I'm getting ready to do brakes all the way around my '13 SRX and I want to upgrade. Some rotors are just slotted some are just drilled and some of the drilled ones have larger holes.
Does any of the differences in them have certain benefits over the other? If so would you please explain it for me, or send a link that would do so?
Also I have only had one set of ceramic pads in my experience and they still produced dust , I find that the semi-metallic are quieter and produce less dust however this will be my first set of drilled and slotted rotors so I really don't know if one kind of pad is better for that kind of rotor.
Most of my 10 year experience on CF has been with N* I believe that those members should have experience when choosing a braking system along with those of us that drive A SRX, all are welcome to interject please, even if you don't think your knowledge is beneficial please let me know what you know on this subject.
thanks,eldoedwardo
KCMO area

 

Drilled/slotted rotors are--usually--the same cheap-junk generic Chinese rotors you can buy for a third the price, except they've been put on a high-speed milling machine to have a bunch of visually-appealing patterns cut into them. Then they get put in a multi-color box instead of a generic white box, and the price is massively increased.

Actual performance isn't any better than the plain rotors. There can be problems with cracking especially around the drilled holes. Plain rotors have more mass to absorb heat, and more surface area for the pads to rub against.

Decades ago, when RACING brake pads got hot, they'd off-gas. The gas got between the pad and rotor, led to decreased brake performance. Rotors were drilled or slotted to give the gas an escape-route. "Street" pads don't get hot enough to off-gas. The drilling/slotting is nothing but monkey-see-monkey-do from the Bad Old Days of racing. It's pure profit-enhancement.

Save your money. Get the plain rotors, no drilling, no slotting. Make sure the rotor weighs at least as much as the rotor you have now--a common "trick" is to make the vanes in the center wider, so that the iron on each side in narrower. The rotor is lighter, but has less mass to absorb heat.

Every set of pads/shoes has an ink-stamp on them somewhere. A bunch of letters and numbers, and somewhere there'll be a two-letter code. The first letter is cold braking performance, the second letter is hot braking performance. The farther down the alphabet, the better the performance. So "AA" would be the worst, and the best I've seen is "HH" although I suppose you might find "EF" or "FF" or "FH" or some other combination.

I never cared about brake-pad dust. Wash the wheels now and then if it bothers you.

I bought ceramic pads a couple decades ago. I HATED them. Poor braking power. Maybe they've improved since then. The last several sets of pads I've purchased for my vehicles have come from Performance Friction, sold as "Carbon Metallic" and Made in USA (S. Carolina, I think.)