What Is the Purpose of a Brake Rotor?

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Part of the video series: Car Parts & Safety

Summary: A car's brake rotor is used like a brake drum to stop a car. Discover how brake rotors work and learn about different types of brake rotors with information from an auto mechanic in this free video on car parts and safety.

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By Earl Kester Sr.
eHow Presenter

Earl Kester Sr. has more than 50 years of experience as an auto mechanic. Kester works on all types of vehicles, from mopeds to heavy equipment, and from simple, older engines to...read more

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Video Transcript

"Today's topic is what is the purpose of a brake rotor? A brake rotor is used just as a brake drum to stop your car. There are many different types of brake rotors. This brake rotor is a standard brake rotor. There are some that have wider with holes in them to let air through, there are some that go on Nascar's. If you ever look at the Nascar race and they stop the car and you can see the rotor it has slots in it and it has holes in it. Those are to let the air out because the brake rotor's get so hot it let's them cool off better. This one just a standard one and how it works is this is your caliper with your brake pads. The brake pads go on across the top of this and squeeze against the sides and pull it to a good stop. The old brake drum had to squeeze on the outside it wasn't as efficient. If you've watched Nascar you'll see that there are this one, bigger ones, the bigger and bigger calipers. They're all different manufacturers many different ones and you can upgrade and most cars with v8 engines or bigger have a bigger rotors. Now they're putting on front and rear and most cars today have front and rear disc brakes. This is the purpose of the rotor is to make sure you can stop quicker and not cause an accident."