What Are Drum Brakes?
**A contributed post as written for The Safe Driver.
There are few vehicle parts that are as important to your safety as the brakes. Every time you stop your car, you rely on the brakes to keep you safe, which add up to hundreds of times every time you drive. It is worth your while to learn how the brakes work and what kind of brakes your vehicle has. Most older vehicles have drum brakes, while modern vehicles have switched to disc brakes. However, some new cars still receive drum brakes, and it is very common to put drum brakes on the rear tires. That means your vehicle might have two different kinds of brakes. Even the most reliable car brakes need to be changed occasionally, so learn everything you need to know.
Drum Brakes
The brakes on your car are not hard to understand. For drum brakes, there is a drum inside the wheel. The drum spins along with the wheel. When you want to brake, some shoes inside the drum press against the sides, which creates friction and slows the wheel. This does, however, wear away the shoes over time. This is why you need to replace your brake pads every once in a while.
Disc brakes are very similar to drum brakes, but instead of a drum inside the wheel, there is a disc. Rather than pressing the shoes against the spinning drum, a caliper squeezes the disc. The principle behind the braking is identical, but the difference in method creates a few advantages.
The Benefits
Simply put, disc brakes are better. There is a reason the automotive industry switched from drum brakes to disc brakes. Disc brakes are better at stopping a moving vehicle, create less stress and heat, and do not have a drum that can collect water to lower effectiveness. However, modern vehicles commonly still use drum brakes in the rear tires. This means they must have some advantage over disc brakes, even if they are worse on the whole. Indeed, there are a few ways drum brakes are better:
- Affordable – Drum brakes are much cheaper to produce than disc brakes. Braking is more important in the front, so manufacturers put the powerful disc brakes in the front and the cheap, but serviceable drum brakes in the back.
- Lightweight – Drum brakes also weigh less than disc brakes. The total weight of the car can be reduced by swapping out drum brakes in the back.
- Unmovable – While disc brakes are better at stopping a moving car, drum brakes are better at preventing an already stationary car from moving.
Brake Pads
One of the most important types of maintenance for you to perform regularly is changing your brake pads. Brake pads have a wire built into them to indicate when it is time to change them. When they wear away enough for the wire to begin grinding against the drum or disc, it will make a high-pitched wining sound every time you brake. It is simple to learn how to replace brake pads and rotors, so you can do it yourself. It is really easy to save money by skipping the trip to the mechanic.