I'm looking on ebay at a couple sets of Brembo brakes for my 05 G coupe. There is a set of cross-drilled for $630, and it came from the factory (Brembo) like that. And there's another set of Brembos that I guess was drilled and slotted by the company selling them (a third party company, they bought the regular rotors from Brembo, and cross-drilled and slotted them on their own and market them...). Difference in the cost is $300-$400.

My question is, how well do aftermarket companies/machines drill and slot those rotors vs. directly from the manufacturer. I don't think Brembo casts them rotors with holes in them. The holes were drilled in after the rotors were developed.

 

yeah, i doubt brembo casts their rotors with holes in them either. i am pretty sure brembo would know the exact specs of their own drilled rotors as it is their own product. perhaps the wind vanes found within drilled rotors have a different pattern than normal blanks? can anyone confirm this?

unfortunately, drilled rotors will crack inevitably, depending on how hard the brakes have been used. i guess it's just a difference of matter of time between 3rd party and brembo products.

if you're not going to track the car and go on throttle and braking sprees, i say go with the 3rd party. personally, i'd run dimple/slotted rotors as some structure integrity hasn't been compromised with cooling and brake bite.

 

While I have heard over and over that cross drilled rotors will/can/may crack, I haven't seen it enough to guarantee it. I mean, a lot of quality automobiles, Porsche, Aston Martin, etc... come with cross drilled rotors. I think that saying they will crack inevitably is a bit of a stretch.

I think it's obvious that if you had to rate the chance of cracking, you'd have stock as least likely, slotted next, and cross drilled as most likely, but that may be equatable to saying which exhaust system is most likely to blow an engine. While one will be more likely, said likelyhood is small.

I have brembo cross drilleds on my ride. I've had them for 2 years with no problems. I drive my car pretty hard too. I'm not going to say what you should do, but I think that if you DO go cross drilled, get a reputable brand. Saving money on brakes by getting cheaper parts from e-bay just doesn't seem smart to me. I'll save money on stuff, just not the stuff that stops me.

 

Well...I'm not getting aftermarket rotors...I'm just considering aftermarket "machining"...both rotors are Brembos...but one set is drilled at the factory vs the other set drilled and slotted by a third party company...I like the looks of drilled and slotted rotors, and Brembo does not offer that from the factory...plus the aftermarket machining is more than 50% cheaper than the price of the factory machining....

I had aftermarket drilled and slotted rotors of a no name company on my Z, and that was pretty bad*ss....I thought it performed pretty freaking bad*ss...never had a problem with them even after 18k miles...and I drove my Z pretty hard...

has anyone personally had their cross drilled rotors cracked before? I heard people saying "don't buy C/D cuz they crack", yet they had never owned C/D...I loved the ones I had on my Z, they out performed the stock rotors...