Brake rotors

[Frank K.]

How do you tell the difference in quality when buying a rotor ? Is it brand,thickness,drilled ,weight,color of steel?

[Larry M.]

Re: Brake rotors

How do you tell the difference in quality when buying a rotor ? Is it brand,thickness,drilled ,weight,color of steel?

Probably these and a few more.......... I would choose to buy from a known/quality supplier and Made in USA. I believe Bair's replacement rotors meet this criteria. Give them a call and verify. They are good people.

Larry

[Michael W.]

Re: Brake rotors

I don't believe there's any rotors that are 100% made in USA. Usually they're machined here but made from foreign castings. There again, I don't recall hearing about any bad rotors irrespective of origin.

'Drilled' and 'slotted' rotors on the street are nothing but boy racer bling features and not performance related or indicative of quality.

[Larry M.]

Re: Brake rotors

I don't believe there's any rotors that are 100% made in USA. Usually they're machined here but made from foreign castings. There again, I don't recall hearing about any bad rotors irrespective of origin.

'Drilled' and 'slotted' rotors on the street are nothing but boy racer bling features and not performance related or indicative of quality.

Bair's website says "Made in the USA". I will believe them. FWIW.

Drilled and slotted rotors are factory installed on the late model Corvette Z06 and Grand Sports, so they are a cut above "boy racer" in my opinion.

Larry

[Patrick H.]

Re: Brake rotors

OEM rotors for your car are likely still available. Not cheap, but I've been extremely pleased using GM OEM brake parts on my trucks and cars the last decade or so. I switched to using those after being displeased at the performance and lifespan of aftermarket parts.

[Joe L.]

Re: Brake rotors

OEM rotors for your car are likely still available. Not cheap, but I've been extremely pleased using GM OEM brake parts on my trucks and cars the last decade or so. I switched to using those after being displeased at the performance and lifespan of aftermarket parts.

Patrick and Frank------


Yup. OEM is the way to go. The castings may or may not be from China. Nevertheless, OEM is the way to go. You can get aftermarket, high dollar, specialty rotors but for a street car, OEM is the way to go.

For a 1993 without Z07/J55 here are the part numbers:

front-----GM #10097654, aka Delco 177-684 (recently discontinued but there may still be stock around)

rear------GM #10097655, aka Delco 177-685

[Michael W.]

Re: Brake rotors

Drilled and slotted rotors are factory installed on the late model Corvette Z06 and Grand Sports, so they are a cut above "boy racer" in my opinion.

Larry

Retired Chief Engineer David Hill acknowledged to media during the media preview for the 2005 Corvette in the summer of 2004 that the holes in the rotors were strictly cosmetic.

[Joe L.]

Re: Brake rotors

Retired Chief Engineer David Hill acknowledged to media during the media preview for the 2005 Corvette in the summer of 2004 that the holes in the rotors were strictly cosmetic.

Mike-----

Actually, I think the holes are a NEGATIVE as far as brake performance is concerned because they effectively REDUCE the brake pad-to-rotor contact area. For street operation I cannot see any benefit, whatsoever, from the holes.

[Terry M.]

Re: Brake rotors

When replacing the brake rotors on my Camaro B4C I was horrified at the difference between the OEM rotors (SERVICE units from GM) and those rotors available from my FLAPS. The thickness of the cheeks on the OEM rotors was almost double that of the aftermarket units, and the mass (as indicated by the weight) was substantially less for the aftermarket parts.

The job of brake rotors is to absorb and dissipate the heat generated by the friction of the pads. The Kinetic energy of the car is converted to heat by the brakes. The greater the mass of the rotors the more energy can be absorbed before brake rotor overheating.

When in service, the brake pads and rotors were changed on my B4C every 6000 miles -- that is with each oil change. These were highway patrol pursuit cars and the officers lives and the lives of other drivers depended on the brakes functioning at their maximum at all times. You may not drive your Corvette on the highway like these officers drove their pursuit cars, (you better not; you will go to jail if caught) but your brakes can never work too well. You will never know when you will need all the stop they can give you.

[Joe L.]

Re: Brake rotors

When replacing the brake rotors on my Camaro B4C I was horrified at the difference between the OEM rotors (SERVICE units from GM) and those rotors available from my FLAPS. The thickness of the cheeks on the OEM rotors was almost double that of the aftermarket units, and the mass (as indicated by the weight) was substantially less for the aftermarket parts.

The job of brake rotors is to absorb and dissipate the heat generated by the friction of the pads. The Kinetic energy of the car is converted to heat by the brakes. The greater the mass of the rotors the more energy can be absorbed before brake rotor overheating.

When in service, the brake pads and rotors were changed on my B4C every 6000 miles -- that is with each oil change. These were highway patrol pursuit cars and the officers lives and the lives of other drivers depended on the brakes functioning at their maximum at all times. You may not drive your Corvette on the highway like these officers drove their pursuit cars, (you better not; you will go to jail if caught) but your brakes can never work too well. You will never know when you will need all the stop they can give you.

Terry-------


Keep in mind that GM and Delco offers several different lines of brake system parts. The OEM line is the "top of the line". Usually, parts obtained through GM dealers are OEM.

The Delco parts system usually offers both OEM and aftermarket quality brake parts. The OEM line is, once again, "top-of-the-line". To confirm this, one needs to compare the GM LONG NUMBER. If the LONG NUMBER on the GM dealer part is the same as the LONG NUMBER on the Delco part, then you have a true, OEM quality part. If the numbers are different, it's likely that the Delco part is not part of the OEM line.

Delco also offers several different AFTERMARKET parts lines. The best of these is the "Professional" line. These parts are good but they are NOT OEM quality.

The OEM parts are usually the "first ones to go". So, for a lot of older applications there may be no OEM part available from GM or Delco (that's one of the reasons for my NOS parts collection---so I always have access to OEM parts). If the OEM part is no longer available and you need a part, you will have to go with the aftermarket line, Delco or otherwise.