I'm looking to upgrade my stock brakes on my 6th gen because the rotors warp < 20,000 miles. Mileage is about 80% highway and I'm not a last second braker or even a speed freak.

Are slotted rotors worth the money where they'll last longer without warpage? I've seen deals on slotted/crossdrilled rotors c/w semi-metallic pads for < $300 through R1.

 

Get blanks.

 

I was in the same predicament a while ago and ended up going for the blanks. Slotted would help a LITTLE if you were to be autoxing your car often, but other than that, it's not really worth it.

Also, down the road not too many shops would be willing to "cut" the rotors because the slots could possibly screw up their machines.

The slots also reduce the amount of surface area that the pads can grab onto, so that also reduces braking distance. As for the "cooling," like I said unless you do 100+mph braking down to 40mph stops within a short amount of distance very often, then you sure as hell don't need these.

hope this helps
dan

 

blanks.

btw, slotted would not help autocrossing in any way, shape, or form. They are a waste of money, as are drilled rotors - unless looks is all you're looking for.

 

^^^ that too ^^^ I just woke up from a long nap and couldn't cover every aspect!

 

Out of curiosity, why would a huge corporation like Mercedes Benz throw drilled rotors on some of their higher end AMG models?

 

Mainly for the "wow" effect and it's easier to price-up the rotors since they are "performance rotors from Mercedes" lol Another thing is that they will be eating through the pads like crazy, and I doubt that they would be willing to "cut" the rotors and instead would make excuses that the drills/slots would **** up their machines. So imo it's mainly a money market for benz...for my moms ML320 they wanted close to $1,500 if not more for f/r rotors and pads. I told my dad to get autozone stuff and he ended up paying $<500, if that and both of us installed them in a couple of hours.

But then again, these are cars that can easily do spirited runs up to 155mph regularly and maybe that's why the engineers thought of the "venting" advantages, even though for a daily driver it is totally unnecessary.

 

My experience is that using Cross-Drilled or Slotted rotors will have little effect unless you are really leaning on them. A time when it will make a difference is if it is raining, but even then it will not be too noticeable under normal conditions. Emergency braking in wet or snowy weather, maybe.
Two key comments. First, match the pads and rotors to your driving style. If you drive normally 95% of the time (fast is okay, I mean how much do you use your brakes), I'de use regular pads and rotors. If you drive hard, brake a lot and late brake, you might try semi-metallic. Unless you autocross I would skip even thinking ceramic as you'll never get enough heat in them to make them work properly on the street. Second, do not cheap out. My last set of rotors were inexpensive cross-drilled (about $70 each) and they warped within 10k miles. At under 15k I had to replace front pads and rotors, and I am a 95% normal type driver. When they were new you could sense a slight difference in the rain, but after a couple of 1000 miles they lost it. I just replaced them with good quality, but not expensive, pads and blank rotors.

 

Blanks.

If you're doing regular track days then you could possibly justify slotted as they effectively "clean" the pads, but they're more prone to cracking and eat up your pads quicker.

The main you'll see race cars using cross-drilled rotors is for unsprung weight savings, not cooling.

Cross-drilled smallish rotors with low-gas pads: rice.

/thread.

 

i differ here on this subject. i put a set of stock sized EBC dimpled and slotted rotors along with EBC green stuff pads on my Lincoln Mark VIII. i did notice a big difference in braking power and brake fade is quick stops from 120+ mph down to 20-30 mph.

i also have to disagree in the slotted rotors wearing down pads faster they have been on my car for about a year and a half now and i still have just under 1/2 pad left. one thing that you have to be wery of is cracking with drilled and slotted rotors. if you do get rotors with holes drilled all the way through dont get cheep ones they will crack.

 

I've seen this argument on multiple car forums. Cross Drilled and or Slotted rotors are definitely not necessary but they aren't a gimmick either. Like the user above me said, they WILL make a difference in brake fade, and cars that hotlap tracks all day long can definitely benefit from them. Honestly it doesn't matter if they wear down brake pads faster because brake pads are cheap anyways. The only thing you have to worry about is the build quality of the rotors. Those fancy drilled/slotted rotors you see on porches and mercs are usually cast that way, rather than just taking blanks and drilling right through them. The ones where they take a set of blanks and drill holes in them, those ones have a risk of cracking (even when its done right!). But unless you want to spend the extra dough on the looks that drilled/slotted give your car, go with blanks, because blanks will definitely suffice. Thats not to say the drilled/slotted are going to mess up your car, they just aren't crucial. Personally I got drilled and slotted ones but thats because when I bought my maxima it was in a sad state and I wanted brakes that were overkill, rather than the extremely unsafe half working ones that were on it.

 

I got drilled and slotted rotors on my car... Couldnt tell the difference from my blanks.

 

Heres my $0.02
I installed Stillen cross-drilled rotors on my GMC Sierra. Coming down a snowy/icy mountain road at 15 MPH behind another truck, I was forced to ride the brake because down shifting would put me at 3,000+ RPM. My rear brakes were worthless as a result of burnouts, so my front brakes were doing nearly 100% of the braking. At the bottom of the hill we stopped and checked our vehicles. My front brakes stunk to high heaven and would have faded away long before the bottom of the hill, were the drilled rotors not able to vent the gasses from the hot pads.
In two years I never had to replace my pads (el cheapo pads) and I never warped or cracked a rotor even getting them hot before fording water crossings.
Cross drilled rotors have major benefits in heavy cars (Maximas) and most of the negative comments you'll here are just recycled garbage from posters who have no experience with drilled/slotted rotors.

Thats my $0.02 and its worth every penny you paid.

 

gimmick on street cars. can be useful on race cars in certain situations.

 

1) Because they aren't drilled, they are cast in.

2) Because they account for the loss of mass into their initial brake rotor design.

VS. having a rotor design/mass that's was done for a solid and then drilling a bunch of high stress riser holes into it.

 

I think jeff92se is on to something. The drilled rotors I've seen were way oversize compared to other cars.

What I can't figure out is if the problem with brake fade is the brake fluid heating up, why not design the caliper to dissapate the heat better?

On a side note, I always thought colored calipers looked cool. Is powder coat the only way to color stock calipers?

 

so i guess wilwood, brembo,ebc, porche,bmw, lamborgini, and a few others have got it all wrong but maxima.org has it's best engineers on it. give me a break!!!. i have always upgrade my rotors when i put bigger size wheels on my cars because the added weight from the rims have always and i mean always warpped stock blanks. after install of good quality slotted/drilled rotors the rotors never warpped again and i have gone as far as 2 years without ever changing auto zone brought pads. they have always made a difference and thats just my right foot talking.

 

Who here knows how brake rotors warp?

While it seems most know drilled / slotted brakes are just for show......

Makes me wonder if the information about drilled / slotted rotors is correct.....



By the way I have drilled rotors on my wifes Quest mini-van and thats no joke!

 

Brake Rotors warp mainly because of excessive heat from braking. That's why most all modern rotors are Vented. Another cause for premature warping are calipers that aren't functioning correctly or like in my wife's case driving with the parking brake on for several miles before noticing
If you brake hard often heat will build up very quickly and rotors tend to warp very easily. A good quality rotor will last longer than a cheapo kind made in China. It stands to reason that a "Quality" made Slotted and or crossdrilled rotor would disapate heat a lot better than just a vented rotor and would therefore resist warping better than a solid/vented rotor.

 

get some good brembo rotors, hawk pads, and some steel braided lines....if someone is going autocrossing, or tracking their car where a lot of braking is required, maybe slotted rotors. so basically IMO, cross drilled/slotted rotors are not bad, but not needed for what the average person uses their car for

 

Warped rotors are not caused by heat alone... But rather how they cool down after they get hot... The pads cause the rotor to cool down slower were they make contact, the rest of the rotor will cool down quicker. Its this uneven cool down that warps the rotor......."It stands to reason that a "Quality" made Slotted and or crossdrilled rotor would disapate heat a lot better than just a vented rotor and would therefore resist warping better than a solid/vented rotor."

 

Ive went through a set of blanks when i first got my car. Weren't bad for what i paided for them. Forked out a lil bit more money ordered a set of drilled/slotted rear rotor's with EBC pads and SS brake lines, for the front my brakes were done as it is. Was happy with the results of the rear and the stopping power, so i ordered the same for the front. Basically depends on your driving sitution and how much of a budget you have

 

Had to give my take on this one because seems like slotted and drilled is being attack as worthless and for show. ..since I have both on my Max I can say their not a gimmick and another thing it depends on what brand u bought it from like if u bought some hawks hps rite then bought some regular pads for 40 from the local car store they won't perform the same but the point was yes their both brakes but one is much more stronger than the other so that doesn't mean it was a waste of money and two when i put on my brembos I felt the stop difference right away from stock pads and rotors but I also put in the hps at the same time...try it for yourself don't always go with what pol say no diss to anyone here

 

i have slotted wilwood rotors on one of my cars and they work pretty well. Blanks in most cases would give better performance than cheap drilled rotors. Rotors engineered slotted and drilled can perform good but on a street car there is really no need for it. Most of the time warpping of the rotor that occurss is really a buildup of material from brake pads on the rotor and not actual rotor warping.