Why Your Honda Has Disc Brakes

All Honda Accords that are being manufactured today have four wheel disc brakes. That was not always the case. For many years only drum brakes were available on an Accord. These cars started out with four wheel drum brakes.  And not disc brakes. In 1989 The SEi model was offered with 4 wheel disc brakes, with two pistons. Other models had smaller 4 wheel disc brakes with a single piston, and entry level cars had disc brakes in the front and drum brakes in the rear. As time went on all Accords had 4 wheel disc brakes.

• So what is so special about disc brakes and why did they become the standard way cars are being offered? To understand this we have to look at what is the purpose of a braking system on a car and the difference between drum brakes and disc brakes. You will see that a disc is better than a drum.
•   As a car moves along it builds up kinetic energy. When we want to slow down or stop the car the brakes convert this energy with friction into heat. By applying resistance or friction to your wheels, the brakes cause the wheels to slow down and stop. To remain effective the brakes also have to get rid of this heat. A disc does this better than other approaches.
•   Early cars used drum brakes on all four wheels and not a disc. The drum brakes used a shoe with friction material against the rotating drum and this resistance stopped the car. One major problem however occurred when the brakes were subject to a heavy load, like when you applied the brakes while going down a steep hill. The brakes got very hot, and as they heated up they lost the ability to create friction - they began to fade. You may have noticed this when you have to press harder on the brake pedal in order to stop. Many people were unpleasantly surprised when they towed a trailer and were going down a long hill. They had no problems on that road with just their car. But now with the extra weight of the towed trailer their brakes began to fade.
•   Disc technology came from racing cars when disc systems beat drums. The disc system helped win races. The new system allowed race cars to go further into turns and then hit the brakes hard without the same amount of fade as a drum break car. This braking advantage put the cars with newer technology ahead when they exited the turn. This was the major advantage of the disc braking system is that it resists fading much better than the drum brake approach. Why does this happen? The reason is very simple. The disc brake is exposed to outside air, unlike the drum brake, and this helps keep it cooler and more resistant to fade. Which means a disc can stop your car faster because the disc is cooler. Stopping faster improves your safety. And safety features helps sell cars. So the car manufactures started offering this first as an option and then as standard equipment. So if you are considering an older car, insure it has a disc system.