I found these on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Felicia-1-9-Diesel-Front-Drilled-Grooved-Brake-Discs-/110445997781?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item19b7182ed5

Grooved/drilled discs for £40 odd quid for a pair. Anyone got these on their car? Worth it? I need some new discs, these are only a bit more than standards, I dunno whether to try these or not? What say you?

cosmetic benefit only....stick to plain simple ones imo..

drilled discs are a big no for road cars, especially cheapo ones like those... besides, these will eat through a set of brake pads in next to no time as well

whats wrong with drilled disks on a road car? I had a similar set of the disks linked fitted to my polo gt that i had before i bought my cube and they were a massive improvement over the original brakes. didnt find the pad useage that excessive either.

the ones linked will just be a set of std replacement disks (and probably just a random make) that have been drilled and grooved in a machine shop. The make of disks they used would be my only worry as some lower quality disks are prone to cracking and warping, especially with the addition of drilled holes.

drilling holes in a brake disc add stress points to it, and unless they are properly heat treated after being drilled they are as good as useless tbh... i've seen drilled discs shatter before due to uneven heat stress.. not pleasant

As Tom says above, you can get all sorts of metallurgical problems with machined discs unless they are machined and then heat treated (incidentally, it's actually easier to machine the discs and then heat treat them anyway, so why anyone would heat treat them first? )

Drilled ones are prone to cracking and dimpled ones have the advantages of drilled but no cracks. These are made by firms such as EBC (Turbo Grooved Discs) or Zerosixty sold by Awesome. The only problem with many groves is noise. My Father had EBC's old designed TGDs with 10 grooves and they were very NOISY under Medium to Hard Breaking. I believe there new design with 3 or 5 narrow grooves are slightly quieter. He has replaced them with EBC's Black Slotted discs and are silent on his Scoobie.

Performance wise, for normal road use grooved probably will not make much difference (especially for a low powered Felicia), however they will keep them cooler on a trackday (if you do a lot of them).

Edited 29 June, 201016 yr by Jim H

right ho, standard ones it is. Which brands should I avoid? I would have assumed they were all much of a muchness?

As Tom says above, you can get all sorts of metallurgical problems with machined discs unless they are machined and then heat treated (incidentally, it's actually easier to machine the discs and then heat treat them anyway, so why anyone would heat treat them first? )

Discs should only be heat treated ( normailsed/ annealed) before machining to remove any stresses and hard spots left in the raw casting from the casting process due to uneven cooling . Heat treating after machining will only cause the disc to distort and will give rise to disc run-out . Adding holes to a stress free disc is not going to add stress points that would cause distortion .

Edited 29 June, 201016 yr by vwcabriolet1971

right ho, standard ones it is. Which brands should I avoid? I would have assumed they were all much of a muchness?

For plain discs I think it doesn't matter too much. I'd go for Mintex, EBC or Febi or whatever Eurocar parts sell. Remember to fit new pads on when replacing the discs. This is what you should never skimp on using cheap stuff. I would recommend Mintex , Ferodo or OEM Skoda pads. I actually use EBC Green-stuff with no problems, (others with different Skodas may disagree).

GSF sell Brembo discs that are suitable . I have fitted and used at least 15 sets of high carbon Brembo discs ( mostly fronts but some rears) over many years and can vouch they do not distort or cause any problems whatsoever . Brembo supply F1 Ferraris with their discs so if they are good enough quality for F1 they will be fine for your car.

Edited 30 June, 201016 yr by vwcabriolet1971

Brembo supply F1 Ferraris with their discs so if they are good enough quality for F1 they will be fine for your car.

yeah but formula racers use ceramic discs which cost thousands.. but yes brembo discs are good, i nearly always use mintex discs because i can get a good price on them locally but they are all pretty much the same

yeah but formula racers use ceramic discs which cost thousands.. but yes brembo discs are good, i nearly always use mintex discs because i can get a good price on them locally but they are all pretty much the same

<cough> Sintered carbon deposited on a carbon-fibre matrix. Either way, they're not cast iron (or AFAIK "cross-drilled") though.

I wasn't suggesting that the brakes that Brembo supply F1 cars are the same as you can buy from GSF !!!! You would need to take a mortgage to buy a set of F1 brakes !

I was trying to indicate that Brembo have the highest technology and best testing equipment and with their engineering skills they know what their doing , so cast iron road use brake discs to them are a piece of cake ( high carbon cast iron "cake" ) !

Edited 5 July, 201016 yr by vwcabriolet1971

^^ha that would be really funny turning up at gsf and asking for a set of brake pads for a forumla 1 car....