MGP Brake Caliper Covers

The aftermarket industry provides almost infinite options for you to dress up your Toyota Tundra, and in some cases even seems to answer questions about your vehicle’s exterior appearance that you might never have thought to ask. A perfect example are caliper covers, which are designed to slide over existing stock calipers and hide them from the eyes of would-be brake component style critics.

Caliper covers are an interesting alternative to brake caliper paint

While high end sports cars often feature attractive caliper designs that are painted so as to draw attention rather than deflect it, truck calipers fall squarely into the function-over-form category. Fortunately, for those bothered by this state of affairs there is now a caliper cover option available for pickups.

Marshall Genuine Products (MGP) offers caliper covers that are constructed out of formed aluminum and which connect to the vehicle’s calipers via a simple clip system that lets the company claim an installation time of just 10 minutes per wheel. The product is essentially offered as an alternative to painting calipers, which can be a time consuming process that requires the use of special paint that can stand up to the high temperatures generated by braking. Even factory caliper paint can chip and fade over time, especially in climates that see a lot of salt thrown down in the winter, making MGP caliper covers that much more appealing for those concerned about the aesthetics of their brake gear.

MGP Caliper Covers in black. Factory colors are also available.

There are also some practical advantages offered by caliper covers. Their use can help protect wheels from brake dust, which might not seem like a major concern unless you happen to be running high dust performance pads that can create a difficult to remove film on painted and alloy rims alike. MGP also claim that their caliper covers can help to reduce the temperature of calipers by as much as 50 degrees during heavy braking.

The theory behind the heat reduction properties of the caliper covers according to MGP is that the aluminum acts as a heat sink. The methodology used to do the heat testing, however, measured the temperature of the caliper cover on one side, and the bare caliper on the other – not the actual temperature of the caliper underneath the cover. MGP does not offer any actual braking data that shows whether this temperature decrease results in shorter stopping distances or reduced fade.

On the other side of the performance coin, it’s important to consider that adding a cover to your brake calipers means there are now four more components on your vehicle that could potentially get loose and fly off on the track, or be torn off while trail driving off-road.

It is fair to say that MGP covers do provide a way to make your Tundra brakes look better with much less hassle than what you would have to go through to remove and repaint them. At the price of $200 per set, however, they aren’t exactly a cheap Tundra accessory. If you choose to spend the money, it would be wiser to do so in order to benefit from the definite beautifying effects of the caliper covers, and not because you want to improve your braking performance.