I just replaced my front brake rotors. I'm thinking of drilling the old rotors( like the expensive ones ) to see what happens. Has anyone done this before? What would be a good hole size? Any ill effects?
Matt
drilling old rotors
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manoa matt
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mdrburchette
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manoa matt
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Joe Clemente
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Re: drilling old rotors
Not a good idea. Unless you radius the holes correctly as Mark indicated, you'll only end up ruining your new rotors. And radiusing is still no guarantee against cracking.
Drilled rotors have less surface area than non drilled ones so they do in fact heat up faster. The popular misconception is that drilling helps cool when in reality drilling does very little for cooling. Their original purpose was to evacuate lubricant gases from between the pad and rotor face on super heated racing brakes. Modern pads make that unnecessary. Whether on a race car or on a street car that added heat creates stress risers and cracks at the holes.
If you are trying to achieve a look, go ahead and have at it but you can expect to replace the rotors and pads you've just purchased in short order. (ie. assuming you want to try on your new ones)
There are safer and ulitmately less expensive ways to improve your stock braking. Use a set of good pads, minimize compliance in the system with proper lines and seals and incorporate some venting. That'll work better.
Cheers.
Drilled rotors have less surface area than non drilled ones so they do in fact heat up faster. The popular misconception is that drilling helps cool when in reality drilling does very little for cooling. Their original purpose was to evacuate lubricant gases from between the pad and rotor face on super heated racing brakes. Modern pads make that unnecessary. Whether on a race car or on a street car that added heat creates stress risers and cracks at the holes.
If you are trying to achieve a look, go ahead and have at it but you can expect to replace the rotors and pads you've just purchased in short order. (ie. assuming you want to try on your new ones)
There are safer and ulitmately less expensive ways to improve your stock braking. Use a set of good pads, minimize compliance in the system with proper lines and seals and incorporate some venting. That'll work better.
Cheers.