I am going to replace front rotors and pads on my 99 F150 2wd. What is a good replacement rotor. I don't need anything high performance but I do want a good quality replacement.

Thanks,
Tomk

 

I purchased my rotors from Autozone for 35.00 each. I've got a 2 year warranty on them and I figured that I would be re-doing the brakes that often anyway and I could keep turning in the old rotors for new ones each time.

 

you can get cross drilled and sloted rotors from JC whitney for, if memory serves me correctly, $79 each

 

Someone has wrote that NAPA has cross-drilled and slotted rotors at a reasonable price. I am going to check it out as I to am in the market for replacement rotors. Auto Zone quoted me $37.00 for the rotors.

 

Just a note: Cross drilled rotors are not neccessary any more, they were for older brake pad compounds, from the 50"s. They won't work any better than stock, they may even work worse because there is less mass to absorb the heat. Another potential problem is cracking from the drilled holes. Slotted rotors are okay but you can't turn them so you have to replace them , could get expensive in the long run.

Check this link out for more info.http://www.teamscr.com/rotors.htm

And now from Wildwoods site website:


quote:
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Q: Why are some rotors drilled or slotted?
A: Rotors are drilled to reduce rotating weight, an issue near and dear to racers searching for ways to minimize unsprung weight. Drilling diminishes a rotor's durability and cooling capacity.

Slots or grooves in rotor faces are partly a carryover from the days of asbestos pads. Asbestos and other organic pads were prone to "glazing" and the slots tended to help "scrape or de-glaze" them. Drilling and slotting rotors has become popular in street applications for their pure aesthetic value. Wilwood has a large selection of drilled and slotted rotors for a wide range of applications.
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Check out this Altima site for a thread on crossdrilling rotors that a few car racing guys got on and gave alot of great tech to support the argument against crossdrilled rotors. Note: it's very long but worth it for the knowledge.Cross drilled rotor thread.

Again , it is a very long thread, but full of great tech.

Good luck in your decision.

 

Cross drilled rotors are not neccessary any more but neither is a 700hp truck that dosent haul anything

They will work better then stock, heres a little test for you to perform, find a smooth surface, find a small block of smooth wood and slide it across it, now find a surface with groovs, try and slide the block of wood now, and whats the noticable difference??? Point proven.

I dont agree with the whole x-drilled and sloted rotors does not stop a vehicle any better, any 60-0 braking test will show a significant improvement.

If you dont beleve me go buy a set of x-drilled and sloted rotors, sets of pads, a gtech, and try them both out for yourself, you notice anywhere from a 15% to 25% improvement.

I think you will agree that the more airflow you can get accross a surface the less heat will build on that surface. The reason why the x drill helps is because it will disapate heat better, notice the holes along the outside in the center of the rotor, the shear air force alone when at spead, if an exit is provided (the x drilled) will disapate heat. With standard rotors there is no place for the air pressure to escape so it lowers the disapation.

 

I think the difference that you notice is buying brand new rotors and comparing them to worn out rotors, of course they will work better, they are brand new. Brand new crossdrilled rotors will work better than old worn out rotors. I think that there are plenty of good sources in that thread that prove that, even the rotor manufacturers say that crossdrilling is really for looks. There is nothing wrong in buying crossdrilled rotors for the looks, just don't think you are getting better performance or reliability from them. They show plenty of examples of crossdrilled rotors developing cracks along the holes in that thread. The guy's that provided all the good tech info in that thread are all car roadracers and some of them are also engineers.

Here is a quote from that thread:
[quote]

I am not a brake engineer. I do, however, race a car ~25 weekends a year. I do know quite a bit about brakes and what stops your car.



quote:
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Crossdrilled rotors-by design, crossdrilled rotors were designed for track use.
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True. Crossdrilled rotors were developed for racing in the 50s when brakes pads sucked. They would off-gas at relatively low temperatures. The holes gave the gas somewhere to go. If not, it would get trapped between the rotor/pad and the pad would not make contact with the rotor. That is called "fade". Modern brake pads do not do this. True, if you take a street pad to the race track and exceed it's operating temperature, you can get it to fade. But I challenge you to get a Hawk Blue, or Porterfield R4 brake pad or other dedicated racing pad to fade. Ever. Simply, crossdrilled rotors fix a problem that no longer exists.


quote:
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Why? Because, when you drill holes in your rotors, they are designed to dissipate heat (not to rid of brake dust as most people think).
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Surface area dissipates heat. The amount of surface you create from drilling holes is almost insignificant compared to the initial surface area of a standard OE vented. In addition x-drilled rotors will reach higher peak temperature because you are removing metal from the rotor. The metal is what absorbs the heat. Plus, you are reducing pad/surface interface. Tell me again why this is a good idea?


quote:
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I ask any local non-believers to take a ride in my car, I would be happy to allow them to drive it just so they can tell you about the brakes
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I do not doubt your car stop well. Obviously, if you replace busted/worn out OE parts with new x-drilled parts, of course it's going to stop better. What I do doubt is that it stops better than regular new OE-style non-drilled/slotted rotors. I * Guarantee* it does not.

Don't believe me? Will you believe an engineer that designs automotive braking systems?

http://www.teamscr.com/grmbrakes.htm http://www.teamscr.com/rotors.htm
http://www.stoptech.com/technical/

Your tires are stopping your car. Not the pads. Not the rotors. Not the SS brakelines. The tires. TIRES!!! Want to stop quicker, get better TIRES and stop wasting money on expensive-as-hell rotors.

Just trying to educate you guys.

[/qoute]

 

Karson 5.4, I don't know if I can agree completely with you or not. My truck has been stopping terrible since new. When I replaced the pads with Carbon Metallic and had rotors turned plus added new Michelin Cross Terrain SUV tires and the stopping was no better. There must be a way to improve stopping quality.
According to what you are saying the high performance brake systems don't improve braking quality...I tend to think they must do something...but I am not a brake expert by any means.

 

They won't help on street applications because those high dollar brake systems work best HOT. on a road course they are AWESOME!

 

I guess if you want a Porchse to stop quicker you put better tires on it? Thats BS

 

What do you think your ONLY contact with the road is??
That's right , YOUR TIRES !!! If your tires don't get traction and slide your not going to stop very well.

If a car comes stock with good quality tires , then I would agree that there is not much to be gained by changing tires. The tires that come stock on our F150's suck (mine were goodyear wrangler ap's) , so putting a better tire on will help with traction.

 

No, I'm not saying high performance brake systems won't improve braking. I'm saying that new crossdrilled rotors won't improve braking over new stock rotors. If you improve your brakepad compound, get larger diameter rotors, that would improve your braking. Also when you turn your rotors you are removing mass, so the rotors wont be able absorb the heat as well.




I think Talleywacker is referring to racing brakepad compounds and carbon rotors, and Talleywacker is correct. You need a good street brakepad compound to stop well on the street, something that does not need alot of heat to work well. You never use the brakes as many times in a short amount of time like you would at a track, so race compounds on the street would never get into the heatrange that would let them work better.

I'm not saying that I'm a brake expert either, I have @13 years racing experience and if you read that other thread you can tell that the car racing guy's know their stuff as opposed to that nissanlunatic goof.

 

mjhpadi, I just put on the same tires and while I haven't tried to see if they worked better on the brakes , for me they work awesome in the rain.

 

You're kidding right?

 

Where are you getting this info from? Could you provide some sources for these tests that would support your argument?


you say 15% to 25% improvement, are these results from tests that you have performed or are these just estimates?