I am going to replace all my brake rotors and pads, what the opinion of the drilled & slotted rotors & ceramic pads?

• • Ceramic pads are 100% non-ferrous so there is no steel & iron in the pad that cause annoying brake squeal.
  • Low dust formulation
  • All pads come with a constrained layer steel shim with two active rubber layers to eliminate brake noise
  • Positive mold hot pressing to eliminate soft spots inside the pad
  • Powerstop is a leading supplier of performance brake parts since 1997 (Visit www.powerstop.com for more information)

 

well, know this, drilled and slotted rotors dissipate the heat well and are usually used in moderate to high performance applications involving road racing type applications where break fade is a real issue. The down side to them is that they, by their very nature, are more abrasive to the pad itself, it's basically like a cheese grater on the pad. Therefore the pads, no matter what type, won't last as long as if you went with a more conventional type rotor.

Just my $.02

 

Also,I never even heard of ceramic pads before the other day.But someone on this board was just saying how dangerous he thought they were.He didn't go into detail as to why.And for the life of me I cant remember who said it.But he did say he switched back to semi-metallics and it was immediately better.Wish I had the post of this for you.

 

I have been thinking about going cryoed slotted (not drilled) with hawk heavy duty pads designed for towing applications. I remember that post too he said the ceramic pads didn't stop very well, like scary bad.

 

I have been very happy with my Hawk ceramic pads. Great stopping power. I have the cryo'd Powerslots. It is not usually recommended to go with the drilled rotors for our trucks. I believe they are weaker that just the slotted. Do not quote me on that though. Just what I read when researching a while back.

 

I by no means am a brake guru, but I think there are certain types of pad composition that match up to certain rotor compositions and brake applications. So it may not be that ceramic are bad they just didn't work well with the rotors that guy had.

 

Yea that was the post Jason.Or maybe it was just a bad set of pads.{shrug}dunno.

 

I agree with Jason on the pad/rotor combo being important. I have heard that many times.

 

Cryo Powerslots with Hawk LTS pads worked very well for my F250.

Now, for my F350 dually I am going with ART cryo rotors all around with their own pads. The ART people are good to deal with and they will give you advice based upon your needs.

Powerslots and ARTs are slotted to allow for dissipation of heat. All of my information I have gleaned from my readings on this subject say STAY AWAY FROM DRILLED ROTORS aka catastrophic failure

 

So drilled rotors are bad, this is what they claim.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND FASTER STOPS!
Cross-drilled rotors can improve stopping power up to 35% over stock rotors as reported in SAE Technical Paper 2006-01-0691 "The effect of Rotor Crossdrilling on Brake Performance" by two GM engineers. That's why Corvette, Porsche, Mercedes, and BMW vehicles come factory direct with drilled brake rotors. i.e. not dimpled or slotted. The fact is that the drill holes greatly improve convection heat transfer and the result is more pad bite. The report also states that "it is possible to have too many holes, in which case too much cooling air would be lost before reaching the hottest part of the rotor". Kinetic rotors are designed for optimum rotor cooling and durability with one cooling hole per vane. This also provides superior strength to avoid cracking.
STOP ROTOR WARPING!
High rotor temperature can cause heat spots to form on the rotor, and this causes pulsating brakes Cross-drilled rotors keep the brakes up a 150 degrees cooler to prevent rotor warping.

 

I think the reasoning is that our heavy trucks put such a large strain on the brakes that cross drilled can't take the abuse and might be more likely to fail.

 

jhand124 you are precisely correct. I think it is patently unfair to compare an F350 with a Corvette/Ferrari/Porsche in the braking department. I own a pretty quick Bimmer and I will not go with drilled rotors. Catastrophic failures mean that the drilling stresses the metal and can lead to problems.

 

I just installed Power slot cryo rotors with EBC 7100 series pads on the front and EBC 6100 series pads on the rear on a 2000 X very happy with the setup.

 

The slotted are better for the dissipation of heat and are stronger. There are gasses that from from friction between the pad and the rotor. They both allow for the gasses to escape between the pad and the rotor and thats why they are good for certain applications. There are definitely issues with drilled rotors cracking and I agree, Porsche's and Corvette's are a whole different animal than our trucks. Like 4,000+ lbs different before hooking up to a trailer.

 

Has anyone here used the newer superduty motorcraft pads from ford? I was looking at changing the pads and rotors and called the dealer because from the research I have done here recommended to go with the OEM for longevity. When I called the dealership(which btw is one of the good ones) the guy in parts told me that a lot of their fleets were switching to the superduty pads because they last longer. Any opinions?