Hello I am a future SS owner and have been reading here off and and on.

I also have been lucky to be able to sit down and speak to the man [nice British gent] who owns EBC Brakes at work.

The problem rotors warp today is they are not as thick or heavy as they used to be. This generates heat. Also most pads today use a lot of metal in them. This is a cheap way to remove heat from brakes.

One other factor is the brakes are small for the weight of the cars. They are looking to remove weght where they can and Rotors are a prime target. THis is also why you see more aluminum Calipers too. This remove weight.

Heat in brakes is a bad thing as it lets them fade and warps rotors. The key is to remove the heat.

The best thing to do is invest in quality EBC pads. You only need the Green Stuff for street use. The Red and Yellow are good if you plan hard driving or track use.

EBC used a lot of Dupont Carbon and has learned to remove heat using the compound they use with out the use of metal in the pads.

Second the dimples and holes in the rotors are all window dressing for street cars. This was not my statement but the owner of EBC. He stated you may ask why then do I offer them. He then said it is because people buy them and he make money off of them. He claims the only benefit of them is sweeping away mud or water with the sweeps and releasing some trapped gasses but in general they are only window dressing.

I will note EBC rotors are in some cases just as slight bit thicker but not in all applications. My GTP I will note is just a little thicker witht he EBC rotors.

Also you should just toss the rotors at the time you change the brakes. They are cheap and the thinner you cut them the more they will warp with heat. You need all the metal you can to dissapate heat.

I have been involved in racing for 30 years and been work in the perfromance aftermarket industry for 15 years. I can say there is a lot of crap out there and some good things on the maket and I will stand by EBC pads as they do work and as a company they do know what they are doing. As with anything they are not cheap but you get what you pay for.

GM by the way is getting better with brakes on some cars as the 2004-2008 Grand Prix's are know for getting 50,000-70,000 mile out a set of pads. Even with my wifes evil driving habits of being hard on brakes they are now just showing rotor warp and the pads will see well over 60,000+ miles.

I think the new Bosh electronic proporsioning system that is part of the stability control Pontiac used has a great effect on brake wear.

Now if I can find dealer to give me a good deal on a 2009 HHR SS Fully loaded inthe Ohio area I will soon join your ranks soon.

 

fellas GM RELEASED a TSB couple weeks back. in 2006 the cars came without backing plates on the front brakes this lets all the junk get in there causing
heating issue that lead to plusation. I know it happend to my 2007. turning the rotors and pads wont fix it. GOOD news is they released the TSB
BAD NEWS is that they did not start putting them on at the factory til March of 08.Yes even the early ss dont have them press your dealers .sorry Idont have the TSB NUMBER
nice eh

 

That TSB has been posted here, by ChevyMgr, if you do a search.

 

So in my search for an SS I need to to pay attention to build date now, too. Arghh. Hard enough to find based out SS's w/ Limited Slip (as only option) as it is.

 

Well as a owner of EBC pads and rotors on a HHR, they are not in any way "only benefit of them is sweeping away mud or water with the sweeps and releasing some trapped gasses but in general they are only window dressing" The stops are incredible now its like smooth as silk and i can stop on a dime, i have put about 5,000 miles on them and no shimmy shake vibration or nothing so that is another benefit if them. The brake fade is now very minimal compared to the stockers. yes they do help in the rain but to be honest its not to much different than the stockers. The hotter they get the better they work. and that TSB is complete BS i had them do this service bulletin on mine 2 months later guess what it came back. So what ever that guy the owner of EBC or whatever he is, is telling you he must not drive a HHR with these. For those of you that want a nice set of pads and rotors that greatly improve your stopping performance then this is the way to go plus they look great and don't rust.

 

I just put ECB and Green Stuff on my '06. Now it stops quicker and does not shimmy. Hopefully this is how it will remain for quite some time.


We just turned 36,500 and the rotors were grinding LOUDLY! Needed tires too, got some Toyo Versadas. The are harsher riding than I expected, but fairly quiet and responsive.

Hit 36K and needed a lot of stuff. Almost as if it was planned................

 

I am considering putting on ebc sport rotors on my HHR. and with all the pros and cons. I thought I would make an effort to see what is used by some manufacturers. In my workplace we have a lot of high end cars in the lot.
We have one Ferrari and it had crossed drilled rotors on it. We have M3 and M5 BMW's they also had drilled and slotted rotors. All the various Porsches had drilled and slotted rotors too. So I am guessing that it is not just for looks, but also performence. So I will be putting on my cross drilled and slotted EBC rotors this week.

 

Gee, I just don't know what I was thinking. I thought since he owns the company and designs the pads and brakes. The gent even test his products in all forms of street and race machines he might know more about it than some guy on a HHR forum. I assume you do have test numbers to back up your data like EBC does or was this just seat of the pants feel?

I assume you tested them with the EBC rotors and pads and just the EBC on the stock rotors too? The pads are what make 90% of the differance.

As for sweeping mud and water he refered to off road driving like in Rally or 4X4 applications.

When the owner of a quality brake company tells me his rotors are more show than go [or stopping in this case] I will take his word on it. Sorry I will yeild to hgis advice as I own and drive EBC products.

Also the hotter the brakes get the less efficent they are. The whole concept is to keep them to transfer heat. To do that you need to remove the heat out of the pads. .. A little heat is good but a lot of heat is very very bad.

If you don't believe that Hawk and Wilwood will back this up too.


To those who are thinking of EBC pads the fact is the pads are the biggest factor that imporves the perfromance on a stock system and it is in the compounding of the pad material to tranfer the heat out.

Heat transfer is what it is all about. When you check out the new ceramic rotors on the ZR-1 they remove some weight but they remove heat at a rapid rate. This is similar to the ceramic tiles on the Space Shuttle.

One note that was pointed out on drilled disc on the street is that they are heat sinks. If you drill holes they not only over time may crack but will also remove metal material from them. The less material the faster they will heat up. Note the EBC rotors are dimpled just because of this and are not drilled holes. A solid rotor is a more effective heat sink.

MFG like Ferrari, BMW and Porsche do offer the cross drilling but it's effects are limited. It relieves some gases but very little cooling air flow is induced. They will help under extream driving but little effect on the streets. And yes they do it for as much effect as they do perfromance. You have to make them pretty in the thin 5 spoke wheels.

They powder coat the calipers red on Ferraris too, but not because they stop faster if they are red. Brembo will match colors to what ever the MFG likes.

To all I would recomend the EBC pads to all as they are the key to improved braking. The rotors are nice and if you can afford them will look nice but they are not required. But please do replace your rotors at every change and not cut them as it will save you grief later.

If your just street driving even hard the Greens will do the job. You can opt for the yellow if your really hard on them or use a truck for towing. Please try to keep the Red for track use or limited street. They make three levels as one pad for a reason as is not ment to do it all things.

EBC even instructions notes about changing pads when doing track days and going from Green street to Red and back to Green to drive home.

By all means don't just take my word but read up on many of the reviews by the pros and they will back up EBC's claims.

You can even contact EBC here in the states as they do have staff here and Europe to help serve their customers. They can answer all your questions.

FYI the break in material on the pads realy work and even Bendix is now doing something similar.

 

It's nice to see some very intelligent conversation about the brake problems on the HHR. Since HHRBOUTIQUE.COM is an EBC authorized dealer, we are especially proud to see the EBC recommendations, many from our customers. We thank you and are glad you are happy with your EBC brakes.

We have just made an inquiry with EBC about supporting an unadvertised group buy. Since we are at or close to minimum pricing on our website, we need some numbers to influence factory support.

Please, anyone seriously interested in a group buy on an expensive but effective product, please chime in with a reply or PM us so we can use the numbers to influence the factory on supporting this.

Bill and Linda,
HHRBOUTIQUE

 

Well like i said there is a VERY noticeable difference in braking with these ROTORS and Pads. And you say as they get hotter the braking is worse well in everyday driving I think with the Ceramic pads it stops better when they are some what hotter, im not talking about auto Xing. And yes i did test them with my stock rotors on because they sent me an extra set that is supposed to cut down on sound.(I thought i had a problem because the sound didn't go away but this is the nature of the pads so i put the stocker back on just in case they wanted the EBC rotors sent back to them) so before i put my EBC rotors back on i tried them on the crap GM rotors and the stopping power is no where near what i get with the EBC rotors. Also once again the shimmy was there with the stock rotors.
Why do they put drilled and slotted rotors on all these high end fast cars like the ZR1, i mean they should just throw some good pads and then just the standard Solid rotors on them. from what your saying it will be the same. I just don't get what your saying i mean why do racers that race in auto cross type track use slotted and or drilled/dimpled rotors if they don't help performance at all. Somebody in the Brake industry has something all wrong and they shouldn't be making slotted, dimpled/drilled rotors because they offer no performance value only looks. Also i have the red pads and for street they are just fine and i use them for only street.
This is all my opinion im not trying to start a fight, the only reason I am stating my opinion is because i own a HHR and i know how much of a difference these do make on the HHR. If you want good stopping power for our cars go with these pads and rotors you will be very impressed by the quality and performance from them.