Re: [DML] Anyone know of a good brake upgrade?

[Woody <BePositive2000@xxxxxxxxx>]

Two years ago I decided to experiment with drilling the standard front
rotors to see if I could reduce the heating and warping problems I had
experienced on my previous D. 

***BEFORE READING FURTHER, PLEASE NOT THAT I AM NOT RECOMMENDING THAT
YOU TRY TO DUPLICATE THIS PROCESS ON YOUR BRAKE ROTORS.  MODIFICATION
OF BRAKING COMPONENTS MAY CAUSE AN UNPREDICTABLE AND CATASTROPHIC
FAILURE (As I learned with my Jeep Grande Cherokee and which ultimately
resulted in a recall for replacement of the original rotors).***

I pulled photos of various designs off of the internet, closely
examining the number, patterns size and other special design features. 


The result was a design similar to those of several manufacturers but
with fewer holes than other drilled, unvented rotors (due to concerns
about the structural integrity of the rotor).  Though heat might do
more harm than too many holes, I decided to error on the sign of more
heat, less holes for my initial trial.  

I used an almost new set of front rotors, had them lightly turned to
assure no warping/inbalance then had the design programmed for drilling
using the measurements from my CADD drawing.  After the machine
drilling, I rounded the straight-drilled holes to reduce wear on the
brake pads and reduce stress (and possibly reduce fatigue around the
holes.  after again turing to assure the rotors were still balanced
(they were!), I installed them on my car.  I opted for machine drilling
over hand drilling because the machine drilling was most economical and
assured good balancing.

After 12,000 miles and many, many hard braking episodes that would
likely have resulted in the replacement of 2 or 3 sets of stock rotors,
these "home-drilled" rotors are still functioning better than a
500-mile stock set (at least the way I drive - read than "hard" w/ 1
foot on the throttle and 2 on the brake :) !)

I'm sure my design is not optimum, but after the real world and
admittedly subjective testing and results, I feel very confident in
saying that this simple drilling was a significant improvement over
stock solid rotors with no noticable warping like one would expect with
the solid rotors.  Further, "visual" inspection shows no signs of
cracks or fatigue (I emphasize "visual" because this form of inspection
is not the final word).

As mentioned previously, I am not recommending or even suggesting that
my experiment be repeated on another persons's car.  I am merely
sharing my results and observations from one sample which lacks the
benefits of repeated trials under controlled conditions

If you have any questions, please feel free to do so.

Woody

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