Brake rotors

[Aotoyota]

Was wondering the benefits are between slotted rotors vs slotted and drilled vs oem?

and who makes the slotted rotors for the solara?

[QuickSEV6]

Was wondering the benefits are between slotted rotors vs slotted and drilled vs oem?

and who makes the slotted rotors for the solara?

You want to know the benefits of slotted or cross-drilled rotors on a street car? They look cool. Thats it. They have no practicle function on a street car.
They were designed for hard braking applications as in racing. Braking causes a lot of heat. Too much heat causes brake fade. That is to say that your brakes will not stop the car as efficiently as they should.
Both cross drilling and slotting allow air to flow better through the braking system. The extra air flow cools the components. Unfortunately, this design also acts like a cheese grater to your brake pads. This will greatly reduce the life of your pads.
Another down side, cross drilling and slotting also makes the rotor more susceptible to warping.
If you really want them, here are a couple of places:
http://www.brembo.com/US/
http://www.powerslot.com/

Both of the above can be found here:
http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/results. ... toModClar=

Also, to greatly reduce the risk of warping, I highly recommend this.

http://www.frozenrotors.com/

[Aotoyota]

You want to know the benefits of slotted or cross-drilled rotors on a street car? They look cool. Thats it. They have no practicle function on a street car.

With that being said, what would improve braking? I drive in a lot of areas where there are hills and such. would flushing the brake system with DOT 4 be better? since it has a higher boiling point?

Cheers

[orlin03]

If you've ever boiled the fluid on your car, it was probably due to frozen calipers or other non working brake components. How much life did you get out of your stock brakes? Have you had them replaced, and if so, what brand did you go with, did you replace the pads and rotors, and what kind of life did you get with those?
DOT 4 is good fluid, but if your fluid still has a good, almost clear look to it, it's probably still good. If not, flushing it out might help. Suck most of it out through the reservoir, then add a little fluid, bleed out what was in the lines, and fill it back up. Bleed a little more and you should be able to get all the old fluid out without having to chase any air through the system.
In my area, we have a lot of hills, and our customers go through a lot of brakes. I've found most OE rotors last the longest without warpage, but when customers cannot get good life from them, we sometimes turn to Drilled/ slotted rotors (from a GOOD NAME so they won't warp) with Raybestos Quietstop ceramic pads, which seem to be the only pads that last for a decent time without squeaks with drilled rotors (I will admit, though, I don't usually get a chance to try extra-premium brands, like Brembos; I'm sure these work the way they are supposed to). The rotors you use MUST be good quality; most aftermarket budget rotors are made overseas from recycled metal, and they warp easily. Many of them even have faces of thinner material than stock, with larger vanes to make up the width. These rotors have no place on a car that actually needs to stop more than once each trip.
One more tip: replace your pads at half life, and your rotors will last much, much longer. The added heat absorbed into your brakes as a result of thinning pads allow the rotors to warp at around the same time as your pads run out, costing you an extra 150-250 bucks for a brake job.

[PXLpainter]

^^ Good write up!

Sounds like sound, logical advice.

Thanks for your input!

[orlin03]

NP; glad to help!

[crispone]

^^^ Yeah yeah yeah... bump to orlin...


BUT SERIOUSLY??!!

You want to know the benefits of slotted or cross-drilled rotors on a street car? They look cool. Thats it. They have no practicle function on a street car.

Man, I drive ALL my brakes to fade on all my vehicles at varying times... on my motorcycles, I'm running sintered metal composite race pads with kevlar lines and STILL wish I could get more "feel" from them! (See my "BRAKE CHECK" post in the wet parking lot spiny thing post...)

Anyway... there is DEFINITELY a place for BOTH proper and thorough maintanence AND performance upgrade in brakes. I put POWERSLOT front rotors and fresh calipers on my "beater" '94 Toy P/U truck, which stopped like MUSH with the large rubber and old brakes... and now it has GREAT braking AND doesn't fade like before. I find my '04 Solara SE brakes are adequate when JUST initially warmed up and seated... then they REALLY fade under some repeat hard use or high speed running with dicing traffic coming out of Detroit area on Fridays throught he 275 corridor... damn bumps!

I'd sure like an upgrade to steel braided or other performance lines and premium pads with better heat disipating rotors...


-crisp

[SPF 0]

Drilled rotors will (albeit, nominally) reduce your unsprung weight.

[PXLpainter]

Drilled rotors will (albeit, nominally) reduce your unsprung weight.

LOL! Yeah - about as much as taking a big dump inthe morning!

[orlin03]

LOL! Yeah - about as much as taking a big dump inthe morning!

They usually save around 10-14 lbs a pair, and since unsprung weight is worth double the loss above the suspension... that'd be one monster dump!

[Aotoyota]

thanks for the info...any recommendations for good brake pads then?

[orlin03]

For the money, I like Raybestos or Toyota pads. Stay away from cheap parts store pads- even the ones that say ceramic- like Wagners. Going up from there in price, you're most likely in good territory; I've had good luck with EBC in the past, and one of my customers always uses TRD pads, which he says work great. Just remember that aggressive pads will wear the rotors quicker, as they are meant for higher end parts to mate with, like stainless.

[SPF 0]

They usually save around 10-14 lbs a pair

Are brake rotors that heavy? That seems like an awful lot of metal to end up on the machine shop floor.

[Midias]

LOL! Yeah - about as much as taking a big dump inthe morning!

They usually save around 10-14 lbs a pair, and since unsprung weight is worth double the loss above the suspension... that'd be one monster dump!

That cannot be right because the rotor it's self weighs less than 10-14 lbs