Brake rotor discussion

Don't bother with slotted rotors. Do the blanks like everyone else said.

paul wrote: I've always went with brembo blank rotors. Everyone tells me the metallurgy etc is the same from brand to brand & it's useless paying the premium price, but I consistently get great wear from them w/ more aggressive pads (e.g. hawk HP+).

you may be into something... I got myself in a situation a while back and had to by some O'Reilly brand rotors... after 2 track days one had a pretty good sized crack in the middle... never had any problems with the Brembo's ... O'Reilly manager said if I had bought some of their better ones Wagner etc he might have helped me out but since I'd bought the Chinese POS's no such luck

Can you get any of the rotors cadmium plated? I STRONGLY recommend this... not for the braking surface itself(that part of the layer will be gone soon enough, but for the areas you can't see.

The advantage to a plated rotor is usually less decay in the none working areas... like inside the cooling vanes on a vented rotor. keeping the other areas nice and clean also helps you feel good, but the plating helps with keeping the rest of the rotor in good shape

Concerning pads and rotors in general... stock pads usually work well with any rotors...(almost any) The REAL differences come about when you begin to lean on the brakes a LOT, and you upgrade pads that generate more heat. NOW is when you want to remember you got a well made rotor... because rotor warping happens and happens often

Have you looked into KVR???

dam dude, escort 10.25 rotors are like $15 each for the cheapies by me.

Javelin wrote: Go for the Centrics, but please lose those pads. We've had a set of EBC Yellows brake in half and had poor performance from greens as well, all on different vehicles. Hawk HPS or PerformanceFriction are better choices IMO.

I've had TWO sets of Hawk pads break in half so do your homework before buying those please.

chknhwk wrote:

Javelin wrote: Go for the Centrics, but please lose those pads. We've had a set of EBC Yellows brake in half and had poor performance from greens as well, all on different vehicles. Hawk HPS or PerformanceFriction are better choices IMO.

I've had TWO sets of Hawk pads break in half so do your homework before buying those please.

I've had THREE sets of Duralast pads break in half.

oldeskewltoy wrote: Can you get any of the rotors cadmium plated? I STRONGLY recommend this... not for the braking surface itself(that part of the layer will be gone soon enough, but for the areas you can't see. The advantage to a plated rotor is usually less decay in the none working areas... like inside the cooling vanes on a vented rotor. keeping the other areas nice and clean also helps you feel good, but the plating helps with keeping the rest of the rotor in good shape Concerning pads and rotors in general... stock pads usually work well with any rotors...(almost any) The REAL differences come about when you begin to lean on the brakes a LOT, and you upgrade pads that generate more heat. NOW is when you want to remember you got a well made rotor... because rotor warping happens and happens often Have you looked into KVR???

Didn't notice this post, before. My bad. Don't want you to think i'm ignoring you.

The Centrics are coated, but i don't know if they're cadmium or not, or if they're coated on the inside. Something to check on.

I've looked into KVR for other cars... i'm not sure that i saw anything when i was shopping for this one. What are you experiences?

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: . What are you experiences?

in recent years... I had drilled KVR rotors on an AE86, and I ran Project Mu NS pads. Other mods to the braking system were SS lines and a master cylinder stopper (device that limits firewall flex during hard braking)

I opted for the NS pads because a year or so previously I had an accident that was DIRECTLY caused by Performance Friction Carbon Metallics, and them being cold - long story short... you need the CORRECT pad... for the CORRECT situation. So called "performance" brake pads can be dangerous to use in street situations since many performance pads need substantial heat to operate correctly... and substantial heat in your brakes is NOT often found on the streets.

Has anyone had a problem with Brembo plain vented rotors warping or shipping with a warp? I bought some online a couple years ago for my Olds and went straight from box to bolted on (after a light wash in brake fluid of course) and with brand new EBC Green Stuff pads up front, I had a slight warped rotor feel to them since new. Tried to bed them in using the Bendix method (or as close as I could get to that, which I think I achieved) but they had a vibration under braking from day one.

A couple friends have said they turned rotors before even taking them out of the store, should I have done that? What do I do to avoid this next time?

pres589 wrote: Has anyone had a problem with Brembo plain vented rotors warping or shipping with a warp? I bought some online a couple years ago for my Olds and went straight from box to bolted on (after a light wash in brake fluid of course) and with brand new EBC Green Stuff pads up front, I had a slight warped rotor feel to them since new. Tried to bed them in using the Bendix method (or as close as I could get to that, which I think I achieved) but they had a vibration under braking from day one. A couple friends have said they turned rotors before even taking them out of the store, should I have done that? What do I do to avoid this next time?

I have been told this by a couple of old school car guys but I have never had an issue just using rotors out of the box.

I've had rotors damaged in shipping, looked like the outer circumference was mushroomed from dropping on end. It only took a light cut to true em.

I'm no expert- building my first "serious" autocross car now. But I'll share my thinking. I'm going with whatever looks lightest. Wish they posted the weight of the rotors. But probably just stock replacements. Most of the aftermarket brake rotors are designed to disipate heat better. That's great if you're doing laps at the track, but I don't see the need for an autocross car.

I run Yellows on my E Stock MR2 and I've been happy with them. But I know a lot of fast guys who run Hawk. I'll probably try them. I haven't really looked into pads yet.

^I didn't really think of weight save for asking Erik about a BBK, which he shot down pretty quickly.

I've been so dissatisfied with the brakes on this car so far that i was ready to just ditch them completely and start from scratch, but i got talked into (and rightfully so, i'm sure) just rebuilding the stock system ground up with the right stuff this time.

I'm not sure how much i'm worried about weight of the rotors... the fronts are the only vented ones. The rears are solid, and they'll all weigh within grams of each other i'm sure. I can afford a couple pounds here or there on the car. I'm anticipating a finished weight of ~2300lbs, give or take 50. They were light to begin with, power steering is going away, a/c is going away, i bought some ~13lb wheels from eric, etc etc etc.

I'm sure the weight distribution won't be great, but what FF car is?

pres589 wrote: Has anyone had a problem with Brembo plain vented rotors warping or shipping with a warp?

I've put all 4 rotors on my 325i and fronts on my wife's TSX using Brembo OEM blanks straight out of the box, just cleaned 'em up. Never had the slightest problem with them. They were $60-70 each via internet.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

chknhwk wrote:

Javelin wrote: Go for the Centrics, but please lose those pads. We've had a set of EBC Yellows brake in half and had poor performance from greens as well, all on different vehicles. Hawk HPS or PerformanceFriction are better choices IMO.

I've had TWO sets of Hawk pads break in half so do your homework before buying those please.

I've had THREE sets of Duralast pads break in half.

LOL Guess they should change it to 'Ditn'tlast'.

chknhwk wrote: I've had TWO sets of Hawk pads break in half so do your homework before buying those please.

I've raced exclusively on Hawk pads for years and never had an issue other than wearing them completely out down to the metal before realizing they were worn.

i've been running ebc green's on my dd '09 corolla for about 30k miles, and they're great. awefully dusty, but as long as you spray your wheels off every week or so, it comes off really easily. they seem to warm up the same as stock, but with sooooo much more stopping power. i am going to try r4s's next though.

The weird thing about Greens that i found is that despite the dusting... they don't wear. At all. I ran a set for about 30k miles like you, took them off, and they almost had full meat still on them.

I ran my 2000 ZX2SR for six years, doing a couple track days, a few auto cross's and maybe a hill climb. I replaced the front rotors with NAPA rotors, only because I was leary of rust around the hat on the oems. I have always used HPS and HP+ pads. Never had any brake problems, no "warpage". One thing I did, I always cleaned the rotor when I installed knew pads. The car weighed 2420 lbs with a lite weight battery. The battery helps the weight distribution a litle. This was in full street trim as It was also a DD.