EBC Brakes/Rotors

[sextrosgxp]

Anyone ever try the EBC black rotors and red ceramic pads? They are a bit expensive at Summit, but look great and fit into the blacked out look Im doing on my black GXP.

[00Beast]

Yep, I have the Ultimax rotors, been relatively happy with them, but idk if they're worth the price. The actual working face gets its coating removed as soon as you hit the pedal. You could do the same to any other rotor with a can of high-heat black paint.

Don't get the Red Stuff pads, they were noisy and didn't work very well cold. I've been happy with their replacement NAPA Ultra Premium Ceramic Pads.

[jedwards83]

I've been a fan of the EBC Greenstuff pads ever since I started driving. I've put them on all my cars, including the Bonneville. The brake dust is obnoxious, especially for the first few thousand miles, but mellows out some after that. The braking power, response, and resistance to fade is well worth it.

[sextrosgxp]

Jedwards, are they ceramic or semi-metallic? Thanks.

[00Beast]

IIRC the greenstuff pads are an organic based pad. I personally run ceramics and have no issues. The Red Stuff Ceramic pads are too aggressive for our cars, IMHO.

[jedwards83]

Yep, organic based, similar to Hawk HPS and some other "street" performance oriented pads.

[sextrosgxp]

I see a lot of postings raving about Napa ceramics. Are they that good? Also do they make a good cross drilled rotor?

[00Beast]

For a parts-store brand, they're as good as anything. I'm not aware of NAPA selling any slotted or cross drilled rotors, and why to not use cross drilled rotors has been discussed a LOT on this forum...

[sextrosgxp]

I've seen the cracking issues with drilled rotors, but I think they will be fine. I'm putting the car away except for shows and drive ins. I live in Florida so temperature won't be an issue and with mileage to be around 1000-1500 a year they should be ok.

[CMNTMXR57]

Napa, unless you buy a specific brand like Powerslot, Powerstop, StopTech, EBC, Brembo, etc, will not sell anything slotted and/or dimpled or drilled. Just purely OEM spec, china made plain discs.

While I have nothing against EBC and have shopped them before (including last week), I can't justify their cost, especially the black rotors, that backing out of your driveway are going to have the black facing taken off the swept area of the rotor. As to their pads, again, price not worth the performance for whatever "stuff" it is. You can get Hawk for less.

I just ordered Powerslot rotors and Hawk HPS pads for my front Brembo's on the Caddy last week. I was hoping to get them for Saturday, but their slow shipping department didn't send them until Thursday. Regardless. EBC was WAY more expensive (both pads and rotors), and I think a StopTech drilled/slotted rotor was the cheapest. I ended up going with the Powerslot's for about $4 more per rotor because I have been happy with them on my GTO and I'm not an overt fan of drilled rotors, including the ones on there now that the last owner put on... BACKWARDS nonetheless... But that's another story.

Anyway, you can't go wrong with any top line Napa, Bendix, Wagner, or other OEM replacement brand. Ceramics/Ceramix, or softer. Doesn't matter it really boils down to longevity, noise, and dust that will determine what you buy. Don't get hung up on the prettiness of the rotor. On the GXP I used Hawk HPS pads on regular 'ole AC Delco premium rotors and I can gaurantee I'd have put your head through the windshield with a good, hard blast of the brakes.

Regular 'ole AC Delco rotors (rotor hat painted black) and Hawk pads on repainted calipers and caliper bracket

[sextrosgxp]

Been doing some more research. Thoughts on slotted and dimpled rotors instead of cross-drilled?

[CMNTMXR57]

Drilling into a rotor is exactly that, you're drilling into it. That can cause stress to the metal around it, potentially weaking and even cracking it (not that you'd see these cracks). The only time I recommend a drilled (well "holed"), rotor is if those holes are part of the mold of the disc. Slotting can be done the same ways, either cutting it out, or molding the rotor. But even the cutting isn't stressful to the metal as a full drill, so it usually isn't as much an issue.

The concept of drilling or dimpling is to help with keeping the rotor cooler. The purpose of slotting them, is to remove the gases made as a pad/rotor work together.

As I mentioned, the hammerhead who had my car before me, had the rotors put on backwards. Meaning the internal vanes, drilled holes, and slots are going the wrong way. This causes rough braking (up until recently it was only high speed jaunts that were bad, but now anything around 50mph is a filling rattler), and is chewing away my pads, the other big thing I noticed Saturday, is "blueing" around a couple of those drilled holes after a couple 150 to 40 mph braking stunts last week. Particularly my drivers side front. So that tells me a metric sh*t ton of heat is being created by those binders unti full tilt, and if hot enough after repeated use like that, who knows what the outcome would be.

So like I said, I prefer to stay away from drilled rotors. Slotted I'm fine with.