Full Floating Brake Rotors

[260DET]

Full Floating Brake Rotors

For custom made brakes there is an option to get full floating rotors rather than the usual solidly bolted together two piece jobs, dedicated race car. Has anyone experience with this type, good, bad? Worth getting?

[Duncan]

Well I've got to say I've never used them, and had wondered the same. But for me it feels like a solution to a problem I've never encountered.....

[zebra]

Not directly related. but a full floating front rotor on my motocross bike made a big difference. 

Pad knock back is not a major issue on a dirt bike(we have proper floating calipers as well). but the front brake is more consistent and the bite point is always in the same spot now and if the same rotor is good enough for Toby Price to win Dakar with then it is way too good for me

[KiwiRS4T]

Fully floating rotors are self centering so are less affected by any hub runout, have less drag (probably more of a factor on a bike than a car) and allegedly have cooling benefits ...not speaking from experience .. I bought D2s...- 

[V28VX37]

FWIW most of the 'real' race cars I've seen photos of appear to run fully floating discs, plus pretty much all the modern European exotics and other supercars. From what I've read they're meant to be better for your hubs due to reduced heat, for one thing.

Depends on how serious a race car it is I suppose, and what the price difference is all other things being equal?

I mate of mine runs a front pair in his relatively stock Evo 10, reckons it is an improvement. 

[260DET]

Wondering if pad knock back might be a problem, the extra rotor clearance they make would have that effect but if it's noticeable at the brake pedal is another question. Might ask if full floating can be converted back to solid mounted, the difference looks to be some fancy attachment hardware so that may be possible if knock back is a problem.

[zebra]

They are floating to stop knock back....

 

Did you read our responses?

[260DET]

Certainly have read all the responses, they are all helpful but I'm trying to get my head around a better pad clearance feature that does not involve knock back. Not saying that it does, I just don't understand how that is possible. 

[KiwiRS4T]

2 hours ago, 260DET said:

Wondering if pad knock back might be a problem, the extra rotor clearance they make would have that effect but if it's noticeable at the brake pedal is another question. Might ask if full floating can be converted back to solid mounted, the difference looks to be some fancy attachment hardware so that may be possible if knock back is a problem.

Stop tech make a set where you can reverse the bits that attach the rotor to the centre to have optional full floating.

[GTSBoy]

It's not the best video, he's not the clearest communicator, the message is a bit muddled, but most of the answer is in...

 

[Duncan]

wow. he clearly knows his shit and there is good info in there....but did no-one watch the video before posting and suggest it could have been made clearer?

anyway....I'm not saying there is no benefit to something I've never tried, but in 10+ years racing the skyline up to 1 hr enduros I've never had pad knock off, nor have I had a wheel bearing fail. Maybe the z is different to the skyline setup though.  I've had plenty of brake problems over the years with boiled fluids, over temp pads, race pads not working on the street, master cylinder leaking etc etc, but never pad knock off.  I suspect the skylines just have nice big wheel bearings....not that I ever had the problem in the evo (6hrs) or daewoos (1hr) either

[Roy]

Duncan....an observation  is that it only is an issue from time to time on setups over 355mm. i think up to that  size you are fine and rarely have an issue.

 

I have seen and know of  some cars running 380mm rotors etc that have knock off as due to diam any hub deflection ends up with more movement at the rotors outer edge

[260DET]

OK understand it now, thanks all, Roy's point about large diameter rotors makes sense too. So for a limited use race car the only disadvantage seems to be extra $ which seems somehow to be a familiar theme.

[Komdotkom]

Richard, the other advantage is that you have a much wider selection of rotor size and configuration. You can also get a proper racing rotor like a PFC/AP/Alcon/Brembo instead of a high performance street rotor.