Just in case you thought that brakes are just brakes, read on and see why quality manufactured brake pads and shoes are vital.
The simple answer is that they slow you down. Yes they are designed to slow down your vehicle but probably not by the means that you think. The common misconception is that brakes squeeze against a drum or disc, and the pressure of the squeezing action is what slows you down. This in fact is only part of the reason you slow down.
Brakes are essentially a mechanism to change energy types. When you’re traveling at speed, your vehicle has kinetic energy. When you apply the brakes, the pads or shoes that press against the brake drum or disc convert that energy into thermal energy via friction. The cooling of the brakes dissipates the heat and the vehicle slows down.
If you keep using the brakes, the drums or discs and brake pads will stay hot and get no chance to cool off. The next time you try to brake, because the brake components are already so hot, they cannot absorb much more heat. Once they get to this stage, you have to look at the brake pads themselves.
In every brake pad there is the friction material which is held together with some sort of resin. Once this lot starts to get too hot, the resin holding the pad material together starts to vapourise, forming a gas. That gas has to have somewhere to go, because it can’t stay between the pad and the disc, so it forms a thin layer between the two trying to escape. The result is very similar to hydroplaning while going too fast in the rain; the pads lose contact with the disc, thus reducing the amount of friction, then resulting in Brake fade.
Now that you are more familiar with the amount of heat generated and the importance of the compounds used, you may appreciate why we at Automotif only fit quality braking products as a priority but at very competitive prices..