Rear Calipers

[scneonchic]

will they fit the front of the vehicle?

I have a set of oem style xrc calipers that I am trying to figure out if they will fit the front also, I cant find a part number to compare to figure it out that way.

But normally...will the back calipers on cars that have them, fit the front also or im assuming the set up is slightly different?

[quicksilvr]

No, most cars you can't swap front to back or vise versa, because the bolt holes where the caliper bolts to the knuckle won't line up. And you definately can't on our cars for sure. There might be a car out there that uses the exact same caliper front and rear, but it would be rare. Most rear calipers are smaller on any given vehicle.

[Diablo0]

Even if you could I still wouldn't for safety reasons as the rear calipers are a good deal smaller compared to the fronts. Smaller calipers = smaller pads = decreased brake performance such as stopping time.

[turbodudey]

Smaller calipers = smaller pads = decreased brake performance

Not quite...

Strangly enough, friction force is not a fuction of surface area.

F = N * c

where
F: friction force (stopping force)
N: normal force (force exerted on rotor by brake pad)
c: coefficient of friction (unique to the materials being used)

So, what this means is that it doesn't matter at all what size the brake pads are, it only matters what size the caliper piston is. Because it's the piston size that will determine how much mechanical advantage you will have at a given working pressure.

The only reason for having large pads is to increase wear life. The more pad material you have, the longer it will last.

This is a fairly common misconception, the idea that surface area will affect friction force. Another example that may clarify this even better is tire traction. You could have ginormously wide tires on your car, or you could have super skinny tires, and it wouldn't make a bit of difference how much traction you had. To get more traction you would either need to 1. change the tire material (coefficient of friction) or 2. change the weight of your car (normal force).

[Diablo0]

Very good point

Typically speaking through in the case of Front OEM vs Rear OEM putting rear calipers on the front isn't a good idea as the rears aren't typically made to handle that sort of stopping force like the fronts go through.

Either way though you are correct in what you're saying and well put at that!

[scneonchic]

Thanks for the info guys....thats kind of what I thought, but just wanted to verify it.