How To Make Brakes Look New and Increase Their Stopping Power

The braking system is one of the most important systems in your vehicle. When its parts are worn or inoperative, it becomes harder to safely slow down and stop the car, which poses a significant safety risk on the road.

While most of the system’s key components are hidden from plain sight, there are ways to make specific parts stand out. Some things you can do include painting the calipers, using covers, and upgrading the brake pads.

Tips for Making Your Brakes Look New

Paint the Calipers

There are dedicated brake caliper paints that come in different colors to upgrade your calipers’ looks. These products can withstand heat to ensure they don’t easily come off since the caliper can get hot during braking.

Brake caliper paint is easy to apply, as you can spray or brush it on.

Use Caliper Covers

If you’re not ready to commit to a specific paint color, your best alternative is to purchase a caliper cover. When in doubt, you can try caliper covers first because they’re easier to install and remove compared to painting your brakes.

These covers come in different colors and styles, making them slightly more customizable than paint. And if you’re satisfied with how they look, you can even have covers engraved with a design of your choice.

Upgrade Brake Pads

While it’s hidden beneath a myriad of wires and components, upgrading the brake pads to ceramic ones will add flare to your braking system whenever you take your car to the auto shop.

Upgrading to ceramic brake pads enhances your vehicle’s stopping power while helping your wheels stay clean. They have the combined qualities of organic and semi-metallic brake pads, such as improved braking performance and enhanced fade resistance. The material used for these brake pads also produces less brake dust that may stick to the wheels.

Replace the Rotors

Another upgrade you may consider is switching to drilled or slotted brake rotors. These may look slightly more appealing than regular rotors because of their design. But more than that, slotted rotors are known for their enhanced cooling and heavy-duty braking capabilities. Their design also helps minimize brake fade and prevents the rotor from warping due to excessive heat.

Clean the Brakes

You don’t always need to buy new components to make your brakes look new. You can clean the brakes to add that much-needed shine. With the proper tools and know-how, you can even do this yourself.

To clean your brakes, follow the steps below:

• Step 1: Park on even ground and jack up the car to make it easier to remove the wheels. Use an axle stand to support the vehicle.
• Step 2: Remove the wheels using a locking wheel nut key to remove the locking wheel nuts.
• Step 3: Remove the brake calipers by removing the bolts using a wrench.
• Step 4: Use a wrench to remove the bolts mounting the brake disc in place. Use brake cleaning fluid and a microfiber cloth/rag to clean the disc brake. Afterward, inspect for damage to see if the disc needs replacement. Doing it after cleaning should give you a better look at the state of the disc.
• Step 5: Put the brake disc, calipers, and the wheels back in place.

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Replace Worn Parts

The easiest way to make brake parts look new is to replace worn ones with new components.

In addition to improving how these parts look, you’ll also improve the quality of your vehicle’s stopping power simply because worn parts won’t work as well as newer ones.

How to Improve Your Brake System’s Stopping Power

One of the best times to consider an upgrade is when your worn or inoperative components are due for a replacement. Some ways to increase your stopping power and maximize your newly upgraded brake parts include increasing the disc radius, caliper piston area, and line pressure.

Increase Disc Radius

Brake discs or rotors work with the brake pads to help stop your vehicle. They are flat, circular components usually made of cast iron and are attached to the wheel. When you depress the brake pedal, pressure forces the pads against the spinning disc to generate friction to slow the wheel down and stop the vehicle.

Increasing the disc radius produces more brake torque, as the pads will apply pressure to a larger radius. This results in improved braking performance.

Increase the Caliper Piston Area

When you step on the brake pedal, brake fluid is pushed from the master cylinder into the caliper to create pressure that forces the pistons out to press the brake pads against the discs.

As mentioned, contact between the pads and the discs creates friction to stop the vehicle. As such, increasing the size or number of pistons means more area applies pressure, resulting in more force to stop the vehicle.

Increase Line Pressure

Lastly, line pressure refers to the symmetry between how hard you press the brake pedal and how hard the car stops. Increasing line pressure improves the brake torque and your car’s stopping power.

There are different ways to do this, such as modifying the length of the brake pedal arm, decreasing the bore size of the master cylinder, or upgrading the brake booster.