dlazrael

I've had the Powerstop rotors on my car for maybe 1,000 miles. I have to replace my fronts now because they are warped (shudder in wheels during braking). I've allready ruled out wheel balance, alignment, suspension parts etc, the only thing left would be to do the runout on the brakes and I haven't done it yet.

I am 99% certain that the powerstops have warped

The days of needed slotted and drilled for gas escape, glazing etc, have come and gone.
In fact, talking to alot of people who race, both autoX and drag, all recommend steel blanks (OEM style) rotors with an upgraded pad. Unless of course you get the Strange drag brakes for a drag only car.

When I redo my brakes I am going to the '11GT (NON Brembo) upgrade.. it's just a new bracket and a larger rotor - but I am planning on using advance blanks and hawk pads. I'm also buying new calipers b/c I want to powder coat them and it's easier than rebuilding..


Depending on mileage you may want to rebuild your calipers, but at least check all the gaskets/seals/ caliper pins (greased etc) and make sure they're all good

PNYXPRESS

Drilled rotors are prone to cracking and are Get plugged up easily. A slotted rotor only would be your best bet for increased performance

yourmom6990

I've never had a problem with cracking or getting plugged up from drilled rotors. Are you speaking from experience or just he said she said?

PNYXPRESS

Experience. But from hard driving hpde. We run drilled rotors on the Ferraris, Lamborghinis and R8 at work and they are constantly developing cracks. The Porsche, Ferrari and GT-R that run slotted only don't have problems.

akdoggie

The drilled rotors tend to do this a lot.

Norm Peterson

Rotor runout is a measurement of how much the rotor faces "wobble" out of perfectly flat as they spin on the "axle". It's easy to ASSUME that the rotor faces are perfectly flat and perfectly perpendicular to the axle, but they aren't. It's why there are tolerances.

I wouldn't ever choose to run drilled rotors . . . unless I was stuck in a situation where I needed rotors "yesterday" and that's all that was available. If you're on a budget, they represent wasted money, if you run your car on the track, they aren't as durable . . . right when durability counts for a LOT.

Slotted does seem to be a decent alternative at least for street driving, maybe up to some intermediate level of track day duty. On the street, the grooves do give grit a place to go other than trapped between the pad and the rotor, so your rotors won't develop deep scoring as quickly or as badly.

Likewise, I'm not sold on the blind thinking that ceramics are the best kind of pads. Brake pads should be chosen for the best performance you can afford first, even if it's just for that one time in their life when you might need all of it. Ceramics come in many different formulations, and they don't all provide the same "bite", or amounts of rotor wear, noise suppression or dusting. It bothers me that up-level non-ceramics are starting to be harder to find in the local parts stores, because strong initial bite just doesn't seem to be there in the mass-market ceramics.


Norm

JJHoover

I have had these for two years now with no problems

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FRONT-REAR-K...cc2f7a&vxp=mtr

yourmom6990

+1 ebay rotors hold up extremely well. Especially with the weather we get here in Chicago. Never had problems with cracking.

Derf00

Thanks for answering the OP's question about runout, I hadn't been on the forum since I posted it so I didn't see it until now. I would add about total (lateral) runout (Hub + rotor) but it's not relevant at this point.

With respect to the ceramic topic. I have yet to find an aftermarket Semi-metallic that I like. It seems that every set, regardless of brand/formulation has issues. Either squealing, excessive dust or just plain crap for stopping power. No, I haven't tried EBC yet. I can say Fords, aftermarket Motorcraft pads (red box) are not equal to the OEM FoMoCo pads (blue box). However, even the FoMoCo pads don't seem to work as well as the ones they use on the assembly line, excessive noise and dust. Raybestos and Wagner also have seemed to go downhill over the years.

The Akebono ceramics have worked pretty well in all four applications I've used them in thus far (00 mustang v6, 08 mustang gt, 06 escape XLT, and 07 cobalt LT) Yes there is, to me, a difference in bite when cold vs once you've stopped a couple of times but I don't typically drive on the street like it's a race course. It's easy to get them warmed up enough getting out of my neighborhood or leaving a parking lot. For everyone else in our household, they can't tell the difference in performance between hot and cold pads since they drive way more conservatively than I do.