Best rear brakes to prevent front rotor warpage (1 Viewer)

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Do you have a link to any studies done on the heat dissipation? I haven't ever been able to find any. Even Porsche admitted on their site a few years ago that the drilled/slotting were only for dissipating water vapors during wet track sessions, with no mention of the cooling effect. (This has since been taken down). I believe Stoptech had/has a similar article on their site.

Is this the StopTech article @phsycle - The "Warped" Brake Disc and Other Myths of the Braking System? This is the one I had in mind when I wrote the post above.

Interesting read by a GM lead engineer - Mirza Grebovic, Investigation of the Effects on Braking Performance of Different Brake Rotor Designs. Not a definitive study by any means (it appears to be a personal paper), but interesting nonetheless. (Google it).
 
I think there is more to warped rotors than what is being discussed here.

Sometimes, "warped rotors" are a misdiagnosis and is actually brake pad leaching into the rotor. When braking, this grabs the pad and makes it feel like they are warped.

Keep in mind, heat is a major factor in any scenario. Driving style and conditions can have a big impact on this.

Quality pads are just as important as quality rotors.

If you have lots of issues, a slight change in driving style can help.

Ding ding ding ding! We have a winner folks. While unevenly torqued lug nuts may not be a good thing, I'm convinced that uneven brake pad deposits are to blame for most "warped" rotor threads. Lord knows it took me long enough to figure it out!



...via IH8MUD app
 
For arguments sake I will agree to the brake deposit reason.
This still does not explain why the front rotors cause more vibration than the rears. Both front and rear are braking under the same conditions.

Perhaps you can not feel the rear or isolate the rear vs front.
i.e. If the pedal is pusating and the steering wheel is vibrating how do you know if only the front rotors have problems?
I guess if the problems both go away with only front rotor replacement it is isolated.

BTW i am a firm believer that over torque of the lug nuts causes rotor warpage.
 
Is this the StopTech article @phsycle - The "Warped" Brake Disc and Other Myths of the Braking System? This is the one I had in mind when I wrote the post above.

Interesting read by a GM lead engineer - Mirza Grebovic, Investigation of the Effects on Braking Performance of Different Brake Rotor Designs. Not a definitive study by any means (it appears to be a personal paper), but interesting nonetheless. (Google it).

Actually, I don't think that was it. It may have been another manufactuer (Wilwood, Powerstop? This was several years ago). I believe most of those articles have been taken down though, as they probably saw it affect the sales figures compared to other companies with the "cool" x-drilled/slotted rotors. Bottom line is, from what I've found, drilled rotors don't have much performance benefits, but lots of negatives like 2000UZJ mentioned. My brief stint of racing 10 or so years ago, good blank rotors and the right pads worked just as well. Plus, on a truck, the holes will most likely get plugged up from dirt/mud anyway. :D I'll have to search/read Mirza Grebovic's article.
 
Alright I gotta jump in here- can you torque guys elaborate please? I mean, I'm all for properly torquing, criss-cross star pattern, but if 4 are at 77 and one is at 90 foot pounds, I don't see how I'm gonna warp a rotor. Heck I drove on just 3 once when I broke 2 studs... yeah it was just down the block to a shop but you get the point. And on a lot of trucks the front is just like the back of our 100's- it's just a big washer sandwiched in there between the rim and hub.

I'm also in the brake deposit camp.. once I started changing my methods, my "warping" issues disappeared. Did it in a big built 80, and now again in an even heavier 100.. stock rotors, cheap pads, always creep to a stop. ;)
 
Not sure I understand how lug torque could contribute to rotor problems. The mating surface of the wheel is torqued down to the hub face. The spindle supports the caliper. If the spindle is moving due to forces generated by the wheel, surely the rotor and caliper would move together?
Ignoring that, pad material transfer can cause pulsing pedal problems as others have said here. Bed new pads carefully and they should be good for their service life. The Stop Tech article linked above has the standard multi - stop procedure and a good description of the process. Some race compounds are notorious for deposition problems, but street compounds should be less so. Or maybe not, based on some of the reported problems here.
 
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My rears have no life left on the rotors. I will change only the rear rotors and pads and see if I get a different pulsation in the pedal.
I currently have pulsation in the pedal and vibration in the steering wheel. Maybe all rotors have deposits and I am attributing it to the fronts only.
 
Anecdotal: Living in/near the mountains I had problems with the OEM rotors and pads super heating and resulting in bad vibes when braking. The ART rotors solved that problem and gave me more peak power but at the expense of modulation. The Stoptech BBK, in front, gave me the peak power of the ART + carbon/kevlar Porterfield pads, and incredible modulation...from generic Porsche pads. All of this while torquing the wheels down the same way I've been doing it...

Late 90's early 2000's Audi A6's had notoriously bad brakes; basically undersized rotors for the application. I had a buddy with one and he finally gave me his A6, after the dealer kept taking his money without solution, and this was the beginning of my experiments with cryo'd rotors. The ART cryo'd rotors completely solved the super heated pad material issue on that car. And they solved similar problems I had early on with my OEM rotors on my 100.

Essentially brakes just move heat/transfer engery. The better they can do that the better they perform. More mass, larger surface area and/or different crystal alignment are methods to better manage heat in demanding applications.

Judging from the comments our experiences with 100-Series brakes run the gamut from staunch OEM brake believers to OEM brake haters (me). But the good thing: There are solutions for all of us!
 
Take a good look at the DBA rotors. They are made differently than normal rotors (internally and designed to dissipate heat faster) and are used in many road racing applications. They are not drilled but are slotted.

Uhu is correct saying that driving / braking style determines brake bias which determines brake wear patterns, as I go though about two sets of front pads to one set of rear on my LX.
 
Is there anything out there to even it out and make the rear brakes work harder? Pads? Bias change?
Rotors?

Maybe stiffer front springs? I like OEM rotors and Hawk pads. Gotta be sure the pads are properly bedded after install, though.
 
I am quite pleased with OEM replacement rotors and pads in 2012. I used ceramic grease on the pad backing and the StopTech process for "bedding" the pads. I have quiet and smooth stops. On the 100 I found the rear brake pads wear out much faster than the front; in my LC as well as LX. Perhaps this is the impact of what you were wondering regarding rear brakes working harder? My rear brake pads need replacing around 30K miles, fronts about 100K.
+ 1 for Stop Tech bedding process.
 

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