Thinkin about upgradin my brake pretty soon, and I've been lookin at my options. Right now all I'll be able to afford is some good rotors and pads. What I've been looking at is Baer Decelarotors, cross drilled and slotted, I can get the front pair for like 170, with 3yr warranty. Is Baer any good? I've never really heard anthing about them.

I've been hearing that rotors that are botch crossdrilled and slotted have problems with cracking, any truth to this?

Will just rotors (same size as stock) with good pads really give me a big boost in braking, or should I wait and get some good calipers to go with it? What other brands are god to consider?

 

To be honest, cross drilled and slotted rotors really arent anything special. I had some, and hated them, so now I'm just using regular autozone cheapass rotors. I didnt notice a difference. Really good pads wont make that big of a difference, but it will make a small difference.

If you really want to notice a difference in your cars stopping power, I'd suggest getting better calipers. Some with 2 pots or something like that... There is a how to somewhere on how to do the Acura Legend 2 pot caliper install. I'd think about doing that.. Fastbrakes sells kits like that to install, and the difference those would make versus just better pads is HUGE.

Hope this helps.

 

In other words, calipers make the bigger difference? What about stainless steel line kits? Not trying to sound like a newb, just want to stop a little quicker.

 

drill and slotted is just for looks nothing special. and possiblity of getting mishaped and cracking. try brembo blank rotors with hawks paids.

 

The only real reason for slotted/cross drilled rotors are to prevent gas fade. If you plan to get your brakes super hot then go for it .If not just get regular rotors and if you want the best brake pads.No joke. Go to the dealer. They have spent alot of money on brake pad design. Either way it's your decision

 

If you want to stop fast, get better pads and tires. A MC brace may allow you to stop faster, as it keeps the energy from your foot going into flexing the sidewall. Arguable though.

Stainless brake lines are for feel.

 

See, my problem is alot of the places i drive has some steep hills with stop signs at the bottom. Right now I just have some cheap autozone blank rotors with some ceramic pads and these hills are killing me, and turning my rotors red, no matter how fast/slow I'm going. would it be better to find a way to keep the rotors cooler?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by WanaBeFaster &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">See, my problem is alot of the places i drive has some steep hills with stop signs at the bottom. Right now I just have some cheap autozone blank rotors with some ceramic pads and these hills are killing me, and turning my rotors red, no matter how fast/slow I'm going. would it be better to find a way to keep the rotors cooler? </TD></TR></TABLE>

The ITR community has had nothing wrong as a whole, when it comes to using 'cheap' autozone rotors for HPDE's and Auto-Xing. I had them on mine and never had any issues. They work just fine. The key is in the quality of cars ABS system, your tires, pad selection and brake fluid.

 

Deccellerators are great rotors. but save your coin and get some new blanks and good pads. those will stop great with the OE calipers. I've seen some really good crossed drilled rotors crack after some time.

 

WannaBeFaster,

I'm going to be a bit long, but I think it's worth reading the following.

First, TIRES are your first step in better stopping.

Next, from a simple test perspective, there is one question you need to ask yourself for your street setup. Can you either lock up your tires (if you don't have ABS) or can you engage ABS? If the answer is YES, then you don't need any upgrade in brakes at all. Think about it.....what will bigger or better brakes do? Make you lock up....more?

For the track (my home), the question is: are you boiling brake fluid? If the answer is NO, then you don't need brake upgrades.

On to my favorite topic. Drilled rotors. &lt;sigh&gt; Rotors are cooled by air entering near the hub and flowing through the veins inside the rotor and out the outside. Holes allow air to excape, therefore reducing the air available farther outside. In addition, holes reduce the effective swept area of the pad, reduce thermal mass and increase flex in the rotor itself. The result of each of these in order are: you'll have to press the pedal harder to get the same slowing torque, your rotors and pads will heat up more for the same stopping force and the rotors will have more difficulty transmitting this heat to the air and you'll get what's called pad kick back....where you let go of the brake, the rotor has flexed and pushes the pad more into the caliper. On your next push of the brake, you'll feel it squishy as it has to travel a bit to reach the rotor.

On the street: rotors are rotors are rotors. I use $11.95 autozone rotors in my prepared C time trial car. I've got 2 years on them with absolutely no issues. If I were driving a very heavy car, I'd be upgrading to something even larger and/or thicker but still buying cheapo crap. It stops just fine.

Pads and larger calipers/larger rotors/compounds make a difference, for sure, but I don't want to make this 4 more pages.

Brake bias is another place where you can gain braking distance. It's the only thing other than tires that can reduce stopping distance. All cars sold in the US must by law have the bias set up so that the front brakes will lock or be biased to go to ABS before the rear. The reason is simple. When you lock brakes, the end of the car that has the locked tires will be in front. So if you moved too much bias to the rear and the rear tires lock first, they come around to the front. There are several methods to move "some" bias to the rear. This is done on racecars all the time to achieve the best stopping on a particular track in particular conditions. Adjustable proportioning valves are the most flexable way. You have an adjustment inside the cockpit and can bias front and rear however you want. Cheaper, less adjustable ways are with different proportion valves or by changing the rear pads to more agressive ones compared to the front. (Carbotech XP8 front, XP10 rear). Another way is to slightly increase the caliper size in the rear or go to a slightly larger rotor.

One more note on brake pad outgassing. &lt;sigh again&gt; This is a reason that's often quoted as why you need drilled rotors. The need for these holes was because the binder material in asbestos pads would outgas and could coat the rotors. Now pay attention. Asbestos pads have not been manufactured since the early '70's. So unless you've carefully stored your '60's pads in a plastic sealed bag for your 67 Camaro, you won't have this problem. The only appropriate place today for drilled rotors is in vehicles where a lot of water can hit the rotors easily. Motorcycles and rally cars come to mind.

Slots are not quite as bad. They at least don't interrupt the airflow. But they do reduce effective swept area, wear your pads quickly, cost more and can't be machined.

Stainless brake lines are touted in a lot of applications. They have a stiffer, teflon internal tube. This gives you better, harder pedal feel. It does not, however reduce stopping distance. Be very, very careful with them. If they do not have some tell tail coating or cover, they can rub and you'll never know it. I had a crash at NHIS because of this exact reason. A braided line was coming in contact in extreme cornering with the inside of the wheel. The line looked perfect. At one point, it got so hot that it melted a hole into the teflon inner line and I lost my brakes. I now have all my lines really well tied to the struts around the wheels so this won't happen again. With rubber lines, or braided ones that have a sleve over it, you can inspect it and see where rubbing is going on.

end of today's rant. :D

jack

 

In my Autox setup I use Valvoline Synthetic Brake fluid, stock lines, Hawk HP/Street Pad F/R and OE Replacement Brembo rotors that cost &gt;100 for the whole car. Massive difference over stock. Very good initial bite when brakes are cold, and strong linear modulation even after multiple runs with 2 drivers. This setup is &gt;250 for everything and if you feel your calipers are bad then you can get OE replacements at Autozone for like 50 bucks a side front and 70-80 a side for the rear. No need for a BBK unless you are constantly over heating the stock set-up with better pads and fluid.

 

I would think rotor diameter would make the biggest difference, besides pads themselves. The farther the caliper is from the center of the wheel, the easier it will be to slow it down. Think of trying to slow down a spinning disc by pressing your finger against the disc closer to the center, vs. out near the edge. It will be MUCH easier to slow/stop the disc out near the edge.