How do my Emergency
Car Brakes work? What keeps me in place when Im at that steep hill? What if they stop working?! No worries - Ill try and answer all of your questions.
General definition of Emergency
Brakes : theyre a secondary braking system thats installed in most motor vehicles. Most people call them E-Brakes, Hand Brakes, or even Parking Brakes. Emergency Car Brakes are not usually powered by hydraulics because theyre independent of the service Brakes that are usually used to to slow down your car and eventually make your car come to a complete stop.
There are typically four types of emergency brakes:
1. Stick Lever - these are the Brakes that are found in older cars.
2. Center Lever - this type of brake is found in the space between the two front seats.
3. Pedal - its located to the left of the floor pedals.
4. Electric or Push Button - this button for your Car Brakes is found right around the same area where your other controls are positioned.
When you use your Emergency
Brakes, theres a brake cable that passes through something called an intermediate lever. This is what increases the force of your pull; and then it passes through an equalizer. At the U-Shaped equalizer, the cable is then split into two. The equalizer is supposed to divide the force and then send it evenly across both of the cables that are connected to your rear wheels.
The motor vehicles can either use Drum
Brakes or Disc Brakes. Drum brakes are most common in the rear wheels and disc brakes are more commonly seen on the front two wheels or all four of the cars wheels. When theres a Rear Drum Situation, the emergency brake cable would run directly to the brake shoes; this means that itd bypass they hydraulic brake system. This means that in this particular system, the emergency brake system wouldnt need any extra parts to control the Brakes.
The vehicles that have the rear disc brakes usually have a system thats a little more complicated to comprehend. Sometimes this system needs a whole drum brake system to be installed into the rear rotor. This is called an exclusive parking brake or an auxiliary drum brake - either way, their Brakes and they work the same way.
When the car has rear disc brakes without an auxiliary drum brake, theres something called a capiler-actuated parking brake system thats used. In this specific system, theres an additional lever and extra corkscrew thats added to the existing caliper piston. When the driver pulls the emergency brake, the lever is the one that forces the corkscrew against the caliper piston, and then it applies the brakes. This happens by bypassing the hydraulic braking system.
Theres some electric E-Brakes that are offered on cars that are manufactured today. Instead of the car having a pedal, stick, or a center console lever that you pull up and down, theres a small button thats located on the dash that signals an electric motor to pull the brake cable. Theres some advanced electric brake systems that use computer - controlled motors to engage the brake caliper.
Who knew that there would be so many types of
Brakes and Car Brakes - you know? Which brakes do you have? Which one do you want? Which ones do you prefer? Are you the classic - kinda - brake person or an electronic - brake - person? I think I'd prefer the electronic ones only because I like to think I'm somewhat tech - savvy .. but I don't think that's always the case.
