I often wonder why some drivers ride the brakes all the way down a hill instead of dropping a gear or two, as I was taught when I learnt to drive.
I used to be in the 'use the gears to brake' camp; I'm not any more.
With the current trend for discs on all four wheels (I'm not even going to there) an interesting phenonemon is occurring: If excessive braking was the cause of pad/disc failure, then the rear discs/pads should last many times longer than the front pads/discs.
Yet this is not being observed in practice. In some cases rear discs are wearing out faster than the fronts! The only logical explanation is that the problem is lack of heat, rather than too much.
A friend of mine has had constant problems with short brake life on his Fabia VRS. The dealer told him to use the brakes more-the problems stopped.
My pads and discs have lasted 50,000 miles and have plenty of life left in them. But then I slow down in neutral so the brakes work harder and run hotter.
As with many things, driving aspiration and driving reality are rarely concordant
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