How A Brake Caliper Works

A brake caliper is one of your vehicles’ or motor bike’s most critical components. Without a brake caliper, your car simply isn't safe enough to use until it's been replaced or fixed.

Brake calipers: how do they work?

Your car wheels are attached to circular metal discs and these spin along with the wheels.
< The brake caliper fits over the rotating rotor disc and works just like a clamp – step on the brake pedal or pull the brake lever and the pads that are inside of the caliper are pushed out by pistons to make contact with the spinning rotor disc. The friction generated by the action of the pads on the rotor disc is what slows the vehicles.
There are several types of disc caliper:

What is a floating brake caliper?

Floating brake calipers have piston(s) on only one side of the rotor disc but contains disc brake pads that make contact with both sides. The caliper slides back and forth on pins or bushings, acting as a clamp.
When the brakes are applied, the piston pushes the disc brake pad only on the inboard side of the rotor disc. The floating caliper then slides on the bushings and compresses the outboard pad against the disc, initiating braking action.

What is the difference between a sliding caliper and floating caliper?

The sliding rotor disc caliper type is mounted in a slot in the caliper adapter. It is a variation of the floating caliper design, using a single piston and operating on the same principle – the piston applies pressure to one brake pad and the movable caliper applies pressure to the other.

What can go wrong with your automobile caliper?

A brake caliper has moving parts that can become faulty over time. When the brakes seize it can be because the piston becomes stuck within the caliper, the pads become stuck to the disc, or on single-piston calipers the sliding pins can become seized due to foreign debris such as rust. If the brakes seize when the vehicle has not been used for a period of time then the symptoms are fairly obvious: you can't get the auto to move.

What can be done to improve the brakes on my vehicle?

Short of removing and replacing your car’s brakes with larger disc brakes, you can fine-tune your present braking system to perform better

Bigger brake caliper pistons: Larger pistons have greater clamping area and thus more clamping force over the rotor

More pistons: High-performance calipers that allow for more pistons – six-piston and even 12-piston models can increase the clamping pressure of the caliper.
Less heat retention: Brake air scoops can help. Larger discs can help to spread excess heat over a larger area.

Differential bore calipers It helps if the pistons closer to the rear edge of the caliper are larger. Differential-bore calipers use smaller pistons up front, larger pistons are placed towards the back.

Porsche Composite Ceramic Brakes (PCCB): These are the best of the best brakes you'll find in any road car. They're made from siliconised carbonfibre, can withstand very high temperatures, they are much lighter than conventional iron brake rotors, sometimes by 50%, noticable reduction in brake dust, and enhanced durability in corrosive environments over conventional iron brake rotrs. The discs are internally vented, similar to cast-iron ones, and cross-drilled. The cost, as you can imagine, is very very expensive.