When To Replace Brake Pads And Brake Shoes?

While most people focus on making their cars faster and more powerful, few think about the brakes. It becomes more and more important to have reliable brakes as you reach higher speeds. Thankfully, modern cars come with decent braking setups and are equipped with safety features like Anti-lock brakes (ABS), Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD), Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and more. Types of brakes One can find two types of brakes in cars that roam the roads today – disc and drum. Drum brakes are a more cost-friendly and old technology while disc brakes are more expensive but also more effective. Most budget and mid-range cars sold in the Indian market today come with a hybrid setup where you get disc brakes at the front and drum brakes at the rear. This setup works well for most smaller cars that do not have very big engines in them. How do they work? The way these two braking systems, work is very different and that results in a difference between the braking performance of the two. However, in both systems you have an element that presses against a moving part and causes friction which then results in a reduction of speed. In the case of drum brakes, you have brake shoes that press up against the brake drum. The brake drum is located in the centre of the wheel and the shoes press against the inner wall to bring the wheel to a halt. For disc brakes, there is a metallic disc connected to the wheel and a calliper is mounted on the disc. When brakes are applied, this calliper clamps down on the disc. The callipers have a pair of kidney-shaped brake pads that press against the brake disc and slow down the movement of the car. How different are disc and drum brakes? While both brake pads and brake shoes do the same job of bringing a vehicle to a halt or reducing its speed, there are some key differences between these two: Brake Type – Brake pads are used in disc brakes while brake shoes are used in drum brakes. Positioning – Brake pads are slotted in the calliper while the brake shoes sit inside the brake drum. Wear – Brake pads tend to wear out faster than brake shoes.