Brake Caliper Pair in California

Salt air reaches the hardware from the outside

There is no road salt to speak of, so a caliper here corrodes from the outside in rather than from underneath. Salt-laden air settles on the pins, the clips and the pad abutments — the parts that have to move freely — and on anywhere aluminium meets steel.

It is slower than a northern winter and it reaches the same place. Anti-seize on the hub face and the fastener threads at every brake job is two minutes that saves an hour.

Coastal air carries salt inland far enough to reach cars that never park by the sea.

A long descent puts the heat through the caliper

Braking on a sustained grade is continuous rather than intermittent, and the caliper is what the heat passes through on its way out of the pads. Two things suffer: the piston seal, which hardens and stops retracting the piston cleanly, and the boots, which crack and then let water in.

A caliper that drags after a mountain trip is not coincidence. It is the seal, and it will glaze a new set of pads if it is not addressed.

Sierra grades are long, and the descent is where a brake system is judged.

Does this state inspect your car

California appears in neither column of the federal record of state safety inspection programmes — not among the states that required one, and not among those that repealed one. A dragging caliper is found by whoever looks at the pads, which in practice means after one pad is gone and the other still looks new.

What goes on the roads in winter

Anti-icers, deicers and abrasives go on the mountain routes, and the state's own manual warns that salt on a bridge deck corrodes the structure and should be used with caution. Road treatment gets past the dust boot, and a piston that has corroded in its bore drags the pad against the disc for the rest of its life.

The rule that only applies here

Every other state treats an aftermarket catalytic converter, air intake or engine calibration as a purchasing decision. California treats it as a legal one.

The California Air Resources Board issues an Executive Order number to a part that has been tested and shown not to increase emissions on the specific applications it is approved for. A part with an EO number is legal to fit to those vehicles. A part without one is not — regardless of whether it works, whether it is well made, or whether the car passes a tailpipe test with it on.

What else California does to a car

No road salt anywhere in the state, so corrosion arrives from the air rather than from underneath.

What we hold, and what it costs

10 options from Cardone, Centric, Dorman, Power Stop and Raybestos, from $219.99 to $349.99. Prices are firm — where we have no price we publish none.

We are a reseller rather than a manufacturer: we source the part, check it over and sell it, and we confirm it against your year, make, model and engine before it ships rather than asserting a fit on the page. We ship anywhere in California, including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and the Bay Area and Sacramento.