Brake Friction: The Complete Pad-Shoe-Disc-Drum Overview

"Brake friction" as a category covers everything that creates the friction itself: pads, discs, shoes, drums, plus the fitting kits and accessories. It’s the biggest subcategory in car brakes by sheer product count, and the area where decisions about brand and quality have the most direct effect on how the car actually stops. This guide gives a system overview of how the pieces fit together.

Disc brakes — the modern standard

Almost all UK cars have disc brakes at the front and most have discs at the rear too. The disc rotates with the wheel; the caliper squeezes two pads against the disc; friction creates braking. The disc is cast iron (or, on premium and performance cars, carbon-ceramic), the pads are a friction compound bonded to a steel backing plate, and the assembly is sized to handle the vehicle’s weight, peak braking-energy demand and heat dissipation.

Drum brakes — still on rear of some cars

Some city cars and older designs use drum brakes at the rear. A brake drum rotates with the wheel; two brake shoes inside press outward against the drum’s inner surface to brake. Drums are cheaper to manufacture, simpler to integrate with a parking-brake mechanism, and adequate for the lower brake-energy demand of a rear axle. They lose effectiveness on hot brake stops (worse than discs at heat dissipation) but on a small city car this matters little.

Handbrake / parking brake

On disc-equipped rear cars, the parking brake is either a small mechanical drum brake inside the rear disc (a "drum-in-hat" design) or an electric actuator that squeezes the rear caliper. On rear-drum cars, the rear brake shoes double as parking brake — a cable system applies them mechanically.

Fitting hardware

Pads need anti-rattle shims and grease. Discs need anti-corrosion treatment on the hub flange. Shoes need return springs and adjuster mechanisms. Caliper sliding surfaces need clean and re-greased. Skipping any of this hardware at brake-service time produces noisy pads, sticking sliders, premature wear and customer complaints months later. The "fitting kit" category exists for this reason — match the kit to the pads or shoes you’re fitting.

How brand affects the whole assembly

Friction brands differ in compound formulation. Premium German (Textar, Pagid, ATE) and Italian (Brembo) brands use compounds engineered per-vehicle. Mid-market (Mintex, APEC Black, First Line) covers most UK applications at sensible cost. Budget (Abtex, Don, Key Parts) meets R-90 minimums for older cars and fleet use.

Disc-and-pad matching matters too. A premium pad on a budget disc, or vice versa, doesn’t deliver the engineering benefit either part was designed for. Best practice: match brand-and-grade across the whole friction set.

What R-90 type approval means

UN ECE Regulation 90 is the EU standard every road-legal brake pad and disc must meet. It tests cold and hot stopping distances, fade resistance, wear consistency. The mark on the box is your guarantee the part has been tested. Always check the box — a part without R-90 is not legal for UK road use.

Browse the full friction range for your car on the Brake Friction collection. The friction is what your brake pedal feels — and it’s the easiest area to over- or under-spec.