I've poked around a bit. And not found anything definitive.

I have the Brembos.

OEMs went for a pretty long time. Rotors were replaced with Stop Tech slotted. Those warped in less than 20,000 miles. After living with vibration for much longer than I should have, had them turned. Shop told me that removal was minimal and rotors were still within spec.

It was great having solid braking with no vibration again.

But, less than 10,000 miles later, warpage returned. With a vengence.

Doubled down and bought a set of StopTechs slotted and cross drilled.

Those were great for about 20,000 miles. But, they've warped too and I've been living with it because I haven't had time to deal with it.

What rotors do people favor? I'm especially interested in ones that don't warp in short order.

 

Centric high carbon blank rotors. If you warp those, its you. Have you tried a bed in process to try and remove any uneven pad deposits on the rotors?

 

Yes. I did the bed in procedure when I first installed them, per the instructions provided.

I guess I could try that again, just to see if it makes a difference.

It is difficult to find a place to go from 60 to 10 mph with hard braking ten times in a row. CHP frowns on such behavior on the freeway to say nothing of the effect of such actions on other drivers. The highways are too crowded. Parking lots aren't big enough to get to 60. I don't have access to a closed course.

 

I buy ALL my rotors off eBay, whatever the cheapest "brand" is. Never had a problem in the 25-30 rotors I've probably bought

 

Here's another vote for the Centric HC rotors. Forget about slots or cross-drilling; go for a solid rotor. They'll last longer and brake better, even when they glow orange at the race track!

 

For street driving, I prefer slotted rotors for the initial 'bite' and pedal feel, but you don't really need that when you have race pads haha

On a side note: Drilled rotors get a bad rap because cheap drilled rotors are cast and machined as blank rotors, then drilled afterwards. The drilling introduces stress into the casting, which eventually leads to cracking and failure. High quality 'drilled' rotors (ie OE Porsche rotors) actually include the holes in the casting mold, so there is no residual stresses around them. The only real benefit of a 'drilled' rotor is weight reduction (at the cost of thermal capacity). The old myth that they allow the pads to off-gas is no longer relevant, since pad binding material has gotten a lot better of the years. They don't really provide much 'bite' either, as the edges of the holes are typically chamfered. The increased surface area does aid in cooling a bit, but they're usually too clogged up with pad dust for that anyways.

 

While the repeated, recommended 60-10 is a solid recommendation, I've found that in 40+ years of brake bedding, you can accomplish a nice bed-in at speeds lower than that if you are road challenged as you indicate.

40 or 50mph-10 works fine to properly transfer "getting familiar materials" between the pads and rotors. A tip when doing this is to drag the pads a bit (two foot) for a bit between rounds, minding traffic of course. They cool a tad slower that way but maintain the temperatures required to accomplish proper bedding. Allow them to cool for a bit longer between and before the next acceleration and deceleration cycle.

Equally important is when you're done with the up-down part of the process, cool the brakes down gradually by jumping on the highway for several miles before shutting down completely. Doing this will assure that you don't leave hot imprinted pad materials in one place on the rotors.

Slower speed bed-in is why I do brakes very early on a Sunday morning and run the car on my loop around my house and EBay where boulevard/expressway speed limits are 40mph and no one but the golfers are up that early.

EDIT: Something else.... the biggest culprits for warped rotors is improper wheel bearing adjustment and wheel/lugnut torque. Loose wheel bearings cause uneven running/excessive heat and lug nuts not at proper torque (too tight OR too loose) leads to pinpoint stresses on the rotor. Torque wrench is mandatory!

 

I just put mine on and hit the brakes a few times to make sure they still work, then go on my merry way.

I ditched the drilled and slotted for some cheapo AutoZone rotors recently and so far so good.

 

Brembo setup with stoptech slotted rotors for 3 yrs@ 15k miles. When I installed them I finally bought a torque wrench. No vibrations,no problems so far. Torque wrench is a must.Before I was changing rotors and pads every 2yrs..

 

I've been using the Centric Cryo rotors and their Posi-Quiet pads and love them. Centric recommends no bed-in procedure for these products; just drive as normal since the pads are pre-scorched. I've been using this setup on both my 350Z and the wife's Rogue and they've worked out great on both cars.

Now bleeding the brakes on the other hand... there are different processes that need to be followed for those two vehicles that are covered in the FSMs. Positive pressure bleed on the 350Z and ABS deactivation on the Rogue.