Explain...Floating Rotors

[Shakenbake]

What's the difference in Floating Rotors and regular (non-floating???) rotors...duh?

[Superman]

On our cars, the calipers are bolted securely to the suspension. There is a piston on each side of the rotor and if a rotor were not straight, those pistons would have to float out of the way. These are not floating calipers. The pistons do the floating.

Some calipers are bolted to the suspension in such a way that the whole caliper can slide back and forth. With this system, both pistons can be on one side of the caliper (much simpler caliper design). This means the pad on the non-piston side cannot float within the caliper. So, the whole caliper has to float.

[Shakenbake]

Even though I found this helpful, for some reason I can't wrap my mind around this. I thought all rotors were mounted solidly to the drive flange?? Is there some typy of clutch type thingy or am I totally missing something...

WHAT IS A "FLOATING" ROTOR?
The floating, or castellated dog-drive rotor , is allowed to actually move on the drive flange or hub to which it is mounted. How is this possible? By machining 12 through slots on the inside diameter of the rotor, we can now retain the rotor with separate T-locks or dog-drives. These T-locks fit the width of the slot with a slight clearance, but fit the thickness of the slot with a .020-.030" clearance allowing the rotor to move in , out, and radially. This allows the rotor to remain perfectly parallel with the brake pads at all times, eliminating the effect of spindle or strut flex while under severe braking or cornering (i.e. turning into a corner with the brakes still on). This system most certainly helps driver "feel" for brake modulation, along with reduced "pad taper" and rotor wear . A cooler running brake rotor is also attained relative to a non-floating type. For a track only or race car, the floating rotor is the way to go. It's really only necessary in the front but has been used on all four corners on some serious race cars (Formula-1, GTP). However please be aware that a floater can make a slight knocking noise at low speeds, so they can be annoying for street use.

WHAT IS A "NON-FLOATING" ROTOR?
A non-floater is the traditional type of rotor, and its operation is pretty self explanatory. It does not move independently from its mounting flange or hub. When the spindle or strut flexes under severe conditions, the rotor moves right along with it, allowing it to become slightly cocked relative to the brake pad. This promotes small amounts of pad taper and a hotter running brake rotor. However, this is the recommended rotor for the street , or combination street / lite track car. It is still an excellent rotor because of the quality of the casting, the heat treating and shear heat sink mass.

[Bill Verburg]

Read this, Floating Rotors

[Superman]

Oops. Nevermind.

[ChrisBennet]

This is the T-lock system that VCI kit uses. You can see quite a bit of clearance for rotor movement on the upper right one. Porsche's version is different but I don't have any personal experience with it. (Pictured is my VCI setup with Porsche 930 rotors instead of Colemans.)

[Wayne 962]

Definitely very trick stuff - nothing that would be remotely useful on the street... (the floating rotors, that is... The BMW 3-Series use floating calipers...)

-Wayne