Know Your Car Brakes Well
One of the most important safety features of automobile is braking system available to the driver. And as a result, car manufacturers have devoted extensive years to refine and develop the best braking system to make the car as well as the driver safe. To enhance the new braking system, power assisted brakes was designed and introduced.
The basics of the automotive braking system are the same regardless of whether you are considering power or non-power, disc or drum so let's consider that first. When you push on the brake pedal, you are forcing a plunger into a cylinder (called the master cylinder) filled with brake fluid. Brake fluid is an oily liquid that has features of corrosion and temperature resistance that make it especially suitable for brake systems.
This system uses the power of the engine as well as energy from the battery to increase the break efficiency. Most modern cars have disc brakes on the front wheels, and some have disc brakes on all four wheels. This is the part of the brake system that does the actual work of stopping the car.
A moving car has a certain amount of kinetic energy, and in order to stop it, the brakes have to remove this energy from the car. Each time you stop your car, your brakes convert the kinetic energy to heat generated by the friction between the pads and the disc. Most car disc brakes have vents that pump air through the disc to provide cooling.
There are three basic components making up disc brakes: the rotor, the brake pads, and the calipers. The rotor is a circular metal disc that is fixed behind your tire to the hub. Next are the calipers, it is as simple as a circus performer who can spin a dinner plate on the tip of his finger. To stop the plate from spinning, he uses his fingers to clamp down on the plate. The rotor is similar to the plate, and the fingers act similarly to the calipers. At the tips of the fingers would be the brake pads, made of a softer material than the rotor to keep it free from surface damage.
Among the different types disc brake system is the single piston, floating caliper, are most commonly used today. As the name implies there is one piston per wheel, located at the inside end of the caliper. The caliper is considered floating as it straddles the rotor and each brake pad is applied equally to each side of the rotor. The advantage with today's disc brake system is that they come along with anti-lock system, which prevents the tires from 'locking up'.
To enhance the efficiency of the braking system a new system was designed called power brake system. It is also called 'power assisted 'brakes. This system uses the power of engine and also battery to increase the efficiency of braking system. Earlier power brakes were not required as drum brakes were used.
The most important element of the power brake system is Brake Booster. It is mounted at the back side of the engine compartment on the driver's side of the car. Brake booster is placed on firewall behind the master cylinder. The Power Brake Booster along with master cylinder is connected with brake pedal. The main purpose of the brake booster is to amplify the available foot pressure applied to the brake pedal. As a consequence, a large vehicle can be stopped with little foot pressure. Engine vacuum is used as power for the booster.
Check valve is another important element of power brake. This valve is connected (with the help of a rubber hose) the engine and acts as a one-way valve that allows vacuum to enter the booster but does not let it escape. If the engine is stopped or a leak forms in a vacuum hose, the check valve ensures that air does not enter the vacuum booster.
It is always better to know the in-n-out of the car, so that in case of any emergency or trouble you can help yourselves as well as your car.
Read Also: Are Your VW Brake Boosters Doing Their Job?