starfire

Which way is the best to go? These are going on the front of my '78 Starfire.

There's also Cross Drilled, Drilled & Slotted, Diamond Slotted... Ahhhhh, how do I choose?

The car currently stops on a dime with standard rotors (has drums in the rear).

Thanks,

cdrod

Many people are of the opinion that the drilled rotors will develop cracks around the holes because of stress risers from the drilling. I have run slotted only rotors on my 2003 Toyota 4Runner with no issues and got nearly 100k miles out of the pads and rotors in heavy, stop-and-go city driving. They are a little bit noisy (make a swish-swish-swish noise because of the slots) but they stop really well with zero brake fade. I would stay away from drilled rotors.
Rodney

joe_padavano

On a street-driven car you'll never feel the difference. There's no reason to spend the extra money for drilled/slotted rotors unless you just want to show them off through the holes in your wheels.

ELY442

I bought drilled front rotors for both of my 70 Cutlass but never installed them yet but I did installed the drilled/slotted front and rear rotors for my 02 Bravada. CD is right about the swish swish noise if you dont mind the noise but I get mixed reviews from guys that tells me the slotted rotors shaves your brakes faster so I switched over to drilled rotors for the front and back. I do a lot of stop and go with the Bravada in NYC traffic but I really dont feel any stopping difference. Like Joe said, it does look nice through the holes of your rims to see the drilled rotors. A lot of people tells me is this factory stock rotors and I tell them of course, its an Oldsmobile

47 Convertible

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I had nothing but grief with factory rotors on my 2006 GMC which is otherwise an outstanding truck. They were plain rotors with no holes or grooves but apparently very thin to save weight and cost? Every 5k miles or so the rotors would warp enough to cause pulsation in the brake pedal. Went through rotor, turning, another rotor like four times and finally got smart and quit buying factory rotors.

Paid maybe 40% more than factory rotor cost and Bought Raybestos that came slotted ( I didn't ask for them to be slotted) Now have over 60,000 miles on those rotors and they've never had to be turned. I'm due for new pads but will leave those outstanding rotors alone. I don't think the slots in them had much if anything to do with the long life and great braking.

What I saw when looking at them was the Raybestos rotors were noticeably different than factory in other ways like their ability to vent better, thicker web and if they had to be turned I believe they could be turned at least twice before hitting the 'no-go' point. Factory rotors couldn't be turned more than once and then just a few thousandths allowed.

Can't prove it in any scientific way but I believe the metallurgy is better and the design and manufacture is also better with Raybestos than with whatever GMC sourced for factory rotors and those factors have more to do with longevity than drilled/reamed holes and milled grooves.
Just my opinion based on experience and observation.
Jerry

biggus

What Joe said.^^^^

cdrod

Larry:
Metallurgy has much to do with a rotors ability to shed heat. It sounds like your factory rotors were either too thin or had crappy metallurgy from the get go. Slotted rotors have a little more surface area to help shed the heat and most manufacturers use curved slots to improve airflow and help evacuate braking gasses. Be sure to clock your existing rotors when you replace the brake pads; you may have run out issues otherwise. Just use a sharpie marker to mark the rotor and the hub to reinstall them in the same position.

I drive my 4Runner pretty hard and do a little towing; the slotted rotors with factory replacement pads were a noticeable improvement over the stock rotors. The brake fade when towing or after repeated hard stops was completely gone with the slotted rotors. It made me a believer. Good luck with your project.

Rodney

Fun71

Exactly. The vehicle manufacturers can save a LOT of money over the thousands of vehicles they make. I found out back in the early '90s that high quality aftermarket parts like Raybestos and Bendix are thicker/heavier and will last a lot longer than the thin factory stuff.