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These are very possibly the second most important safety item on our vehicles after the tires. How can intentionally degrading the the effectiveness of such a critical system be "minor" fraud?

This is an area very near and dear to me after spending a lot of time over the last two years working with what I consider SEVERELY under-engineered and potentially dangerous brakes. We did push them far beyond their reasonable design parameters but the failures were similar to what you would have if say, you applied an off-axis force to an elongated brake pad...which is exactly what GM did with dozens of models that share the exact same caliper design.

This same asymmetrical pressure is what you would have with only the upper or only the lower piston active. The insidious part is the brakes work very effectively even when failing...right up until they fail catastrophically.