Disc Brakes

If you look through one of your car's wheels, you will see a shiny metal disc just inside. This is called a “disc brake.” When the driver steps on the brake pedal, a pad of hard-wearing material clamps onto the brake disc and rubs it to make it slow down—in a similar way to bicycle brakes.

Parking Brake

Your vehicle's parking brake applies force to the disc or drum brakes in a slower, less forceful way via a lever, pedal, or button that's usually located between your car's two front seats. When you pull on the brake, a system of levers tugs on a pair of sturdy cables that apply the brakes to the back wheels. Older parking brake systems are completely mechanical and do not use brake fluid like the disk and drum brakes, so they can be used as emergency brakes (with great care) when the other brake systems fail. Many newer vehicles use an electronic parking brake, which is similar but often uses electronic motors to engage the parking brake.

Drum Brakes

Some cars have disc brakes on all four wheels while others have disc brakes on their front wheels and drum brakes on their back wheels. Instead of the disc and brake pad, drum brakes have shoes inside the drum that press outward. As the shoes push into the wheel, friction slows you down.