Hello everyone, this is a column focusing on car repair and maintenance. There are car mysteries you don’t know, and it will teach you how to avoid the big pits on the road of car ownership. I believe that not only you but also many people have a certain sense of obscurity about the car aftermarket, which will help you uncover the unknown stories of car repair and maintenance.
Blowout car increment also brings blowout auto parts, and now seven or eight kinds of auto parts can be derived from the same car. Take the brake pads, for example, there are no fewer than five kinds of things in my mind. The ceramic brake pads that are popular in the past two years are even more popular, making many car owners flock to them.
This issue, I will take you to explore: what are the advantages of ceramic brake pads?
Why change the brake pads?
Brake pads are daily consumables in cars, and like oil and air filters, they need to be replaced. However, its replacement cycle is not as fixed as engine oil, and its replacement standard depends entirely on wear consumption due to road conditions and driving reasons.
Brake pads are the main friction components in the brake system. If we compare our human shoes to the brake system, then the brake pads are equivalent to the soles of the shoes. It’s just that the soles can’t be changed, and the brake pads can be changed. Therefore, the replacement of brake pads is very necessary, and timely replacement of brake pads also plays a great role in safety.
What is the difference between brake pads made of different materials?
Now that we’re talking about materials, we might as well go a little deeper. This is a structural diagram of the brake pads. It is the No.1 friction material that we wear when we step on the brakes. The different materials I mentioned above mainly refer to different friction materials. Of course, there are individual brake pads of the back material will be different, but the main difference is the friction material.
What are the types of materials for the three brake pads?
In view of the fact that there are a lot of materials on the Internet, let’s start from another angle.
1 asbestos formula (eliminated, not discussed)
2 semi-metallic (more than 20% of metal fibers)
3 low metal (metal fiber at 5% to 20%)
4 Ceramic formula (metal fiber less than 5%)
The above are incomplete statistics, but they cover more than 95% of the brake pads in the current automobile market, and they are also the brake pads that are most easily accessible to ordinary people.
Thus it can be seen that the biggest difference in material between ceramic brake pads and other ordinary brake pads is the difference in metal fiber content.
In fact, I didn’t want to talk about asbestos formula, but I happened to see a hint about asbestos in the wrapping paper. Asbestos is the main applied material of automobile brake pads in the last century, and it has many advantages. But one of the biggest drawbacks is that the ground asbestos powder is toxic and does great harm to the human body, so it was eliminated later.
Fourth, why do brake pads have metal fibers?
The characteristic of asbestos is that the structural capacity is good enough, but the asbestos is banned, and the brake pads suddenly enter a very embarrassing situation. In order to maintain a certain structural strength of the brake pads, it is necessary to add an appropriate amount of metal fiber to the brake pads, and of course there are other components in it.
Why should ceramic brake pads reduce the content of metal fiber?
One of the biggest problems with metal fiber is that powder will be produced with the wear of brake pads, which will be impressed by German car owners. In particular, take the MINI as an example, it takes several times to wash your hands to change the brake pads. For many German models, the original factory especially likes to match semi-metal and low-metal brake pads, which leads to too much dust.
Internationally, from the point of view of environmental protection, we began to gradually reduce the content of metal fiber. When it is as low as 5%, it is given a very loud name-ceramic brake pads.
What are the advantages of six ceramic brake pads?
Advantages: environmental protection (sure)
Low noise (OK)
Do not fall gray (depending on the model)
Long life (depending on the model)
Do not corrode the hub (to be considered)
Disadvantages: high price
Once anything is hot, someone will heat it up. Even if it is placed on auto parts, it is no exception. Car owners are also confused by the overwhelming number of advertisements and promotional informations. after all, when there are more people, even if it is a lie, everyone will believe it. Ceramic brake pads naturally have their expensive reasons, but they are really not in that invincible state. The product itself is excellent on the one hand, and it is more about doing a good job in publicity.
Seven about the purchase
Brother Shi suggested: if you are a master who is not short of money, it is certainly good to use ceramic brake pads, there is no doubt about this. If the budget is not so adequate, there is no need to get fat and keep a car, and there is no need to be so tangled.
GustaveBen 
5 
September 23, 2024 
