Should I get OEM rotors?
 

I have an 03 non brembo car. I just got some NISMO pads and want to replace my rotors as well. Whats a good aftermarket blank rotor, or should I just get OEM replacements? Whats a good place to buy OEM stuff from if I go that route?

get stoptech slotted rotors.

Check marketplace, they have a ton of brake solutions. I know rotorpros sells all 4 for 189 total, and you can get them slotted and drilled too...

Are you happy with the way your brakes perform? If so, why change?

R1 Concepts for good aftermarket

Where in Florida are you?

Good advice. I am sporting a set in the front and rear with metal matrix pads and super blue fluid. Noticeable improvement in stopping power over stock setup.

I do not recommend drilled rotors. No braking benefit and higher risk of cracking.

Don't buy stoptech, R1concepts 1 piece rotors. All they do is buy Centric Premium rotors for $20-30, and put useless slots / holes in them, and sell them for 400% markup. Stoptech, and R1concept rotors are just Centric Premium blank rotors.

Go to rockauto, or any other parts place that sells Centric rotors, and buy a Premium, Blank Centric rotor for $30-40 each. The part number for the Premium is 120.xxxxx. Don't buy the stardard centric rotors (Part number is 121.xxxxx)

The people with the stoptech or r1concept slotted / drilled rotors just paid an extra $50 PER ROTOR for some useless slots / drilled holes.

Useless:dunno:

do you know nothing of heat dissipation??

I guess my drilled and slotted rotors on my BBK are completely worthless and wilwood had no idea what they were doing when they designed them

uh-oh, here we go............watch out for flying shrapnel..........

They have to make their money somehow.. and slotting, and drilling is a GREAT way to markup ($$) a product.

Do some research on slotting and drilling from a reputable brake forum. There is some merit towards the theory of slotting the rotors, but definitly not worth $50 extra per rotor for it.

I bet you $1000 that if you took your slotted / drilled rotors off, and replaced them with an equal quality blank rotor, you will NOT notice any difference in your braking power, or brake fade, and you'll pull the same, if not better lap times.

Call wilwood, you will find out they only offer them in drilled cause people want them. I believe they do the slots only because the pads do not have any type of cooling slot in them lime most modern pads do.

Read SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Paper No. 1999-01-0142 for laboratory tests performed by GM engineers that prove rotors modifications (such as drilling, slotting, J-hooks, etc.) work to improve bite. There are other tests that go into better detail, but this paper was published and presented at a professional society conference and peer reviewed -- not some "white paper" posted on a web site.

And, I CAN tell the difference, as can most drivers that are at least somewhat sensitive under braking.

PM me for an address to send the $1k. Your timing is great as I'm about to order up a new set of drilled rotors for one of the cars in the stable!

Chris

:gotowned:

thanks for finding the research I knew I had read it before.

No worries. I don't mean to slam anyone at all, so I hope it isn't taken that way. We do need to get some of the wives tales on the Internet handled, of which this is one that continually comes up. Another one is "cast-in holes", which doesn't happen even though people will swear it does. I've been in enough foundries and worked with brakes long enough to know that they don't exist in production. Don't get me started! :eek: :icon42::bowrofl:

And yes I will get better track times with my new BBK on :D

Mostly because I went FI at the same time :D lol

LOL. You guys are funny.

Here Barnabas... right from Wilwood FAQ since you trust them so much (http://www.wilwood.com/TechTip/TechFaqs.aspx)

And this (http://www.rx7club.com/showpost.php?...2&postcount=32)

And 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

Why would they used drilled rotors in racing when the racing brake manufacturers specifically tell them not to? J-hooks are the currently preferred "hot ticket" in NASCAR (F1 uses carbon/carbon anyway -- totally different!) as they have essentially the same "bite" as drilled rotors, but have more structural integrity at elevated temperatures. But this is not really news to anyone in racing.

Besides, comparing NASCAR rotors at 2000°F (heavy car, small brakes in a 15" wheel, downforce and slicks where the rotors get thrown away after every race) to street rotors (heavy car, potentially larger brakes, no downforce and street tires with expectations the rotors must last at least x0,000 miles) that will rarely see 1200°F even with a very experienced driver is pointless. On the street is where drilling really shines. Once over 1200°F, go to slotted or maybe J-hooks if you can stand the increase in noise.

Chris

:banghead:

Uuuhhh, Chris B. That SAE paper you quoted was a research effort into brake squeal and noise, not pad bite.

My bad! Apparently, I have waaayyy too much data lying around! That is a good paper too, but not relevant to this discussion.

Try 2006-01-0691, titled "The Effect of Rotor Crossdrilling on Brake Performance" by Antanaitis and Rifici (GM).

Chris

Do you actually have these papers or are you doing a search on sae.org and then throwing some of the search results out here?

Come by my desk and you can look over my copies. If you're not in SoCal, the papers are available for purchase.

Chris

Cool. Then you would know the results of the five areas tested on four different braking systems:

1. Rotor Cooling

8 to 20% improvement in rotor temperature depending on vehicle speed, mostly on the front rotors.

2. Output Fade and Performance

No difference in fade and performance except at high operating temps the linings wear faster with cross drilled rotors.

3. Wet Brake Output

Cross drilled showed greater deceleration at low pedal pressures but no difference at high pedal pressures.

4. High Temp Pedal Feel

More pedal travel required to achieve the same level of deceleration due to increased compliance in the pad material and cross drilled rotors.

5. Lining wear

Increased across the board.

So, is that saying that there is pretty much no point to drilling or slotting the rotors? With the exception of cooling?

I'm assuming that's for the slotting, not drilling?

^^^^^^
BEST KEPT SECRET! Centric Premium Rotors are top notch and used by others under another name for +$$$!
BTW..other than Rock Auto (great prices)..you might wanna look here too>>

Plain Premium Rotor for FRONT 2007:
Less than Rock Auto! $56 vs $63 for RockAuto
You can also get Slotted only here..Rock Auto only has Slotted AND Drilled Combos.

http://www.theautopartsshop.com/disc...e12042080.html

Subscribing to this thread solely to find this link in a year or so when I need to buy rotors.

I was told by a Vendor on here about two years ago that almost every manufacturer buys the same rotors, slaps their name on them, and jacks the price up. You guys could have very well made my day. :thumbup:

^ +1

So I'm looking at blank discs, there seems to be very little, if any reason to get slotted and no reason whatsoever to get drilled. Even racing applications won't use drilled (unless carbon/carbon composite)

EBC blanks or Centric blanks, premium, I guess?

I'm also going to note that the 121 centric part number is for their standard C-Tec rotors, not their premium. I check the centric site and using their catalogue for the 350, the listing shows as premium, but the part number (and link) goes straight to their c-tek standard replacements.

Get the premium. It has anti rust coat on hats and inner vains. Otherwise, your rotors will look like CHIT with rust.

I noticed that feature on them, looks nice, although we don't get salt here, things still rust eventually. They'd have been a God-send in England, 350z stock exhausts 'rot' off the car in about 4 years.

The EBC rotors are also good though, i'm just wondering the best between then, it's about $1-$2 difference in price on Amazon (cheapest location i found with free shipping too)

Also, Centric part number for the premiums is 120.42074 - their site will allow that number to show along with the 121 number, making it appear that the 121 number is what you want, but they're just generic OE replacements.

Agree. Put them on a 350Z. Performance is as good as OEM at half the price.

Just an FYI as well, Power Slot and StopTech are divisions of Centric Parts. Classed as performance and ultra performance, respectively.


http://www.amazon.com/Centric-Parts-...=2BVHHU04QFXSV

http://www.centricparts.com/images/s...rotors-www.jpg



http://www.amazon.com/EBC-Brakes-UPR...=2BVHHU04QFXSV

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg
http://www.ebcbrakes.com/Assets/lplainrotor-side.jpg