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Ok, so just got my car back from the dealers and have to say it runs superb….however while it was in (for a brake pad warning light fault – and new front shocks) they also told me that the front disc ‘drill holes’ were blocked with brake pad and needed cleaning…. £260 as they needed to take the discs off??

I told them it braked just fine so just to leave this, and when I got it back they are just partly blocked and can be cleaned / pushed through with a screw driver….

Am I missing something here? Do you really need to clean them? I don’t track the car or indeed brake hard so can’t see they are going to overheat??

Lig.

£260! Madness, Grizz does this for free when he works on the brakes. Just do it yourself, I didn't take my discs off when I did it a few months back, I'd taken the wheels off to clean and seal the calipers and just done it then.

They're trying to rip you off!!

I'll do it for half that, plus materials. I'll have to go to Boots and get more cotton buds - only Johnson's will do on a job like that. The little plastic stalks are just the right diameter and strength to get through all but the most stubborn dust if the discs are well soaked. If I have to go looking for a drill bit the right size the total cost might be a bit more but still way less than Audi

Yep, thats what I was thinking. But do they really need cleaning? Will they not just start to fill up again after a couple of drives??? They are not totally blocked just say 20-30% full round the edges of the holes?? They have been on for about 5K miles.....hmmmmmmmmm.

Lig.

My experience with x-drilled is that no you don't have to clean them *if* you use the brakes in the manner to which try are designed.
My view is that apart from the obvious cracking aspect caused by drilling, thee holes are a primary source of pad materiel collection and if they are not used hard enough then a potential candidate for causing 'warped' discs.
If you press the brakes hard enough enough the the dust should be pushed through holes without issue. Too light then it collects pretty easily...
Fwiw I've never cleaned the disc rotor holes and mine pads/discs are nearly 30k miles without issue.

Do not need to be removed at all,4mm drill will run through in few spots no problems,I do mine once or twice a year as the inner face clogs and doesnt help de glaze the pads etc i blast with the jet wash the outer ones every time i clean it.

the holes are not there to deglaze the pads.

Smash um with the pressure washer once a week, that's what I do, granted it only cleans one side... Better than nothing.

I've never ever bothered cleaning the holes out in 4 years!! My first set of front disks lasted 40k with no probs

Hence the term 'stealer', there's no way in Christendom that the discs have to be removed to clean the holes, plus it's really just a cosmetic issue anyway.

Silas Stephenson wrote:I've never ever bothered cleaning the holes out in 4 years!! My first set of front disks lasted 40k with no probs

+1
My original front discs lasted 55k miles and 6 years.

Cheers Guys,

My thoughts also, which is why I didn't get them done. Think I will just leave them be.

Cheers
Lig.

So if you let them clogg up there plain discs in reality? Im not buying the pads push the brake dust through, drilling it usually wipes out a couple of good quality drills and i end up with a sweat on!

Mine are not clogged - sure there is some debris on the edges but none of them are blocked fully.
That debris that is there is pretty loose. And that's over 30k miles...
The holes are there to let gases that buildup between the pads and disc escape - if you are using the brakes hard enough I'm pretty damn sure the dust will be pushed out as the gas has nowhere else to go. (There's also a trivial weight reduction and surface area increa but nothing major)
If you are light on the brakes then the gases won't push stuff out and it'll eventually glaze and probably turn hard.

My personal preference are grooved and dimpled rotors over x-drilled. All the benefits with no drawbacks.

This might sound stupid, but....

If the discs have been designed with holes then surely keeping them clear means they are working as the have been designed? And if they are blocking up, even only a bit, then they aren't working as we'll as they could?

Hence why I clean mine out about twice a year, only doing about 3k miles, and they clean out in ten minutes, very easily with a 4mm drill.

Also since I have started doing this, the next time I go to do it, there is less build up to drill out.