Posted on 2/29/2020
As much as we all love our cars and enjoy hearing the engine, brakes are a less glamorous necessity that no one wants to think about. Truthfully, brakes are one of the most important parts of your car for safety. It is commonly believed that brakes stop your car. However, it is the friction and pressure of the brake pad material to the brake disc that slow down your vehicle; that is how your wheels stop spinning. Modern cars all have disc brakes, so this is what we will talk about here, let’s set aside anti-lock features for another time. Disc brakes have five major components: Brake discs (or rotors) Calipers Brake pads Brake lines Master cylinder Rotors are attached to the wheel. This plate type of disc is what your brake pads rub up against to slow your car. Brake pads have a couple of layers. The pad itself is much like an incredibly tough, well-engineered eraser; the second part is a metal backplate that holds the "eraser" in place. The metal backplate ... read more