Some cars have dual calipers to provide additional braking power. Dual calipers can help distribute braking force more evenly across the brake rotor, which can help improve brake performance and reduce wear on the brake pads.
Also, dual calipers can provide additional clamping force, which can be helpful for high-performance vehicles requiring strong and consistent braking power. You might be wondering, is it any good?
Whether or not dual calipers are “good” depends on what you are looking for in a brake system. In general, dual calipers can provide improved brake performance, especially on high-performance vehicles that require strong and consistent braking power.
However, they can also add weight and complexity to a vehicle, affecting its overall performance and handling. Also, dual calipers can be more expensive to maintain and repair than single-piston ones.
So, it ultimately depends on your priorities and what you value in a brake system. A larger and more complex caliper is used for the primary brakes, while a smaller and simpler one is used for the parking brakes.
Integrating a parking brake into a rear brake with a multi-piston caliper usually results in unnecessary complexity. To solve this problem, most manufacturers design the brake rotor as both a drum brake and a disc brake.
There are instances where it is not feasible to utilize disc/drum parking brakes (for example, due to space constraints or design considerations), so a second caliper (typically mechanical rather than hydraulic) is added to provide parking brake capability.
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Dual Caliper Brakes
Those who believe the second brake caliper set will allow higher-performance braking are among those who support the theory.
Three main benefits of having two sets of calipers can be summed up as follows:
The hardware has to work half as hard when stopping the car when there are twice the calipers and brakes. Hence, brake fade will be prevented during continuous hard braking instances since they can cool off twice as fast. Track racing or handling courses are examples of this kind of activity.
In engineering terms, double the brake pads mean twice as much contact area between them and the brake rotors (also called the total swept surface area). With double the pistons, the rotors can be clamped down with more force.
In the end, superior stopping power occurs no matter how you spin it – and good brakes on a supercar, like the Corvette, are just as important (or even more important) than acceleration or suspension.
What Are The Benefits Of A Dual Caliper Brake?
While two brake calipers are always better than one, that may not always be true, but it certainly applies when brake calipers are concerned.
Maybe you’re wondering if dual-piston calipers outweigh single-piston calipers in terms of benefits. It will be helpful to understand how your brake system works before making such a decision.
Double Pistons Means Double Stopping Power
Compared with a double-piston caliper, it is easy to see the difference between a single-piston caliper. According to previous discussions, calipers clamp brake pads onto rotors, causing friction and stopping the vehicle. Using a single-piston caliper, pressure is applied to the center of the brake pad by the piston.
If the pressure applied is uneven, it may damage the pads and caliper. Brake pads can wear irregularly when pressure is unevenly applied, causing grooves in the rotor that can ultimately affect how well the vehicle stops. In addition to uneven wear, separating brake pads can also lead to your vehicle not stopping correctly.
Holding Things Together So You Can Stop On a Dime
Before going into more detail, this section will give you the basics so that you have a clearer understanding of how to brake calipers work and how they are used in disc brake systems.
Brake calipers must be present in your disc brake system to ensure that everything works together. Besides holding the brake pads in place, the brake caliper is also responsible for holding the pistons.
Calipers function similarly to vices and are attached to rotors. In response to the driver’s pressure on the brake, fluid will be pumped through the lines, pushing the pistons against the brake pads and rotors to slow or stop the vehicle.
If the brake pedal is pressed harder, the caliper will squeeze down on the pad more, creating friction that will allow the car to stop. In essence, that’s how to brake calipers work.
Upgrade From Single To Dual Brake Calipers For Better Control While Drifting
If you are a drift enthusiast and are still using the stock e-brake setup on your car with the single caliper, you are missing out on something very special. You can significantly improve your drifting performance if you upgrade your brake calipers to dual ones.
In addition to providing more braking power, dual brake calipers allow you to use a hydraulic e-brake for drifting. Drifting with the hydro e-brake means locking up the rear tires, which gives you more control over your car.
It takes a lot of effort to get the stock e-brake system to work because it is generally cable-operated. However, even then, locking up the rear brakes isn’t really a reliable method.
To succeed in drifting, you will need two brake calipers and an e-brake. You can easily install dual brake calipers in your drifting car using the right tools. Alternatively, you can buy a kit with the tools required to install dual rear brake calipers.
Dual Caliper Brackets
To install two brake calipers, dual caliper brackets are very important. This installation would not be possible without them. Regular e-brake setups come with caliper brackets that are only used for mounting the caliper and dust shield brackets on the rest.
A dual caliper bracket permits mounting two calipers on one hub without removing the dust shield. Do a quick search online to find the right dual caliper bracket for your car model since they come in different sizes for different makes and models.
Some brackets work with different models, but this isn’t always the case. Ensure that the dual caliper bracket you purchase is compatible with your car model by checking the details and technical specifications.
A Few Tips for Dual Brake Caliper Installation
- When mounting the caliper, ensure the bleeder valve is situated at the top and not at the bottom. When it is time to bleed it out, bubbles of air will float up to the top of the caliper.
- With a “T-adapter,” you are able to connect both calipers to the stock brake system without doing a hydro e-brake. Calipers can be connected to stock brakes with this adapter.
Final Words
E-parking brakes on motorcycles and supercars are always two-caliper systems. The second caliper can be hidden behind a drum in some electronic parking brake cars with drum/disc brakes.
You can now confidently choose the brake caliper that is right for you now that you understand how it works. Traveling on busy roads can be made more comfortable with dual-piston brake calipers.
Your brakes won’t let you down when you need to stop quickly, so you won’t have to worry about them. If you are not concerned about your brakes failing, you can pay more attention to what’s around you.
