Brake Pads & Rotors 101

[sKiLLs]

What brake pads, brake rotors or brake systems are best for you and your vehicle?

How do you choose what brakes you need? What fits your needs most appropriately? The answer is one only you can provide. You live with your vehicle everyday, and rely on it to transport you from work or school, compete in a weekend autocross, or perform at a track day or driving school.

The first step is to determine what type of brakes you have on your car now. Then assess what you would like to improve, along with any tradeoffs you are willing to make to gain the things you want more of.

You may also want to mate upgraded brake pads with enhanced rotors, designed to fit your vehicle?s Original Equipment braking system. These sport slotted and/or drilled rotors can give your car the look of a race car, and can also improve your brake system?s ability to dissipate the fade-inducing gasses that can come along with the higher levels of heat associated with spirited driving.

If you find that merely changing brake pads is not enough, then a brake system upgrade may be what you need. Enlarging the brake rotor provides a bigger heat sink to handle higher levels of heat, and greater leverage to slow the vehicle, while upgrading the caliper will provide additional clamping force.

Brake Pads:

OEM Semi Metallic Brake Pads: Good for everyday stop and go traffic. Will do the job with OEM Rotors. Nothing flashy... Stock Look! Expect brake dust on a daily basis... Soft feel during braking. If installed right, these pads are quiet.

Kevlar Metallic Brake Pads: Great for everyday stop and go traffic. Very good stopping power. Can be used with OEM type rotor, Cross Drilled and/or Slotted Rotors... Nothing flashy and looks like stock pads. Expect less brake dust than OEM pads. Soft feel during braking. If installed right, these pads are quiet.

Carbon Metallic Brake Pads: Awsome for everyday use. Good for track and strip as well. With NO CLAY fillers, they'll outlast the competition 2 to 3 times, and will be the pad best suited for most people's daily driving needs. Carbon Metallic offers superior braking, pedal feel, and longer life without fade at high temperatures. Can be used with OEM type rotor, Cross Drilled and/or Slotted Rotors... Expect less brake dust than OEM pads. If installed right, these pads are quiet.

Ceramic Brake Pads: Awsome for everyday use. Good for track and strip as well. These pads use ceramic compounds and copper fibers in place of the semi-metallic pad?s steel fibers. This allows the ceramic pads to handle high brake temperatures with less heat fade, provide faster recovery after the stop, and generate less dust and wear on both the pads and rotors. Ceramic compounds provide much quieter braking because the ceramic compound helps dampen noise by generating a frequency beyond the human hearing range, but mine do squeal from time to time.

Another characteristic that makes ceramic materials attractive is the absence of noticeable dust. All brake pads produce dust as they wear. The ingredients in ceramic compounds produce a light colored dust that is much less noticeable and less likely to stick to the wheels. Consequently, wheels and tires maintain a cleaner appearance longer. Can be used with OEM type rotor, Cross Drilled and/or Slotted Rotors...


Rotors:

Cross Drilled Rotors: Improve the looks and performance of the vehicle?s original braking system without having to change additional brake components. These rotors provide excellent stopping power in everyday traffic, as well as high performance street and highway driving. They provide multiple paths to disperse built-up of heat and gasses, but can crack under heavy stress. They are not designed to withstand the extreme temperatures that are produced on the racetrack.

Slotted Rotors: Are for drivers who want to improve the looks and performance of their vehicle?s original braking system without having to change additional brake components. These rotors provide excellent stopping power in everyday traffic, as well as high performance street and track driving. Slotted brake rotors provide paths to disperse built-up of heat and gasses, and assist in "refreshing/cleaning" the surface of the brake pads. Your brake pads will wear faster due to the cutting effect. Compared to cross-drilled rotors, machined slots have been widely adopted for racing and street use because they minimize the cracking caused by repeated, high stress, high temperature brake applications.

***IMPORTANT REMINDER: Slotted, drilled or dimpled rotors offered as OEM replacements should not be considered appropriate for high-speed track use.

***NOTE: North Eastern Tuners or I "WILL NOT" take responsibility for the type of Brake Pads/Rotors you put on your vehicle if something faulty should happen. This post is mearly for educational purposes only...

[laz]

Nice info Nick! Thanks for posting it.  :cool:

[asg14]

That was a good read, considereing I need new rotors!  I have one question though.  I read the slotted rotors wear the pads out faster.  But could you tell me about how much faster it wears them out?  Cause I was planning on getting Brembo Slotted (instead of drilled since they have a tendancy to crack), with ceramic pads.

Thanks,
Adam

[sKiLLs]

Thx X...

Good question asg, I have Cross Drilled/Slotted Rotors along with Ceramic Pads. I feel this is a great combination but it's all up to you and your preference. Cross Drilled Rotors "might crack" under "heavy use" such as racing, strip, etc... But for everyday use they should be fine.

Slotted rotors basically scrape the dirt and debres off of the face of the pad and only in combination with a ceramic pad would it would take longer to wear due to the materials that make the ceramic pad. Once again, it all depends on how you drive. I still have tons of meat on my ceramic pads and I drive my Rolla mostly everyday. So the wear has been very minimal. I did lots of research on this field and decided to go with what I have now and I am happy with my setup combination.  Just note that Ceramic Pads will sqeak or squeal from time to time and I've learn to live with it because the trade off in braking power and stopping ability is worth it...

Here's my setup configuration:

[asg14]

Thanks Skills!  That rotor looks sweeeeettttt.

[sKiLLs]

Thx.. If anyone has anything to add to this that I might have missed, pls do so...

FYI Some of the info on this thread was taken from various websites including brembo.com... Just incase anyone was interested into looking further on this subject.

[aaron7]

Where can you get these? I am thinking about the Ceramic pads and slotted rotors for my 89 SR5... but I can't find them ANYWHERE!

[darkdrako]

im just asking an opinion here but is changing the rotors on a rolla with not a ton of power really worth the money???   im just trying to get some intel on it before i actually invest in them (possiblity is still in the back of my mind).

[Jack ffr1846]

Hi,
 
Good first shot on some of the brake stuff, but I'd like to counter some of the statements.  Hopefully, this can save some money for you guys.
 
Rotors:
 
The absolute best rotors for either street or track use....based on performance only....are non-slotted, non-drilled rotors with venting.  For track use, this is used exclusively.  Even Ferrari, with their big dollar challenge series starts by removing the OEM rotors on their street cars and replaces them with solid vented rotors.  I'll explain why this is the case:
 
Cooling:  The way that rotors are cooled is by air being drawn in near the center (near the hub).  This air passes through the internal vent, between the disk surfaces and exits at the outer most part of the rotor.  
 
Drilling:  Holes in a rotor do 3 bad things.  First, they provide an alternate path for that cooling air.  The result is that drilled rotors always have higher outside circumference temps than those without holes.  Second, the holes themselves reduce the surface area that the pad is pressing on, requiring more force for the same stopping power.  Third, the infamous stress cracking around the holes.
 
Slots:  They have been touted as having wiping effects and venting gasses from pads.  The #2 from above is true here....with reduced swept area of the pads, you reduce the effective size of your rotors with slots.  In addition, if your pads are indeed outgassing, then you've got some vintage pre 1970 pads that have been stored in sealed bags.  Newer compounds do not outgas.  
 
Both slots and holes usually make the rotors incapable of being turned.  
 
The good news in all of this is that the cheapest rotors available are often among the best!
 
Stopping distance:  If you are changing brake components to reduce your stopping distance, look to your tires instead.  There's an easy way to see if bigger/better brakes can help you.  Drive down the road.  Either threshold brake or mash your brake pedal to the floor.  If you can either engage the ABS or skid, you don't need a brake upgrade to stop better.  Think about it....what will a bigger brake do?  It'll simply do the same thing.  If you are driving on the track a lot and boiling brake fluid, then that's the appropriate place to upgrade your brakes.  But you would want to first look into cooling ducting and pad compound first.    
 
Better brake components can indeed improve the "feel" of the brakes and a change in bias to the rear will improve overall braking.  Cars sold in the US, by law, must have front bias.  This is so that when you induce a skid, the fronts lock first and the rear end doesn't come around.  Going to a slightly larger rear brake rotor with the same caliper (like the Subaru H6 upgrade) will improve bias without so much change that it upsets the balance.
 
Pads:  If you change pad type, read the manufacturers recommendations and follow them.  I learned the hard way that Hawk Blue is not compatible with OEM Audi material.  2 replaced calipers with melted seals later, I bought rotors for track use only with those pads and had no more problems.  If the pads say to use only new rotors or turn before using used ones, do it.
 
Manufacturers:  Several manufacturers will help you choose the correct compound for your specific use.  If you only street drive, then I'd suggest the $7.99 Autozone pad will work fine for you.  If you're on the track, call the mfgs.  I use Carbotech pads on my racecar.  They're wicked expensive, but well worth it to me.  On my street cars, I use the cheapest thing available.
 
Fluid:  On the street, use a dot 3 or 4 or 5.1.  Not dot 5 which is silicone.  Silicone does not absorb water, so when water enters the system, it goes right to work rusting components.  If you have a $50,000 paint job, then ignore this advise as silicone is the only stuff that won't eat paint if you spill it.  If you're on the track, look at the dry boiling point.  I have found Wilwood exp600 to be the highest I've found at 635F.  Motul is close at 595.  Most others fall into the Ford HD range, including Super Blue which is only about 550 or less.
 
I know I'm a newbie here, but I hope the above makes sense to you.  I've run on the track for 19 years and own a couple track records.  I now instruct with 3 different clubs and run a former SCCA CRX on the track.
 
If you have questions, feel free to ask.  If I know the answer, I'll tell you.  If I don't, I'll say that I don't know.
 
jack

[Don Fusskinrolla]

it's amazing how people sometimes buy something off the shelf without doing research.

Toyota is a very LAZY company, and most of the time the parts are very interchangeable.

So there isn't a need to upgrade to BIG ROTORS.  all you need is maybe 1/2" more of surface area on the rotor, and two pistons for stopping power.  That and upgrade the lines to SS and change the oil.

[laz]

Very good advice! On my current

[laz]

Very good advice. On my current Subary Legacy GT ther first thing they advice you to do is change the tires since the all season Bridgestone RE92 are not the greatest in performance. Other people have said to upgrade to steel braided lines, better fluid, and brake pads; and the results have been a huge iprovement. This is also from people that come from the track, and have tested many different setups. The specifics of the setups alludes me at the moment, but the Legacy GT is blessed with the biggest front rotors to come out of Subaru in a while.

The other upgrade that I see people doing is the Brembo 4 pot calipers with floating discs, and they have reported that the difference is day and night, but of course you need to have the pocket, and the need to really do that.

 Most of the people that have done that have already changed their manifold, turbo and TMIC to the STi configuration and are pushing 300AWHP.

On my old 98 Corolla I warped several rotors in a short time, and had them replaced, but it was not until I went with the cross drilled Brembos machined by KVRPerformance ( www.kvrperformance.com ) that the warping stopped. I am not sure if it had to do with the small surface of the rotors, and/or my heavy foot. :-)  
I had the rotors in service for 50K + miles and never had any issues, but I did check them periodically. They went with the new owner when the car was sold.

On my new car I will look into tires first, then lines/pads, and lastly rotors, but if anything, once I do all my performance upgrades I can only dream of some nice Brembo setups.

X

[GrandLordKhorne]

Just wanted to chime in with some info that I think was overlooked but might be important.

For rotors with slots or holes in them:

There are two different ways these rotors are manufactured.  One is by pretty much making a standard rotor and then drilling or milling the appropriate pattering in them.  The act of drilling or milling a material stresses it and can cause machine cracking (I will explain more in the next paragraph).  The other way they are made is cast with the holes or slots in the rotor (known as ?cast as?).  The versions that are cast as are much stronger and less likely to have problems than thaws machined later, so if you are given a choice between the two, it is worth the money to gat cast as.  Some Rotora and some Brembo are cast as but it is best to ask if they are rather than assume. Many companies will also buy stock rotors and drill or slot them, these are the most commonly cracked ones.

For rotors that have machined in patterning: the act of cutting the material it?s self can crack it on a granular level or even larger at times (normally caused by dull bits or lack of lube).  As the very small cracks in the rotor are corroded or heated and cooled repeatedly they spread and the rotor fails.  This is why some people complain that there drilled rotors suck and others have had a grate experience with them.  The more heat the rotor takes the quicker the problem spreads.  Having said that, note not all rotors have these cracks in them.

I learned all of this info at work (I?m in QC) when we had a car builder bring in a butt load of rotors to be tested for the aforementioned cracks.  It was quite appalling to discover how many of the top quality rotors he had with him had tiny machining cracks in them that where a possible source of problems under heavy use.



As a side note, I?m doing some testing on cryogenic treatments of metals and will be looking into how it effects brake rotors.  If there theory is correct and it works as well as it is clamed to, than it would virtually eliminate rotor warping and significantly reduce wear issues.