WHOA!

If a child jumped out onto the street in front of your moving vehicle, could you stop in time?

That depends on a number of factors, from how far away you are, to the speed you’re driving and how quick you are to get on the pedal.

But there is something that has been overlooked: the brakes themselves. But brakes are brakes, right?

Beginning late in the summer of 2007, Wheelbase Communications, in conjunction with Goodyear Tire, online tire/wheel store The Tire Rack and Italy-based Brembo Brakes embarked on a set of tests (stopping distance from 60 mph to zero) that went everywhere but in a straight line.

We’ll save the nitty-gritty of all that testing for the series we’re working on, but there were several key findings that we believe can’t wait since spreading the word could save lives.

So, after establishing a baseline stopping distance through repeated back-to-back stops until the distance became noticeably longer due to heat saturation, it was Brembo’s suggestion to change the brake fluid and try again. Information on changing brake fluid is anecdotal at best, so we actually didn’t expect any difference in our nine-year-old test truck, a 2000 Ford F150 Lightning SVT, especially since it was only ever summer driven and had just 27,000 miles on it.

The baseline testing began with a few stops in the 125-130-foot range. Once the brakes became heated, however, the distance dramatically increased to about 180 feet after about eight back-to-back tests. The interval between stops was about 35-60 seconds, the time required to reset the distance computer for the next run and then get back up to speed.

Once the fluid was changed, we were shocked to discover that although the initial braking distance was just slightly better than the baseline, that, even after 15 hard stops from 60 mph, the braking distance had only climbed to about 150 feet. Where the baseline after eight stops was 180 feet, with the new fluid the truck was hauling itself down in 140.

Wow.

What we thought was merely the rotors and brake pads becoming overwhelmed with heat turned out to be the old brake fluid, which had lost its performance over time. The moral? Changing brake fluid keeps your brakes operating in a more consistent and predictable manner. For $15 in fluid plus labor, it’s worth it.

We relayed the information to three shops who all said the same thing: they knew — or perhaps were told or heard — there was a difference, but had no idea how big a difference changing the fluid could make.

Brembo engineers, who suggested the test, also found the data to be an eye opener. The company deals with high-performance and racing applications where every foot of stopping distance counts.

Number 2 on our “wow” list turned out to be the brake pads themselves.

Once again, everything was rolling along to plan except that during the latter part of testing the front factory pads gave out. Calling Ford turned up two things: the replacement pads were expensive and they were at least one day away. With bad weather looming and testing time booked, we wanted to be back on asphalt sooner than later.

Instead, the shop charged with the changeover work located a set of pads that were not only substantially cheaper ($100 cheaper, actually) but were basically right there on the shelf.

The next day, we were back in business and testing. After some hard city driving to break in the new pads, we noticed heavy smoke after the first test stop from 60 mph and braking distances that were up a whopping 50 feet from the baseline. A few more stops saw a bit of improvement down into the 160-foot range with billowing smoke. Rather than risking the vehicle and our lives, we contacted the shop, which informed us that the pads were mid-grade quality and not the top-of-the-line pad, which just happened to be the same price as the factory Ford pads.

We called Raybestos, the makers of the pad, and discussed the differences in material and price. Most surprising was that there actually is a difference in pad material and characteristics. While this is not foreign when it comes to racing applications, it was a surprise to us for a basic truck application.

In short order, we were back on track with the top-notch pads and braking distances quickly fell back to 122-127 feet. The results had us wondering why anyone would skimp on brake pads, but even we skimped, thinking that brake pads are brake pads no matter how much they are and who makes them.

Not so.

“What gets me is when someone comes in and says they don’t want to spend much because it’s just for the wife and kids,” said a Raybestos rep.

That might be the case, but even the shop manager that sold us our mid-grade pads was unsure of the difference, other than cost. But how could they really know without some hard data and real results to pass on to their customers?

And still another shop manager asked, “why would you want to test that?”

Clearly, there’s some information that’s being missed.

Stay tuned for the series, which also tests how much braking distance is changed by going with larger wheels and tires (a big craze these days) and what happens when the stock braking system is upgraded by Brembo.

Jeff Melnychuk is Wheelbase Communications’ managing editor. He can be reached at: www.wheelbase.ws/mailbag.html. Wheelbase Communications supplies automotive news and features to newspapers across North America.