Exploding Rotors: why you do not drill

[Steve Marinello]

Let's see.  The S6 I picked up had them on and I haven't had any problem,
but I haven't tracked the car.  I also happened to pick up another set on
ebay for a ridiculous price with some Mintex Red Box pads, for what the pads
themselves would have cost from Tom at ECS, so I've got another set.  Having
inspected both sets, it is clear that they have a uniform pattern, although
in part of that pattern, the holes are slightly closer.  I don't have the
"exploded" pics anymore, but they did look to be a little "off" compared to
what I see.

People have run these things for years.  First time I have, preferring solid
discs, except for the Porsche rotors on the avant.  This should be viewed as
a single anomaly, for whatever reason it occurred.  A dragging caliper and
the lack of post/pre run inspection have both been raised as possible
reasons for the occurence, and I concur.  Drilled rotors will crack,
eventually, the time to do so varying with use and conditions.  Okay.   SO?
You use them, you accept the responsibility to check them out...or you
should stick to stock brake systems completely.

One more thing.  Although the slotted rotors are appealing for the degassing
advantage supposedly, most pads have slots that do that job.  And the other
disadvantage of slotted or drilled rotors is the accelerated pad wear.

My $.02.

Steve

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Pritchard" <apritchard at seaeye.com>
To: "'Brett Dikeman'" <brett at cloud9.net>; "Bob Rossato"
<bob.rossato at att.net>; <quattro at audifans.com>
Cc: "Steve Marinello" <smarinello at charter.net>
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2003 2:42 AM
Subject: RE: Exploding Rotors: why you do not drill


> oh my god..... i had considered these rotors as my local porsche/vw/audi
> shop sells them as their only performance disc....
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brett Dikeman [mailto:brett at cloud9.net]
> Sent: 20 June 2003 16:55
> To: Bob Rossato; quattro at audifans.com
> Cc: Steve Marinello
> Subject: RE: Exploding Rotors: why you do not drill
>
>
> At 7:41 AM -0400 6/20/03, Bob Rossato wrote:
> >Not to start a thread on pros and cons of drilled rotors but, it is
> >obvious that these rotors were a home made job.  There is a rudimentary
> >pattern to the holes but the spacing is all over the place and the holes
> >look bigger than anything else I've seen.  I'm not defending drilled
> >rotors but the reason these exploded has a lot more to do with the fact
> >that some clueless individual just went to town on them with a drill
> >press without any regard to the size of the holes, amount of material
> >removed, or balance of the rotor.  If someone is actually selling these
> >things in this condition then that is downright criminal.
>
> They were Zimmerman rotors, made in Germany; not a homemade job.
> Their rotors seem to be widely sold by VW/Audi/Porsche 'performance
> shops' on the net.
>
> In person they appeared to be drilled in a perfectly even pattern,
> consistent hole size, so on etc.  Also, if they were not balanced,
> one thinks the TT owner would have noticed immediately at 120+ mph on
> the front straight.
>
> B
> --
> ----
> "They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/