# Brake pads and rotors ............ I need advice please



## Ruderegime (Dec 25, 2010)

I'm looking into getting new rotors and pads, also stainless steel lines, bleed fluid,and maybe master cylinder brace. Right now I'm looking at ECS Tuning rotors their own crossed drilled and slotted,and the black EBC Brakes Ultimax slotted rotors. The pads I'm looking at are EBC red stuff,and also their green stuff. What combo should I roll with? I really don't want brake dust, and defiantly don't like noisy brakes. I have 2008 GTI stage 2+ weekend car that sees plenty of spirited runs , I also might like to Auto x sometime (never auto crossed before). Any advice would be much appreciated


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## jimbbski (Jun 3, 2007)

First off drilled rotors are for show. They don't make the car brake faster but they do take money out of your pocket faster!
Go with plane rotors. I used to work on "real " race cars. Tube frame 600+ HP V8's and we used drilled rotors for a while.
We also replace then after each race due to cracking from hole to hole. Once we went to just plain or slotted rotors we could get 2-3 races out a set of rotors.
The car stopped just as well. 

I race a Scriocco in ITA and we have to use stock rotors and my car stops great! I change rotors with pads and I get 5-6 races per set.


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## cheezcurl (Mar 7, 2014)

It depends how you use your car. I bought hawk hps sport pads for autocross but found they took too long to heat up. I had tremendous stopping power right before the last turn but that was it. They were great on a mountain road but dusty as hell. 

Sorry I don't have a product to recommend but I will encourage you to think about where you do most of your driving. Oem might be ok for 90% of the time and you can change out pads/rotors to hawk sport, race or similar before a track day.


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## Ruderegime (Dec 25, 2010)

After doing more searching in here I found out most if not all aftermarket rotors are heavier then stock besides the higher dollar ones.. I defiantly don't want to add weight to that area of the car. So I'm thinking about stock rotors, but most sites don't have true OEM rotors they are clones. I'm kinda looking at Blauparts slotted rotors but don't know the weight, shoot I don't even know the stock OEM rotors weight.


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## jimbbski (Jun 3, 2007)

Heavier rotors is not a bad thing. Think about it. The more "mass" or weight of metal a rotor has the more heat it can absorb. On a street car when you may do a lot of stop and go driving you can heat up the rotors and since you can end up sitting in traffic not moving you can have your rotors warp due to uneven cooling. A heaver rotor will resist this better.

I used to have a problem on a car I used to own. I bought Major brand name rotors and after a couple of years they warped. I replaced them with the same thing and after a couple of years they also warped.
I bought new rotors but made by another company. When I removed the warped rotors and compared them to the new ones I was shocked! The difference in weight was very noticeable. Like pounds different, not ounces!
Once I installed them they never gave me another problem.


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## Ruderegime (Dec 25, 2010)

The rotors that I was looking at on ECS tuning where 2.5 pounds heavier each! More weight on your wheels like that will slow down acceleration and give more distance to stop while trying to brake. Inertia


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## KG18t (Aug 9, 2006)

Ruderegime said:


> The rotors that I was looking at on ECS tuning where 2.5 pounds heavier each! More weight on your wheels like that will slow down acceleration and give more distance to stop while trying to brake. Inertia


This really isn't what you should be worried about. Read up on unsprung weight if you want to know the actual reason you should want lighter wheels/rotors.


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## Ruderegime (Dec 25, 2010)

KG18t said:


> This really isn't what you should be worried about. Read up on unsprung weight if you want to know the actual reason you should want lighter wheels/rotors.


Got any links, can you elaborate?


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## KG18t (Aug 9, 2006)

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=unsprung+weight


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## Ruderegime (Dec 25, 2010)

I don't want to go on and on all day and night talking about unsprung weight and rotational mass. I don't want to add any weight to my car, and especially to that part of the car, as stated earlier. Too many reasons to list


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## Ruderegime (Dec 25, 2010)

I really don't want to spend tons of money to get lighter rotors. I just don't want heavier than stock.


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## KG18t (Aug 9, 2006)

If you don't know anything about unsprung weight and what it affects, how can you know you don't want to add weight to that part of the car? You're asking for advice, I'm simply giving you the questions to find out more about what you're asking. Really, there's only two reasons not to add unsprung weight... one reason too many, I suppose. In any case, a good set of brembo blanks are never a bad choice.


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## Ruderegime (Dec 25, 2010)

I know a little about unsprung weight...... anyways I'll probably go with Blauparts U - slot rotors.


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## mk3dream (Oct 12, 2008)

i run EBC greens as well as there 280 mm black slotted rotors. They take some heat to get working proper tho

Also i should add that these are being run on wilwood dyna light callipers, none the less this seems to be the most effective set up i have run. Main thing id say is the EBC rotor quality is :thumbup:


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## ridgemanron (Sep 27, 2011)

Steve Perry Motorsports (www.drivespm.com) offers an inexpensive 'Big Brake Upgrade Kit' 
for the MK5/6 that also fits my 2012 Turbo Beetle. For $545 the kit includes 345 X 26mm slotted
rotors (which are 10% larger and 10% lighter than my OEM ones), along with a caliper carrier
attachment that allows you to use the OEM calipers. Also included are longer than OEM Stainless
Steel Brake Lines by Goodridge. I'm adding Hawk 'street-performance' pads which ran me another
$100. Any specifics needed for your car can be answered by them and, by the way, when I bought
the kit it was on sale for $400 and included free shipping.


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## mk3dream (Oct 12, 2008)

ridgemanron said:


> Steve Perry Motorsports (www.drivespm.com) offers an inexpensive 'Big Brake Upgrade Kit'
> for the MK5/6 that also fits my 2012 Turbo Beetle. For $545 the kit includes 345 X 26mm slotted
> rotors (which are 10% larger and 10% lighter than my OEM ones), along with a caliper carrier
> attachment that allows you to use the OEM calipers. Also included are longer than OEM Stainless
> ...



:thumbup: spm is key


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## markjohnsen (Mar 26, 2014)

I used Akebono Euro ceramic on the rears of my 9-3SS. Compared to stock, far less brake dust, stopping was fine. Actually the dust is the same color as wheels but there is less. After 10,000 miles, they were barely worn.


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## jimbbski (Jun 3, 2007)

I just can't leave this thread alone. The discussion about not wanting heavier rotors is just nuts! If you want to reduce un-sprung weight see about getting lighter wheels and tires. 
That's where you will notice a difference! There is a good article in the latest issue of Grassroots Motorsports magazine. They do a back to back test with the same car on a auto-x and use two different sets of wheels.
The same brand of tires but one set of heavy wheels and a light set. Guess which was faster?

Also try this: Take a piece of string and tie a weight to one end. A plain old metal nut will do. Now let out about 1ft of string out from you hand. Try spinning the nut around at the end of the string. Now do it with 2ft of string. You will notice that it takes more effort to spin the nut when it's 2ft then at 1ft. That's why reducing the weight of your wheel/tire combination will have more effect then the weight of your rotors. 

This is also why when a flywheel is lighten it makes more sense to take weight off of the outer edge of the flywheel and not near the center, this is also why most of the weight that a flywheel has designed into it is on the outer part.
This means that the flywheel can be lighter then one made the same thickness across the whole width and lastly that's why racing clutches are made smaller in diameter.


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## Ruderegime (Dec 25, 2010)

jimbbski said:


> I just can't leave this thread alone. The discussion about not wanting heavier rotors is just nuts! If you want to reduce un-sprung weight see about getting lighter wheels and tires.
> That's where you will notice a difference! There is a good article in the latest issue of Grassroots Motorsports magazine. They do a back to back test with the same car on a auto-x and use two different sets of wheels.
> The same brand of tires but one set of heavy wheels and a light set. Guess which was faster?
> 
> ...


I already have light weight wheels. As I stated now 3 times I don't want light weight rotors, I just don't want heavier then stock.If I can't find rotors the same weight or lighter I'll simply just get OEM rotors. I'm probably going with Blauparts U-slot rotors


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## germancarnut51 (Mar 23, 2008)

If you are hung up on getting the lightest weight rotors possible, you need to weigh the rotors you are considering buying yourself. Don't don't believe what you see published. Published weights could include the weight of packaging or be the fantasy of the rotor company's marketing department. Still I find it hard to believe that there is a 2.5 pount difference between VW and aftermarket rotors.

I know that the Meyle 280mm rotors that I have on my 97 Jetta are heavier (about 8oz each) than the original VW 280mm rotors. The reason is because the Meyle rotors don't have the weight saving oval holes cast into the sides of the hubs that the factory rotors feature. The Meyle rotors are also about 1/3 of the cost of the VW rotors, and are 100% plated (which the VW rotors are not). To me it was a good trade-off, and four years later the Meyle rotors show very little wear, and almost no rust spots at all. OE VW rotors are totally rusted by the time they are one to two years old.


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## Converted2VW (Apr 8, 2009)

Ebc uktimax, redstuff, ss lines and fluid is the exact setup i run.
Great combo, no dust, good stoping power.

I would buy that combo again if i had to.

(Fyi, i have greenstuff in my other car the put out a good amount of dust)


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