Soft or hard breaking - which wears more

[swindler]

Ok I have a theory but more interested in the science:

Say you're travelling at 60mph and break gradually, taking a longer time, or break moderately hard, or extremely hard and naturally taking a short time, which will cause the most wear to brakes pads and discs?

[911p]

Pretty sure for performance cars braking hard but for a short time wears the brakes much less. Unsure about normal cars though.

[V8Wagon]

I find that a well timed passenger/driver simultaneous door opening creates enough drag to stop the car with no brake disc wear.

[Kentish]

DSA advice is that you should brake gently but firmly at first and increase the effort as the car slows.

I generally do this but ease off as the cars slows (unless I need to brake firmly); this makes for smoother driving and less brake wear (in 26 years of driving, I've rarely needed to replace brakes or clutch).

[SmilerFTM]

I'd guess hard braking, try getting a rubber and running it lightly along a smooth surface over a couple of feet, then try pushing down on the rubber quite hard and move it over just a few inches. The hard pressing will remove far more rubber than the light, I know brake pads aren't made of rubber but I'm guessing the same principle applies no matter what the substance used is

[CBR JGWRR]

It's getting damaged either way...

[davepoth]

On track it is indeed best to brake hard for as short a time as possible. On the road it's best not to brake at all.

[Ozzie Osmond]

The prize goes to Davepoth.

The rest of you didn't pay attention in your physics lessons!!

[jon-]

It's all about heat generation, so which ever creates less heat in the given situation.

On the road it's usually very soft braking.

[RegMolehusband]

It keeps on happening time and time again, so called car enthusiasts who don't know how to spell brake. Unbelievable!

[ging84]

not sure how being able to spell help you be a car enthusiast, guy who used to run the garage down the road from me when i was a kid couldn't do invoices if he was working alone, because he genuinely couldn't read or write, but could fix almost anything on a car with a hammer and some fire

[Tunku]

ging84 said:

not sure how being able to spell help you be a car enthusiast, guy who used to run the garage down the road from me when i was a kid couldn't do invoices if he was working alone, because he genuinely couldn't read or write, but could fix almost anything on a car with a hammer and some fire

Oh, give us a brake!

[TheEnd]

Hard braking gives less wear, it'll put more energy into flexing the tyres and that will take away energy instead of the discs.
The ultimate is to slam the brakes on and lock them up as soon as possible, you'll get almost no brake wear at all, but tyres won't last long.

[Benbay001]

I believe its best to break hard. If you are breaking from a high speed 70ish, then it may be necessary to let off the pedal for a short brake so that you arent stopping faster than the rest of the traffic.
Be careful though, regular hard breaking may result in components of your car braking.

On a more serious note, the savings in brake pads will be spent on new tyres.

[John145]

Hint is in the description of how you're braking. ie, the harder you brake, the more you wear the components.

[busta]

If you are not on the throttle, your car is naturally decelerating anyway. The longer you take to brake, the more energy will be lost to all the other forces involved and there will be less work for the brakes to do.

[Ozzie Osmond]

John145 said:

Hint is in the description of how you're braking. ie, the harder you brake, the more you wear the components.

Excellent, someone was paying attention at school! If you want to do something more quickly it takes more energy.

[markmullen]

Kentish said:

DSA advice is that you should brake gently but firmly at first and increase the effort as the car slows.

When teaching advanced driving I explain that braking should be like a turd, soft at both ends and firm in the middle.

[NWTony]

Ozzie Osmond said:

John145 said:

Hint is in the description of how you're braking. ie, the harder you brake, the more you wear the components.

Excellent, someone was paying attention at school! If you want to do something more quickly it takes more energy.

Oh really?

[kambites]

I'd guess that braking harder wears the components faster (if you're slowing down more gradually, a greater proportion of the energy will be lost to aerodynamic drag). However, I have been told in the past that prolonged light braking can cause "glazing" (not sure what it actually is) which reduces the coefficient of friction between the pad and disc.