Aftermarket rotors? The OEM's suck

Can you show me any examples of the rotors failing from cracking because of stress?

 

Easy way to tell if your rotors are warped is to drive at highway speeds (around 60-70 mph) and brake firmly but not too quickly that it's a violent stop.

You can also determine if it's just your front rotors by doing the same thing but using only your hand brake to slow down. Be easy and don't pull it very far at all, just enough to feel the car slow down. The hand brake only engages the rear brakes. Many times it's only your front rotors that are warped as they do most of the work when braking, but most folks agree that it's a good idea to change all your rotors and pads at the same time.

As a side note, if you're in the market for rotors and want an upgrade over stock, find a decent brand that makes DRILLED rotors. Not Slotted, Not drilled and slotted, just DRILLED. Rockauto is a good place to start. Don't get too caught up in the crazy expensive name brands.

Good luck!

 

if you think that's ok then be my guest and run drilled

 

Love that picture and the guy recommending drilled rotors right above.

 

Yeah pretty old and experienced, owned every version of a Yota truck since the HiLux, Porsches for 35 years, Mercedes for 40,
and some Amercian stuff in there somewhere.

We can argue all day about Slotted, Drilled, Solid, Ceramic, Carbon, Crbon matrix, etc.
EoD of the day, buy what works for you. Asbestos ? that hasn't been available since you were born, but that isn't meant to be a slam, Material has changed over the years, all trying to do the same thing, get rid of the heat buildup, last longer.
Some suck at dust !

The following is quote from EBC who is a well known and good manufacturer of braking products:

https://ebcbrakes.com/articles/what-is-brake-fade/

"The dominant mechanism causing brake fade is this thermal degradation of the phenolic resins and other materials in the friction lining, which create a film of gas at the pad-rotor interface and effectively causes the brake pad to skid off the disc. As these gasses build up at the pad-rotor interface, they produce an appreciable backpressure which creates an opposing force to the brake caliper that is trying to hold the pads against the rotor. If there is no way for the gasses to escape, the opposing force as a result of the outgassing can become large enough to prize the pads away from the rotor, reducing the area of pad in contact with the rotor and thus reducing braking power (i.e. brake fade)."

Gas is still prevalent no matter the material.

As far as rotors, there are good ones and bad ones, the picture of the drilled rotor is obviously worn out, solid rotors also crack and lead to destruction as shown by the idiots that let the pads wear out and cut into rotor surface to the vents.



but if you look at the solid slotted rotors on the left closely in the pair of pictures below , the heat buildup/pad deposit is causing the rotor to crack circumferentially on the rotor. the right picture shows a good pad matched to slotted drilled rotor.

Photo credit www.racingbrake.com

What I'm saying is buy good pads, good rotors, and keep and eye and ear out for problems. If you see cracks in the rotors, its a sign to think about replacement. I've got 3200 miles on my Tacoma DCSB 4x2 TRD Sport and it already has issues in the front brakes.

As far a 911's and rear engine design being inferior, people have been saying that since 1963. Not as old as me, but a long time. Hard to find a bad review of a 911 in any car magazine. I agree they are expensive, but like these trucks, if you do it yourself like a lot of people here do, there affordable. If your lucky enough to own a Aircooled one (63-98), your return on investment now is off the charts.

Sorry, if I was harsh, I was having a bad day. My apologies.

Mike

 

You need to visit the site this pic and data came from and was quoted quite a bit in this post. Post originated in 2010.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forum...d-rotors-vs-slotted-rotors-engineer-test.html

Quite a bit of plagiarized info of previous posts came from there also. That's not the point, If I'm not mistaken this was GM/Chevrolet/Dephi's first attempt at drilled rotors on a new chassis configuration C5. I would agree their product was about looks not function, many people on the site and quite a few that I track with would agree, stock Covette C5 brakes need to be upgraded to survive a weekend of track driving (3 days w /4-20 minute sessions per day), including modifications to the AutoTrans coolers and power steering and Oil Sump/Pump modifications are required to be able to drive the car home from the track.

If you read through all the posts you might gather that there are 2 sides to this, guys that are engineers and understand metallurgy, and guys that owned Vettes and thought they could take them to the road track and drive a couple of 20 minute sessions without incident.

You are looking at the results.

Not until GM started taking their cars to the Nurburgring, did they further develop the products to handle Track days from the showroom floor.

The original OP post was about crap OEM Rotors, which I would agree. They are just not big enough for a Tacoma.

 

Man, I am glad I live in Blythe and I only stop twice; when I get there and when I get back home.

 

I pulled a picture to prove a point. doesn't matter if its from 2010 or 2017 drilled rotors are prone to cracking. its going to happen no matter what.

 

No matter what? interesting statement.

Here's pic's from my own car after 5 track sessions, 3 at Mid Ohio, 1 at the Glen, 1 at Putnam Park. 15 days, 3-4 sessions each day. using 2 sets of Hawk Pads.
Anybody can tell you 2 of those tracks are probably some of the most demanding tracks to drive. Putnam has one of the longer straights that I drive into turn one which is a medium speed ,120 degree right hand turn that you better be at 60 mph from 130+.

If you would have read the site postings that you got that pic from, that guy cooked that rotor which would cause that thermal fracture.

Like I've said, if the brake system can't get rid of the heat, that is the result.

Front Driver Side


Front Driver Side


Rear Driver Side

No cracks, some pad residual on rear

in my experience with Porsche rotors, never had an issue with cracks or failures. With my Gen 2 Tacoma, and PowerStop Drilled/Slotted rotors & EBC pads same experience no issues, no failures. I just traded it in last month w 175K miles. Stock Rotors were good for 30K.

 

So it seems like EBC rotors with Greenstuff pads is a very popular setup. Might just go with that

 

Manufacturers should make bigger pads and then just drill and slot them to their hearts content for gas entrapment, then leave the rotors with solid faces (I think discs regardless of solid/drilled/slotted/dimpled still have hollow slots in the middle for heat).

 

Not to kick this particular beehive again but I'd say "yeah, sort of" - the fact does remain that holes are stress concentrations- they will never not be. It's simple physics. You can't have a material stress cross an air gap, so it has to find another way.


Put simply, the edges of the hole have to sustain a lot higher force- they are what is called "stress risers" and for any given rotor, one with holes is never going to be stronger.

I don't doubt that you've put yours through the wringer and they've performed admirably- but that doesn't change the way materials science works.
You simply haven't exceeded the stress limits of your rotors. They are damn good rotors, to be fair.

On the flip side of this coin, solid rotors are not invincible megabrakes that will never crack:

Any rotor will crack, should you be abusive enough to it.

Backing off into the more practical realm, Tacomas do not have the same performance envelope as Porsches, and I would be very surprised if you could romp on the rotors to where a properly made set of drilled rotors will fracture. So basically, do what you think looks cool.

 

i put these on because i drive a truck and im not diving into corners on the nurburgring. Powerstop whatever their "tow" package set-up is. if an when the rotors crack from all my late apexing i'll find some other avenue but for now theyre light years better than stock and by light yearsI mean I can press the brake pedal and not feel like im driving a clapped 88 cherokee.