Quick question, how can you tell braking efficiency from the state of the pads, shoes, discs???
SPLIT:Brakes question
- Thread starter LeeJC
- Start date
Sponsored Links
No............. but to infer such a thing on a public forum is a dangerous thing.
Having a quick scan of the friction materials can give you absolutely no idea about how well the brakes will perform, you don't know the materials used, don't know the condition of the fluid, don't know that the master cylinder is operating correctly, don't know if the slave cylinders or calipers are working properly. And that's on the simplest of braking systems. Ignoring load apportioning valves, abs systems, anti skid/traction control systems.
The only thing you can tell from looking at friction material is that you have or don't have friction material.
Having a quick scan of the friction materials can give you absolutely no idea about how well the brakes will perform, you don't know the materials used, don't know the condition of the fluid, don't know that the master cylinder is operating correctly, don't know if the slave cylinders or calipers are working properly. And that's on the simplest of braking systems. Ignoring load apportioning valves, abs systems, anti skid/traction control systems.
The only thing you can tell from looking at friction material is that you have or don't have friction material.
Sponsored Links
You can look for obvious faults like pitted/scored/rusted disks, worn pads, uneven wear or fluid leaks etc, which gives clues to faults in the braking system, but you can't really assess the braking efficiency (unless a brake disk or caliper is missing completely )
)Everybody has got it just about right, You can't tell if the friction material is high, medium or low friction, it would take a chemist with lots of expensive equipment to just find out what the friction material is made up from, and then more expensive dynomometers to do performance testing. If the brake have been used normally, then it's very difficult to assess what performance you can expect. But if the brakes have been abused, then the friction material will eventually start to denature, and with more heavy use you get into high wear rates, which can be as bad as losing pedal travel during a high speed high deceleration stop. Cheap brake friction material do not perform very well under heavy usage conditions, but since about 1990 there has been a EU regulation 90 that says aftermarket brake pads and shoes must perform within certain performance bands, the test is fairly comprehensive but the test does not check for wear rates and disc damage, so even then the aftermarket pads and shoes are not as good as OE materials, even ones bought from the main dealers. If you are buying pads and shoes look for "R90" in the label, if you dont see this keep well clear. Can you tell me why you need to know, have you had a problem!
