You might not give your car’s brakes much thought until they cause a problem, but there’s a whole world of things happening every time you press the brake pedal. Though most cars today come equipped ...

Drum brakes are essentially extinct on new cars today—save for a few budget-minded holdouts like the Ford Focus 1.0-liter. But for nearly a century, they were the standard system of choice on nearly ...

Disc brakes resemble hand brakes on a bicycle, where pulling on the brake lever forces a plier-like device to squeeze rubber blocks against the rim of the wheel to stop the car. Drum brakes are a ...

Want to know how all the complex systems work in your car? Turn to these fantastic videos made by the carmakers themselves. Chevrolet produced many of these great instructional films in the 1930s.

The hardest part of disassembling the brakes is usually removing the drum. Some drums and most backing plates have inspection slots near the bottom (sometimes covered with a rubber plug or a steel ...

Most modern cars stopped using drum brakes years ago, adopting disc brakes for their improved performance and heat resistance. Those sound like pretty good reasons, so you'd think they'd be just as ...

Press a pedal and your car stops, but how? The mechanisms that control a vehicle’s brakes are explained in this simple article. Most drivers understand how their brakes work in the simplest of terms: ...

Semi air brakes rely on compressors, reservoirs, dryers, valves, brake chambers, pushrods, and S-cams to move shoes or pads ...

As you can see in Figure 15-3, you have to remove a bunch of stuff to get to a drum brake. The steps here explain how to do so and what to look for when you finally get to your brakes. Caution: ...

Your car's brake system is one of its most critical components. It should come as no surprise that the brake system is responsible for stopping your vehicle and keeping it stationary as long as your ...