RMills944

What is the truth in your experiences?

I'm looking at new rotors now, but not sure what to get. I'm looking into cross-drilled and slotted. The slotted are harder to find, but people I've talked to seem to think cross-drilled rotors crack all the time. Why would Brembo make a cross-drilled rotor if it was just going to crack? My guess would be the brand of the drilled rotor would matter a lot (depending on the R&R that brand has done into the subject and the technique they use).
Is anyone here using cross-drilled rotors? Has anyone had cross-drilled rotors crack? Are they worth it?
What about slotted rotors? anyone have em', and what's the consensus on them? any problems there?

L8 APEKS

I've used both, haven't had bad experiences on the track with either one. I think it's mostly a wife's tale that drilled rotors all like to crack. At least, with all the people who say they crack, I've never seen it happen once. So I don't think it's that big of a concern.

I need brakes on mine too, what have you been finding price-wise? Any good deals out there?

Eyal 951

Well, for street use, cross drillied is more then fine. Even disperses water from the pad in the rain. For track, you use the brakes enough, and you could stress/fatigue/crack the rotors, plus theres a lot less rotor surface area for the pad to bite on. I like slotted better. wont crack, effectivly gets rid of gasses (and water for street) and still retains most of the surface area. Look at racecars, they usually run normal un slotted or cross drilled rotors.
~Eyal

Russian Rocket

Just FYI whether you get slotted or drilled rotors your pad life will be 2-5 times shorter. Also, really good pads will improve you breaking better than ANY rotor. If it's a street driven car that seems SOME track and AutoX buying slotted or drilled rotors is pretty much a waste of money. To learn more about braking go to VWvortex.com->Forums->technical->Braking. Do a good search on slotted and crossdrilled rotors. There are many hardcore racers there that will give you great advice. I have 9.4 vented discs and rebuilt performance drum brakes on my rabbit GTI(yes drums) with performance Pads/shoes and after i tuned that system my car stops better than my friends EVO.
GL with whatever you decide to go with.
Vlad.

Serge944

It's pretty much established that OEM rotors get the job done the best. The money you save on them will allow you to get better pads, which have a much larger impact on braking.

Slotted rotors kill brake pads. Highly unrecommended for street driving.

Btw, are you drunk Eyal? You're usually a bit more coherent JK!

alpenweissisnice

But they look so fooking kool.

LOL

Jakerx

cross-drilled for the bling...oem if you want to stop and avoid a ding...

sorry, i couldn't come up with something that rhymed with bling other than ding . if they were the same price i would go for cross-drilled because they look so sweet. but for the money i would definitely get oem. there's not any real advantage to cross-drilled that justifies the price increase.

L8 APEKS

But the Rabbit only weighs 1/3 as much as the EVO...haha!

My car will be 75% street, 25% track...but at the track, I do drive hard. Harder than most. I smoke brakes, chunk tires, etc. So...I am planning on drilled or slotted rotors for my (mostly) street car.

What's my best bet for a complete brake setup...lines, pads, rotors, fluid...for my application? I don't want to spend an arm and a leg, and I don't care about brake dust at all. Ideas?

Russian Rocket

URIN 2ND,

Well, if you don't want to KEEP spending and arm and a leg everytime you go to the track get a Good, lightweight plain vented rotor. it will work 99% as good as drilled/slotted and will make you brake pads last 3 times longer. The main thing in brake setup is pads. Good fluid is a must. I don't know about p-car brake lines but my rabbit lines sucked and i saw a big differents with crossbraided ones. Also, big brake kits are not worth it unless you have a lot of cash rubbing a hole in your wallet. 944 series have amazing brakes even in NA form.

BigRed

Check out this poll. Seems the OEM rotors are favored...

Damian in NJ

Becasue they look great.

RMills944

I just like to have a way for the gasses to escape and not worry about the warping of rotors. I'm basicallly only looking at the Brembo rotors since I don't know of anyone that makes slotted. I guess it may be easier to just replace any warped rotors - and not too much more expensive. I already have good pads on the car now, I'm just looking into rotor options.
If I did the cross-drilled on the VW, now that would be just for show since the wheels show the rotor very a lot more.

iloveporsches

Modern pads don't have the gas buildup problems.

IceShark

Does Brembo make the drilled rotors? I thought Zimmerman did that and they cast the holes in the rotor. That is supposed to be more crack resistant than drilling them through.

In any event, the origin of drilled rotors is supposed to be the biker crowd that was looking for weight reduction and probably a kewl factor. Weight reduction is mass reduction which is not so great for thermal energy absorption so there were probably other engineering tipping factors going on with the bikes. Then the scrubbing and off gassing idea hit people. With modern pad material I thought gas generation was a thing of the past but drilled and slotted rotors are still around.

Outside of looks, I'd say solid rotors with central vents, good pads and cooling ducts to the rotors fed from front air scoops would be the way to go. I wonder what big jet aircraft use for rotors? There is some serious work where poor brake performance is not an option.

Z-man

You are worrying too much!

I have solid, vented Porsche OEM rotors on my 944S2, and I would NEVER replacement with anything else but the same rotor. They work tremendously, even on the track.

Cross-drilled and slotted have look cool, but I want my brakes to stop me, not make me look cool.
-Z-man.