any opinions left out there?...

[dave v. in nc]

I have a set of new cross-drilled rotors that I bought from one of our former members (cant remember..only that he sold everything he had including the e9) that I have yet to install because of one comment from a while back..."They'll eat your pads...if you dont do track time, get rid of them..." I will do some time in our mountains (dont laugh, western guys, curves are curves, no matter the altitude), and I can see the cooling benefits when de-altituding (nice word, eh). Question is, are they a waste of pads? No track time, just some spirited driving from time to time. Much thanks, Dave V. in western NC

If wasted on me, what are they worth?

 

['69 2800cs]

See, I'd go the other way and say if you were tracking to skip the drilled rotors because they will crack.

If you can get out of them what you have in, I would sell otherwise just run them. I can't tell you I've run back to back tests but I don't think the pad wear is all that different. And how cheap are pads, anyway?

 

[bert35csi]

Have used drilled rotors for years on my 88 M6 for years and have not really experienced any excessive premature pad wears. There is definitely a "cool" factor.

Bert
72 3.5 CSi
88 M6

 

[David]

I was given the same advice when it was time for new rotors. I took the advice and kept it stock. But every time I look at the car I wish I had gone with the cross drilled. They look really nice on Paul Cain's car and I don't drive it enough for any fears on wear/warp/etc. issues to matter. You may reach out to Mr. Cain to ask his opinion.

 

[dp]

I would use metalmasters and not worry about it

 

[acat2002]

That is a common misperception. The holes are there to help hot gasses escape from the pads during extreme braking that would otherwise create a cushion of air.
Maybe the holes do allow a minute amount of pad material to be scarified off during the process, but I never noticed any significant premature pad wear. I've installed cross-drilles rotors on many daily drivers and the only reason why I replaced pads more frequently is because I drove more aggressively (cross drilled rotors make a noticable difference)

Slotted rotors on the other hand may scarrify a bit more pad surface and maybe that's what people often exeprience when they talk about pad wear.

Anyway, don't shelve the cross drilled rotors because you're afraid of pad wear. Any accelerated wear is minimal and offset by the performance factor. You'd have to push your E9 pretty hard in order to really see any signiificant increase in pad wear.

 

[pj]

I have drilled rotors on my M and they are fine for track and street , the one that get destroyed are either cheap made in china copies or on realy high power cars ,ie z06 vettes. I have abused the crap out of my m3s CD rotors on the track without any problem, On my coupe I had sloted rotors they worked fine as well. It really depends what you do with the car and what pads you use.

 

[dang]

I would say go with them and not worry about it. I've used them on cars that were for street and track with no excess wear, although I did have one set crack at the track. They were already on the car when I bought it and looked to be fairly worn, so I didn't think anything of it and just replaced them with more cross-drilled rotors. If you've ever had your brakes build up gas and not work well you'll never go back to solids again.

Dan

 

[blumax]

Cross drilled rotors

From having ridden "shotgun" with you in Lumpy, the Polaris Polecat--by all means hang 'em on--as stopping from 60 mph can be very demanding of a stock 3.0 CS brake system. (;>)

On the other hand--I must have been young and foolish--perhaps suicidal--by driving hndreds of miles of mountain roads in the Sierras, the Rockies on both sides of the Canadian/US borders and many other ranges throughout the West years ago with stock 2800 CS brakes--ya know--the solid disc front with rear drum combination. What was I thinking of???

Have since adopted vented discs with s/s lines all round--just thought prudent for an aged driver who does get up among the triple digits in BLUMAX occasionally--just to clear his throat--and had the brake enhancement done so as to stick around for awhile!!

Remind me someday of a story about our Mid-July drive of the backroads of Orange County preceeding BBB (that's Beer, Brats & BMW's) at Coast Motor Werkes. Held in Huntington Beach that Ron Inchausti, Owner now sponsors as an annual event at his very nice BMW Independent shop--gathered about 150 folks there in 2008.

 

[chicane]

Have used drilled rotors for years on my 88 M6 for years and have not really experienced any excessive premature pad wears. There is definitely a "cool" factor.

Bert
72 3.5 CSi
88 M6

Are those Fikse wheels. They look very nice.

 

[bert35csi]

[/quote] Are those Fikse wheels. They look very nice.[/quote]

Thanks! Yes, they are Chic. These fronts were the 17x8.5" Fikse FM-10 3-piece rims with the wider 9.5's in the rear. They have since been replaced with 18x8 and 18x9.5" Fikse FM-10's.

 

[dave v. in nc]

thanks

Thanks for the input, Dave V. in NC