Caliper Bracket
Caliper brackets are responsible for holding one of the most important pieces of a car’s braking system. Every part of a car’s brake system is important to its functioning correctly, but some parts are dramatically more important than others. The brake caliper and pads of those supremely important parts, without which the brake system itself is completely useless. The brake system is made up of a lot of parts, but the calipers are the parts most responsible for exerting force on the brake pads. The entire rest of the brake system is dedicated towards making the calipers press the brake pads onto the rotor.
The brake caliper is placed right about the brake pads. The brake pads are the part of the brake that is directly responsible for applying friction to the rotor and stopping the car. The rest of the braking system is responsible for multiplying the force that the driver places on the brake pedal and applying that force on the calipers. The caliper is fitted t the rotor, and the brake pads are contained in the caliper – it not only presses the pads onto the rotor, but holds them as well.
The entire caliper system isn’t a new invention, but it’s not an old one either. Brake calipers, and the brackets that contain them, came into existence with the disc brake. Disc brakes are what controls the driving wheels of virtually every modern car, and in many, disc brakes control all four wheels. The disc caliper system is what allows the disc brake to be the most effective, because all of the stress associated with stopping the car is placed only on the brake pads, and not the entire brake system. The caliper bracket is the piece of the caliper that is responsible for holding the actual brake pads.
Caliper brackets are generally immune to the wear and tear that is exerted on the pads, but that isn’t always true. The brackets can be harmed if the pad gets punctured or if the pads are wearing down on the bracket for some reason – usually because of an installation problem. The caliper bracket itself is a fairly small piece – it’s rectangular, metal, and looks just like any other bracket. The brackets are placed just over the rotor, leaving just enough space so that they don’t actually touch the rotor themselves.
The best time to do any work on the caliper brackets is when you’re changing the brake pads anyways, because you’ll already have great access to them. They aren’t easy to remove, as the bolts are usually screwed on with a drill, but it’s very possible to do. If you can replace your brake pads, you’ll definitely be able to replace the caliper brackets as well. You can remove and install them with a simple toolset if need be, and it won’t take longer than five or ten minutes to do either. Essentially, all you need to do is find the correct bolts and unscrew them. As was said earlier, this won’t be able to do, and you’ll need to be careful not to place your body so that it can caught under the car if it comes off of the jack – a real possibility.
If you do need to replace the caliper brackets for some reason, the good news is that new ones can be very cheap. You can find a caliper bracket for less than $20, and you should be able to find them at an auto parts store. If you have enough knowledge and tools to replace brake pads, you’ll need absolutely no help to replace the calipers. The only thing to watch out for is that the caliper bracket model fits with your caliper and brake pads. Once that’s taken care of, you’ll be good to go.
