Upgrading to Vented Disk Brake Rotors?

[William330]

Has anyone upgraded their stock brake rotors with vented rotors?

These ones from Bavarian Auto (on th eright) are about $200, which is
probably close to the price of stock BMW rotors come replacement time:

It seems a no-brainer to upgrade to vented rotors when the factory
rotors wear out, no?

Anyone with thoughts or experience on this?

 

[vlad]

The factory rotors are vented. What you're referring to is cross-drilled rotors. There are definite advantages to these such as better cooling and reduced brake build up on the rotors. But you have to inspect these carefully and often since they are prone to cracking.

 

[frolf]

i'd go with slotted unless you are doing serious track work. or need serious looks. but vented are sweet. i personally have cross-drilled.

 

[MrElussive]

You can't lose on any of them, but I think I would go with cross-drilled just because it looks so aggressive.

 

[Average Jae]

cross drilled rotors are sweet ^^ the maint issues do seem a bit crappy.. that a big issue for normal drivers too? or those that autox all the time? dun kno all that much about this kinda stuff, cept for "yea that looks cool!!" ^^;;

 

[Akakubi]

These particular are looks mostly, even the slotted. You really don't need those rotors for the street only use. And I would not buy the "swiss cheese" ones for the track either. Like Vlad said, they are prone to cracking. Look carefully at the slotted rotor picture and you'll see that the grooves come out all the way to the edge of the rotor. It will crack under stress right at the edge - seen that before. You'll see more brake dust as the pads would wear faster. Plus they cost more.[fake]

Yes, performance-cooling wise, driled/slotted are superior to the blanks. But only under the race conditions and considering that the team changes them after each race. As a rule they are severely warped/cracked after a weekend.

Buy solid unless you want to bling-bling.


P.S. Good Slotted rotors that we can readily get in the US are Brembo and Ate, both OEM suppliers to BMW.

 

[William330]

Thanks for the replies.

My concern is performance, not appearance.

I figured for roughly the same price, it might be worth a shot.

Didn't know the brake pads wore out faster with drilled rotors, so
that's a cost hit...

frolf, did you notice ane difference in performance in everyday driving?

 

[codex57]

A few OEM manufacturers supply drilled with their cars. I saw a C230K in teh mall with drilled front brakes a couple days ago. My friend has a C32 and even after a day at the track, his drilled front brakes are fine. And he gets very little brake dust too which pisses me off since mine look filthy after 3 days.

 

[wood_e]

Go with slotted. If you manage to warp slotted rotors you can still be able to turn them to make them true. Cross-Drilled rotors are junk if they're warped, not to mention the possibility of cracking between the holes under high temperatures.

 

[wood_e]

i'd go with slotted unless you are doing serious track work. or need serious looks. but vented are sweet. i personally have cross-drilled.

*slotted