What wears the brakes down more? poll

[Osquirrell]

Simply put.. Ya driving down hill..

Does you ride the hill quickly and pound/stomp the brake at the bottom?

or do you Ride the brake downhill evenly as much you can, afraid of hills?

What do you personally, scientifically think wears the brake down more?

[SpaceMan]

id say riding would wear them more...my reasoning is it would generate more heat over a longer sustained time ..and heat isnt good unless they're special formulated metal racing brakes.then heat would be good....but if youre racing youre changing them every race anyway so who cares about wear

[Undies]

personally i just build up speed to help me get back up the other side. i've had a lot of years driving light pickup trucks, and probably the most dangerous situation i've been in over and over and over and over is having to stop at the bottom of a snowy hill because some pussy in front of me can't drive, then i'm stuck trying to power my way up the other side by spinning my tires like crazy while my truck is literally sliding up the hill sideways.

but to answer the question, my brakes knowledge is extremely limited but my rather uneducated guess is that riding the brakes causes more wear, since it's a sustained rubbing rather than a quick squeeze.

[Meliai]

Normally I just coast down hills without using my brakes at all

But I'm not sure I've ever encountered a situation where a stop is situated at the bottom of the hill. I guess I would try to do a mix of coasting and braking so my speed is low enough near the bottom of the hill where slamming them isn't necessary

5 speed changes things. I haven't driven a stick shift in ages but I think when I did I always tried to do a mix of coasting/downshifting/braking

[lode]

I would assume stop wears the breaks down more. More pressure would mean more friction on the break pads I’d assume.

This seems like a good MythBusters episode.

[neonspectraltoast]

I have a little mystery on my hands. Before I went to jail, my brakes were grinding like crazy.

Now, nothing.

[Osquirrell]

Be sure to vote for funzies..

Around here I know most of the hill so I usually zoom down them till I get to the bottom and then I brake..

I get a little pissy behind people that ride their brake.

[Undies]

Normally I just coast down hills without using my brakes at all

But I'm not sure I've ever encountered a situation where a stop is situated at the bottom of the hill. I guess I would try to do a mix of coasting and braking so my speed is low enough near the bottom of the hill where slamming them isn't necessary

5 speed changes things. I haven't driven a stick shift in ages but I think when I did I always tried to do a mix of coasting/downshifting/braking

oh yeah, i forgot about stops at the bottom of the hill. i've run into a few of those, one in particular in this town where it's a very steep hill with a stop sign right at the bottom at a fairly busy road that almost always has no visibility around the corners because it's right by goodwill and there's always trucks parked on the corner. to make it more interesting, a lot of the times i do this hill, i'm towing a boat (it's right on the way to where we store the work boats). i think in that case i do tend to ride the brakes, although my reasoning is more about not dying as opposed to trying to prevent wear.

it's been a while for me too on stick shift, but the way i remember, i avoided downshifting as much as possible, so i would just do whatever was needed to maintain enough speed to get going again, or else ride the clutch until i stopped completely and could go back to first gear.

[SpaceMan]

theres really no big hills around here

[Audiogen]

I went with stomp brake. I don't have any solid justification, mostly intuition and anecdotal experience and perceptions with accumulated wear on rotors and pads.

[GLEN......]

I Would Vote For "Ride Brakes".......For Two Reasons.

(1)...Riding Builds Up An Enormous Amount Of Heat, And Therefore Wear.

(2)...And Perhaps, Not So Applicable With Modern Cars.....

If You Get A Lot Of Heat Build Up In The Brake Fluid

When You Really Need To Stop At The Bottom Of The Hill...

YOU CAN'T.

It's Called "Brake Fade"...(fluid boils)...And Believe Me When You Experience It

IT AIN'T FUNNY......



Cheers Glen.

[neonspectraltoast]

I'm not gonna vote cause I honestly have no clue.

[Amerijuanican]

I went with stomp brake. I don't have any solid justification, mostly intuition and anecdotal experience and perceptions with accumulated wear on rotors and pads.

That's my vote, since that usually leads to a warped rotor. And that sucks

[Amerijuanican]

I have a little mystery on my hands. Before I went to jail, my brakes were grinding like crazy.

Now, nothing.

They must have fixed your brakes while you were in jail.

that was nice of them!

[neonspectraltoast]

Who, though?