Saving your brakes

[PepperElf]

About a month ago or so my brakes failed while I was at work. I knew they were having issues but I thought I could at least get home by refilling the brake fluid.

Nope. But my BF drove out to me and ... we were able to fill the car up with fluid enough to slowly drive to the garage we liked most (had to stop to refill on the way there too).

His advice at the time was to drive slowly and use my engine and over-drive off to brake vs using the actual brakes.


Since then... my brakes have been fixed and are very good. However I'm still a bit brake-shy about using them.

Now I'm not using my engine to brake like how I did that night but I have adopted a couple of tricks to use... especially when I find myself needing to slow down quickly. Like when approaching a car and realizing it's doing 60 in a 70 zone etc...

My first reaction at the moment is to turn my overdrive off. which in itself is weird cos the idea that it's on all the time and the light only comes on when it's off is ... well that's just weird.


However I've found that on the highway it really works well for slowing down my momentum before I put on the brakes. I mean normally if you just take your foot off the gas and coast it will eventually slow down. My car's a bit heavy so it does slow down well this way... but it does it very well - about 5mph slower instantly - with the Overdrive off.

So if I need to stop for road hazards I find I can get it slower a little bit faster using that first and then the brakes. In fact sometimes just turning it off give me exactly what I need without touching the brakes. (especially since i've been finding myself around cars that only want to do 60-65 or so in the 70 zone. seriously, i normally do 80 but i haven't felt like it lately and .. .have found myself having to pass people still when i'm just doing 70 or 75). so sometimes that OD off comes in hand when approaching slower traffic...

Under 60 however I haven't seen much of a difference. I think that's the cutoff.

[Andara Bledin]

One thing to remember:

Replacing your brakes is a fairly easy and trivial repair.
Replacing your engine... not so much.

^-.-^

[PepperElf]

One thing to remember:

Replacing your brakes is a fairly easy and trivial repair.
Replacing your engine... not so much.

^-.-^

however brakes wear out faster than does an engine.

and you're less likely to kill someone vs... having your brakes go out. cos a week after they got replaced i had to slam them on when a kid darted out in front of me at the grocery store. i know i'd have hit him if the brakes were still bad

my bil says that od off is good under 45 but i dont see any difference really. and on the highway it's helped me shave some miles off when the people in front are severely under the speed limit.

seriously one guy was causing a traffic hazard. everyone was doing 70-80 and he was plugging along at 60 tops.

[protege]

I have had my brakes fail. Not a fun experience. I was coming down the last big hill before my house...and the pedal suddenly hit the floor I had to use the transmission to slow down. Next morning, the brakes were fine But still, getting your brakes fixed is much easier (not to mention less expensive...and time-consuming) than rebuilding a transmission or replacing an engine.

[pitmonkey]

Overdrive is there so the engine does not run so fast. It saves on fuel and the life of the engine, it is like having another gear in your tranny. It is not good for the engine to run at the higher revs all the time (run hotter and break down the oil sooner). Yes the breaks wear out faster, they are supposed to. Just like your tires wear out faster and your windshield wipers also. As for getting around people going slower than you, the car will kick out of od when you stomp on the gas.

[TheSHAD0W]

Overdrive is there so the engine does not run so fast... It is not good for the engine to run at the higher revs all the time (run hotter and break down the oil sooner).

Engine braking does negligible wear to the engine; it receives idle quantities of gas and the air flow through it actually reduces its temperature. There's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't utilize engine braking whenever you can.

As an aside: Engine braking really isn't that efficient unless you have what's called a "Jake brake"; the exhaust-flow limiter provides a lot more resistance than the normal free flow. Unfortunately some of the kinetic energy absorbed is released as noise, and this is why you see "no engine braking" signs on some roads.

[pitmonkey]

I wasn't talking about the engine braking, I do it all the time(have a manual tranny). I was talking about running the engine at higher rpms consantly.

[Victory Sabre]

I've never had my brakes go out on me. However I do use them sparingly. Since to and fro work is a rural road, when coming up to the stop sign, I take my foot off the gas and let the car slow down, a lot, before I use the brakes. I only do that, however, if no one is behind me.

[Imprl59]

Not such a good idea.

If you dont use your brakes then the people behind you dont know you are slowing down. That second that you are playing with the overdrive could be the second between the car behind you stopping in time and you getting knocked in to a concrete wall. While the car behind you would be found at fault that doesnt make you any less dead.

[Seshat]

To protect both the engine and the brakes, drive smoothly. Smooth gradual starts. Smooth gradual stops.

Use engine braking when not being followed, and also when going down a mountain: set the car in a gear which makes your speed safe when going down the mountain. (Constant braking, as you might otherwise need to do, can burn your brake surfaces before you reach the bottom. Results can be catastrophic.)

But the simplest way to preserve both brakes and engine is to act as if you have a egg sitting on a golf tee in your car, and you don't want to break the egg.

(okay. That might be a bit TOO gentle. But that's the basic gist of it.)

[protege]

Constant braking, as you might otherwise need to do, can burn your brake surfaces before you reach the bottom. Results can be catastrophic.

Yep, brake fade sucks. It can (and usually does) lead to longer stopping distances, plus causing the driver to stand on the brake pedal, and can lead to failure if excessive.

[Sakka]

Constant braking, as you might otherwise need to do, can burn your brake surfaces before you reach the bottom. Results can be catastrophic.

Locally, we can always tell when there's a new batch of big truck drivers on the road, or drivers not used to driving in this area. I live in a mountain community and need to pass through Community B in the valley floor on my to work each day. Usually about every other week I'll see at least one big rig stopped at the bottom of the hill just before community B with smoke pouring out from the underside and the driver with a fire extinguisher in hand applying it liberally to the brakes.

At the top, where I live, there are several signs saying to gear down, that the grade is x amount, etc.

[Seshat]

Brakes have what's called a 'sacrificial' surface. A surface that's intended to be worn out.

Except for the mountain situation, smooth and gentle driving (rather than harsh accelerations and hard stops) is really all the brake preservation you need.

Get that sacrificial surface checked regularly, make sure it's in good condition. Different types of brakes have different surfaces, but they all need the surface replaced (or in some cases, re-surfaced) occasionally.

Brake fluid is a hydraulic system, which requires a closed - completely closed - 'container', to work. Any of you who have done fluid physics will know that in a closed container, pressure on a fluid causes equal pressure to be placed on all parts of the container.
A hole in the tubing, a leaky connection, ANYTHING which causes you to lose brake fluid, is urgent. In fact, it can be so urgent that you shouldn't drive at all - not until you can find and patch the problem. If the hole/leak becomes larger, you can suddenly lose all brake fluid (or 'just' all fluid pressure); which therefore will mean you have no brakes at all.

[wolfie]

As an aside: Engine braking really isn't that efficient unless you have what's called a "Jake brake"; the exhaust-flow limiter provides a lot more resistance than the normal free flow. Unfortunately some of the kinetic energy absorbed is released as noise, and this is why you see "no engine braking" signs on some roads.

O/T, but a Jake Brake is actually an extra cam that "pops" the exhaust valve briefly at the top of the compression stroke. This vents the compressed air (causing the noise), so that the energy used to compress it doesn't get recovered as it expands during the (fuel-less) power stroke.

The exhaust flow limiter is a way to produce quiet engine braking (though not as efficient as a Jake). On gasoline engines, taking your foot off the accelerator serves the same purpose because it closes the throttle valve - diesels don't have throttle valves, hence the need for a Jake.

[PepperElf]

I thought people realized... ... Maybe I didn't say it in my original post?....

When I used my engine for braking - not OD-off but actual engine braking - it was because I had bad brakes. And I was literally driving it to the repair center.



now as for OD off. I use it sparingly at high speeds. usually just enough to shave some speed off as needed in sticky situations. sometimes in conjunction with braking (the brakes are fixed now). sometimes just to shave 5mph off quickly.