Cracks in iRotors!!!

[rhouse21]

As promised, here are some pix of my cracking iRotors drilled & slotted front rotors. They've only been on the car about a year (~30,000 miles), and the folks at iRotors claim that I'm the the only person to call them and complain about cracked rotors. The woman on the phone also said, "you do realize that cross-drilled rotors only last 30-35,000 anyway, right?" I'm barely halfway through my Hawk Brake pads!!!

I'm wondering if I just got a bad set of fronts (the rears look great, no cracks) or if this company just sells junk and I got taken.

Newly installed Rotors:


30,000 miles later:






[ September 21, 2005, 05:22 PM: Message edited by: rhouse21 ]

[Silverbird2002]

wow that sucks hard core! I was thinking of getting the same setup as you.......I guess now I'll have to shop around more. Isn't there any type of warenty on that???? 30k miles ant that much.

[rhouse21]

Their "warranty" is only 30 days!!!

From their website:

"Warranty and Disclaimer

... Once brake rotors or brake pads have been installed, all warranty and return/exchange is voided. In addition, we offer no extensions or exceptions to the manufacturer's warranty policies. iRotors is a distributor of high performance rotors. The brake rotors logo and trademarks belong to their respective companies but are drilled by outside vendors. Neither the respective companies nor iRotors, or any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for any malfunctions/warranty associated the products."

[rhouse21]

Tirerack has powerslot slotted and dimpled rotors for $96 each.

[HokieBird]

Post up what you decide to do. I'm going to be looking for some new rotors soon and I'm interested in what you finally get.

[ssms5411]

I have R1 concept rotors slotted and drilled with zinc coating, working well so far. I got them on ebay for about $160.00 front and rear. I think I got about 1,000 miles on them. I'll see if they hold up.

[rhouse21]

It's too bad about these iRotors. They looked so sweet when they were new. AND my wife even volunteered to do most of the install!! [img]graemlins/rock.gif[/img]







She actually worked for about 3 hours straight and did all 4 corners, pads and rotors. I think I got a good one. [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img]

[ssms5411]

Nice , thats what my rotors look like now, I hope they don't do like yours. Good luck

[hockeyman]

Oh Yeah...She's a KEEPER!! [img]graemlins/bowdown.gif[/img]
I can't even get my wife to walk through an auto store with me...
You Da'Man!

[rhouse21]

Since the rears seem to be doing fine, I'm thinking about leaving them on and just replacing the fronts.

Right now I'm looking at the powerslot slotted & dimpled rotors to match the look og the rears but avoid any future cracking problems. ssms sugested the R1 Concepts. Anyone else have any other suggestions?

[1998silverbird]

I use I rotors and have never had problems with them.. I have had 2 sets on my car in the past 4 years..

[rhouse21]

Originally posted by 1998silverbird:
I use I rotors and have never had problems with them.. I have had 2 sets on my car in the past 4 years..

How many miles did you get out of each set? I'm just curious because the girl on the phone seemed apauled at the fact that I expected more than 30,000 miles out of them. Your 98 has different rotors than the 93-97s, but I couldn't see them being that different. Maybe my blanks came from a diffeent supplier.

Also, what kind of driving do you usually do? I don't think I did any 'unusually aggressive' driving, but maybe I was a little harder on them than I thought.

[Tru2Chevy]

I was skeptical about iRotors the first time I was on their site. Half of the site didn't work properly, and there really wasn't that much technical information on it.

I would go with Powerslots. Once my car is on the road the front rotors will be replaced with powerslots and I'll install my Hawk HPS pads.

- Justin

[zlexiss]

Cross-drilled rotors will almost always have cracking issues due to stress risers. Especially if you like the push the brakes.

If you intend on being hard on brakes, blanks are the way to go. You're removing valuable structure and heat capacity solely for looks.

[rhouse21]

Originally posted by zlexiss:
You're removing valuable structure and heat capacity solely for looks.

Yeah, but they're sooooooo pretty!!! [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]

Seriously though, there are so many diffeent opinions out there on whether drilling or slotting rotors actually does anything that I decided to do my own little experiment with the iRotors. Using my trusty G-Tech, I did a bunch of breaking runs with my old blanks (with Hawk pads) and repeated the runs after I put the iRotors on all 4 corners.

The results... pretty much the same. If I remember correctly, the iRotors may have averaged a couple feet shorter, but we're not talking huge differences here. Still, for about the same price as regular blanks from Autozone, I had some pretty cool looking hardware. I do think they bit faster and better in wet/snowy weather though, which was worth it to me by itself. This is why I'm leaning towards the powerslots now. From what I've read, they acually use a beefier blank to begin with (more structural and thermal mass) and they plate the rotors with cadmium instead of zinc which yields a more durable coating. Pluss, there's no holes to add stress-risers to cause cracking.