Slippery roads in and around McHenry this winter can cause you to lose control. It doesn't help if you have bad brakes.

One unpleasant side of driving in a McHenry winter is dealing with reduced traction on the road. It’s a simple fact that ice, snow, water and slush interfere with the ability of tires to grab the road and help you stop or go. But, if your brakes are bad, that seriously compounds the problem.

In a McHenry winter, the conditions for slippery driving are frequent. While it’s snowing, we’re driving through that snow and slush. And what if there is ice under the snow and slush!

For days after it has snowed, the mix of freezing water and salt, on top of patches of ice and slush, makes driving an adventure of the kind most of us would like to skip. And if the brakes are bad … OH BOY!

Brakes can go bad because something breaks. They can go bad because a part or design is defective (though that’s very rare). But brakes WILL go bad from simple wear.

Brakes work on the basis of friction. While oil inside the engine is designed to reduce friction between the moving parts to a bare minimum, with brakes, it’s exactly the opposite.

It would be too expensive for brakes to work with metal-on-metal friction (when brakes reach that point anyhow, they’ve gone well beyond required maintenance). And metal-on-metal braking surfaces would not be very efficient. 

Brakes work with fibrous materials creating friction with metal surfaces – brake pads on metal rotors or brake shoes inside brake drums (most cars use rotor-style brake systems today).

With a brake drum, when the brake pedal is depressed, the brake shoes are pressed against the inside of the brake drum causing sufficient friction to bring the vehicle to a stop. With a brake rotor, a caliper squeezes the rotor with fibrous brake pads.

Inevitably, dust from the brake shoes or brake pads wears away. Just as inevitably, though to a lesser degree, the rotor or brake drum degrades from the braking process.

Use your brakes often enough and you will wear the pads or shoes to the point where they require replacement. At the same time, the rotors and drums require inspection to ensure they’re still in proper operating condition or if they need service or replacement.

Keeping your brakes in good, safe operating condition is essential any time of the year but never more so than during a McHenry winter.