For anyone doing the brakes on their car, look into ceramic brake pads. I’ve recently replaced mine and used the ones from ATE and it’s actually insane how much less brake dust these give off. My front wheels used to be absolutely coated in black dust after long road trips but now there is pretty much zero buildup. They are only like 1-2 Euros more expensive than the regular ones. It’s a total no-brainer.
Your should try coasting more, looking further ahead than the car in front of your bumper and finessing the brakes, works even better than ceramic.
Ceramic pads are pretty great though
Also engine braking
I often drive through pretty mountainous regions, coasting or even downshifting won’t help much unfortunately.
I live in the mountains, they do help.
Yupp, can confirm. Been using them since 2011 in my cars and they are awesome!
American here, thought those were the standard? I’m pretty ignorant with auto mechanics, though I can change break pads. If someone asked me what they’re made of, “I dunno. Ceramic of some kind.”
Most are made out of mixtures of metals like copper, iron and steel. Ceramic brakes are more prone to fading though.
Newer vehicles typically have ceramic stock (well at least my newest car did), but I think “organic” were standard until relatively recently. There’s pros and cons to each.
The cheapest ones that most people default to are usually barely glued together carbon powder. But good mechanics definitely carry and use ceramic
Use an electric car. Problem solved.
Electric cars still have brakes, they just also use regenerative braking. The brake pads will wear down much slower, though, so you’re right that it will help.
I didn’t change the brake pads on mine in 5 years. I used to change them every year with my previous car (living in a mountain area).
Sounds like a good idea to have them fail when you really need them. Most people won’t use them occasionally in order to “clean them up” from rust etc.
