Best Current Brand for Rotors

[Capeasy]

Well I'm back in the market for ordering a set of new rotors from Rock Auto or MaxBrakes out of Canada.
I'm not a fan of Drilled Rotors even Bendix or the better Centrix, they All seem to get micro cracks between the Drilled holes. What are the Masses using and been happy with?
Thanks All

[Mooseman]

I installed a set of Max Brakes on a neighbours Mazda and no complaints there. They're still made in China just like all brake components nowadays. I used Centrix coated in the rear of my Caprice (Brembo conversion) and they've been good. The dealership I work at uses ACDelco Advantage coated on everything. They seem to have gotten things backwards as the Pro are just painted while the coated are Advantage. Haven't heard of any comebacks. The shuttle Equinox I drive has them. I abuse the snot out of it, often loaded with people and they work fine.

You're right on staying away from drilled rotors. It's BS and, like you said, they suffer from cracks and actually reduce braking efficiency due to reduced mass.

[Capeasy]

Thanks for your advise Moosman:)
And I know how important it is to "Bed" the brakes in after a good brake job so you can avoid the pulsating peddle feel from occurring. I've actually experimted this theory on a 15 Ford Edge that went thru front pads and rotors every year no matter if they were dealer installed Motorcraft pads and rotors etc. So a year before I got rid of that headache Ford I bought the Crapiest pads and worst Chinese Rotors at my local Autozone. I bedded the Brakes Exactly the way Brembo or Willwood would recommend. This procedure involves a process of heating and cooling the brakes over several hrs and NEVER allowing the pads to come in contact with the Rotors while stopping at a red light during the Bedding process. This process can take a day or 2 to complete but when it was done I never got the pulsating peddle syndrome to return within the next year, but still Sold that problem child Ford anyways.

[SSpeedracer]

My Caprice has Brembo front and stock rear calipers. I use metallic pads in nearly all my vehicles.

Front:
RAYBESTOS 580676P (High Performance) Specialty - Police Disc front rotors. Wll purchase again.
GM GENUINE 1711141 pads ***These will not fit OEM floating PPV calipers, Brembo only ***

Rear:
RAYBESTOS 580724
RAYBESTOS SP1352PPH (High Performance) Specialty - Police Metallic



I do not recommend RAYBESTOS 580676PER (High Performance) R-300 High Performance; S-Groove Technology front rotors. The grooves result in uneven wear across the faces of the rotors. The 580767P are superior.

[Capeasy]

You mention Brembo fronts, Calipers only? With the GM style rotors? And do you use Brembo Pads or you mentioned a GM part number as well on fronts. Do you notice much difference between the GM and Brembo pads, and what's the advantage over the stock calipers if I was to use a softer pad that stops well but does make more dust.
Thanks for sharing about your brake experience:)

[SSpeedracer]

I swapped in Camaro Brembo front calipers. Search this site for details. These mate with Caprice rotors.

The GM Pads I use PN 1711141 (metallic) were manufactured by Brembo (branded Brembo) and came OEM on Camaro's. 1711141 is no longer manufactured and I don't know the equivalent PN. I suspect there is a Brembo/ACDelco/GM Genuine equivalent metallic for the Camaro (J6G).

GM does not manufacture brake pads, they merely relabel pads from other manufacturers. In the case above, GM 1711141 -are- Brembo pads just with a unique GM identifier. GM will relabel other manufacturers also.

Regardless of fixed (Brembo) or floating (stock) calipers I absolutely hate the performance of ceramic pads compared to metallic pads. Ceramic organic vs metallic pads have been widely compared everywhere.

My priority is braking performance. Metallic always beats ceramic. But, metallic will leave brake dust, sometimes copious. The dust could etch wheels depending on wheel coating, paint chrome etc, and needs to be washed off particularly if exposed to water. Cleaning rims absolutely sucks. When I buy replacement rims I contemplate how time consuming they are to wash. Metallic pads will also wear out rotors much sooner than ceramic.

I tried these on the the Caprice with horrible results and immediately switched back to metallic.
POWER STOP Z261474A (High Performance) Z26 Street Warrior; Carbon-Fiber Ceramic

[bstoner]

I went with the AC Delco Gold Professional 18A2652 rotors which I think are the same as the Raybestos Specialty - Street Performance Disc 580676. I would consider them OEM replacements. They work fine for my needs. For pads I use the AC Delco 17D1404CH (Daily Driver) Gold / Professional; Ceramic.

[PSM09]

I've tried a lot of the brands listed, but the best I've found are the DBA T3 rotors. No noise. No break in issues. No warping. The others are varying degrees of OK, But the DBA are the best.

[Capeasy]

I don't mind turning Rotors within their specs or replacing them since the cost isn't to bad with all the overseas competition. I'm sure there's "High end" Chinese Rotors and many are just OK if your not looking for any kind of performance out of them.
I love Ceramic, but for clutches not brakes, they do tear up Rotors. I still like metallic but not sure if I should stick with the "Fleet or police" versions? They do the job the that they were intended for and I'm running the stock steelies and modified rear steelies "11 wide" I keep them clean and don't mind the excess dust they create.
I've had the best luck with Hawk pads for my Dodge Diesel pickups, not sure if their a good choice for the PPV, So Rock Auto NAPA or my local parts house ?