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Brake Pads and rotors

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packerfanjc

New member
Hey guys anyone know if slotted rotors are any better than just regular flat ones? Also ebay sells a lot of slotted drilled rotors really cheap. I have never heard anything bad about them but i am kind of leery on buying them. I was told that having slotted rotors you will have to change pads 2-1 times more than regular but you will have better performance stopping. I need to change front pads and rotors and wanna keep cost down as i gotta replace tires also. Just gotta know some info first lol.
Its a 2007 Grand Prix GT 3.800 Supercharged.
 


Drilled and slotted rotors are for race applications. For normal street braking, you wont notice a difference. They also are cheaper rotors, usually thinner and warp easier. Just go OEM from the parts store, they are usually the best for replacement and usually carry a good warranty. The drilled and slotted rotors cannot be turned as well.

Hope this helps,
Logan
 
Drilled and slotted rotors are just for show. They really give you no performance advantage. Ask any seasoned roadcourse or autocross driver and they will tell you not to buy them. When they are run in a racing application like this they have a tendancy to crack along the slots and holes from the heat, eventually causing rotor failure. A good quality set of blanks and a quality set of pads is the best way to go. Brembo makes some awesome OEM rotor blanks, and they are reasonably priced.
 
If it is a 2007, why are you replacing the rotors? Unless they have somehow been abused, you should be fine with simply putting new pads on there.
 
I guess this helps a lot yea its a. When i purchased the car used with 29,000 on it it had hard spots on the rotors it would pulsate when i stopped. I took it to a pontiac dealer and they turned them. Just a year later it came back. Before it was covered under warranty now i would have to pay if i even can get them turned. I can say that i brake hard at times but i just think factory rotors are not very good. What are some reasonable brake pads and rotors? Otherwhise i will just buy some autozone rotors and pads.
 
I'd just buy some new ones. I've noticed on a lot of newer Pontiacs, particularly G6's, the brake rotors/pads seem to have odd problems? Maybe I just come across a lot of unfortunate ones, but I've come across numerous G6's with warped/damaged/etc rotors.

Just as some speculation on my part, as i said, could just be extremely coincidental.
 


The only difference I noticed with drilled and slotted rotors was that when it had been raining the rotors dry off and bite a hell of a lot faster. Usually noticed when I had been cruising on the highway on a rainy day for a while and finally have to use the brakes. It used to take a half second extra for them to bite as they cleaned off the water. Not with the drilled and slotted rotors...
 
^^I noticed the same thing with my slotted rotors.

SaW1833 said:
I'd just buy some new ones. I've noticed on a lot of newer Pontiacs, particularly G6's, the brake rotors/pads seem to have odd problems? Maybe I just come across a lot of unfortunate ones, but I've come across numerous G6's with warped/damaged/etc rotors.

Just as some speculation on my part, as i said, could just be extremely coincidental.
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I've heard that it's due to the way GM cools the rotors. They don't allow the gases to escape properly, causing them to warp later in life. I've only heard it on the forums, so I don't know how true it is. My GP's rotors warped very soon after buying it (I wasn't hard on them), but I never experienced a problem with aftermarket rotors.
 
Heard the same thing about new Saturn SUV's. Stock rotors warped on a brand new SUV my buddy recently got. Warrantied them, and they warped as well.
 


I had a set of PowerStop slotted rotors on my SHO and they were junk. Went to cross drilled rotors and they were 1000% better than OEMs. The idea of the drilling is to dissipate heat better. OEM rotors have a tendency to warp under high heat, ie., repeated hard stops. The holes allow air to circulate better and allow the rotor to stay cooler.

Depends on how you drive too....if you are a "normal" driver, you won't notice a difference with drilled rotors. If you like to brake hard and/or drive in heavy stop-go traffic, the drilled rotors will last longer due to their abaility to resist heat build up.

Stay away from slotted, as was mentioned, they are ineffective.
 
I have a question about the rear rotors on a 2005 GT. I was wondering if the rotors had 2 sides on the rear. and if so mine are so bad on the back it feels like a thin piece of sheet metal. How can they get that bad so quick?
 
My mechanic was in a hurry that day and he just felt back a little too far and yeah it was the dust shield. But also what I cant believe is how small those back brake pads are. Whats strange is that the ABS light came on but the front brake pads were in good condition and rear were fair so we replaced them anyway, but that dont seem like it should be the reason why the light came on.
 
These are FF cars meaning front engine, front wheel drive so the weight balance is already nose heavy. Then combine that with a soft suspension and the nose dives and even more weight is transfered to the front hence the need for vented rotors in the front and just solids in the rear. The pad size difference is also because of the same reason.

wire to your front hub's ABS sensor has been mangled. Either check along the line going to the hub or replace the hub and bearing assembly.

BUT FIRST.

get it scanned to confirm.
 


I had Hawk ceramic pads and Powerslot rotors for a few days. They were scary to say the least. The stopping ability sucked badly. I quickly replaced the Hawks with AZ Duralast semi-metalic and then it stopped normally. The Powerslot rotors wore down rather quickly. I guess they were cheap.
 
matt5112 said:
Was it just the cold stopping which sucked or did they suck even when they were warmed up?
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Both. I did everything by the book. I bedded them exactly as I should. Those Hawk ceramics just did not have enough friction. It was just a waste of money. I took brand new pads off and threw them into the trash. The autozone brand semi-metalics (the cheapest they had) brought it back to original Pontiac level braking. This is no exageration. So many people raved about Hawk pads and maybe they do work well with some rotors and in some applications but they did not work for me.
 
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