, no warpage nothing.
there were 2 miatas that had stress fractures on their brembo drilled rotors and 1 s2000 that had stillen (i think) slotted rotors warp. but every car running solid rotors was fine.
there was also a thread probably about a year or so back of a guy running drilled and slotted rotors on his SVT and the rotors caused fade and he went into a wall on a track at about 45mph.
don't believe me, make up your own minds whatever. i've tracked 2 cars a 400+whp turbo saturn and an svt motor swapped focus. i would NEVER run drilled and slotted rotors on any car. my jeeps that see off road time never had drilled and slotted rotors, my daily driven turbo passat never will have drilled and slotted rotors. i have a lot of seat time, i've driven cars with both, i will stick with what works. think otherwise all you want, maybe you won't have the issue with them, you won't have a problem. but why take the risk and the amount of money spent on them is not worth their supposed gain and definitely not worth the risk involved in them.
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Thats pretty much the consensus I got from everyone I spoke with too and made my decision pretty easy. They're a division of StopTech, excellent quality products and the Centric line is really reasonably priced.
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i just want to point out also...that this topic has been BEAT TO DEATH.
there is a general consensus on what works and has been proven time and time again, its obvious by the OPs choice in mods that he never did any research on what parts he was actually buying. i wonder if he just listened to what F2 told him to buy...theyre a company looking to make money. they sold you what was most expensive.
you bought EBC pads, which are prone to spider cracking and glazing. you bought drilled and slotted rotors from stop tech, they do not make them. especially not for the focus. stoptech does not make both drilled and slotted, they make one or the other.
svt brakes
centric rotors
hawk hps pads
ss lines
new fluid
thats what the best set up is for the focus.
there is a general consensus on what works and has been proven time and time again, its obvious by the OPs choice in mods that he never did any research on what parts he was actually buying. i wonder if he just listened to what F2 told him to buy...theyre a company looking to make money. they sold you what was most expensive.
you bought EBC pads, which are prone to spider cracking and glazing. you bought drilled and slotted rotors from stop tech, they do not make them. especially not for the focus. stoptech does not make both drilled and slotted, they make one or the other.
svt brakes
centric rotors
hawk hps pads
ss lines
new fluid
thats what the best set up is for the focus.
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im not starting a pissing match, but you shouldn't call people out. we have differing opinions. i can provide oodles of info and oodles of experience and oodles of others personal experience to back mine up.
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ive had drilled aftermarket rotors and cheapie pads for over 75k on my SVT im really easy on my car/brakes ....def gonna go with a blank rotor next.....the dimples on the rotors get all rusty but other than that im a complaint free drilled rotor user
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I voted OEM blanks. If drilled or sloted were so much better, they would have been put on the SVT standard.
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I have no facts researched to back up this claim BUT isn't the general idea of braking:
Pads/rotors convert kinetic energy into heat via hydraulic pressure.
The faster you can remove/absorb that heat the better your brakes work.
You can absorb more heat in an object with more mass (generally). However you can lose heat faster (or dissipate) with an object with less mass (again, generally). This is why you'll see a lot of solid ceramic rotors, they won't absorb as much heat but they'll shed that heat much faster than metals.
A solid OEM non-drilled or slotted has more mass than a drilled/slotted rotor.
An OEM (or blank) rotor would be superior due to these (general) facts.
Again, perhaps I'm way off topic and there are a host of other things to address, but isn't this the GENERAL idea?
Personally, I always stick with blank rotors and a quality pad.
Pads/rotors convert kinetic energy into heat via hydraulic pressure.
The faster you can remove/absorb that heat the better your brakes work.
You can absorb more heat in an object with more mass (generally). However you can lose heat faster (or dissipate) with an object with less mass (again, generally). This is why you'll see a lot of solid ceramic rotors, they won't absorb as much heat but they'll shed that heat much faster than metals.
A solid OEM non-drilled or slotted has more mass than a drilled/slotted rotor.
An OEM (or blank) rotor would be superior due to these (general) facts.
Again, perhaps I'm way off topic and there are a host of other things to address, but isn't this the GENERAL idea?
Personally, I always stick with blank rotors and a quality pad.
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yes that is the general idea. thats what practice time and time again has shown.
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