Brake Fade is what occurs when the brake drum gets too hot and expands away from the brake shoes to a degree that pushrod travel is insufficient to fully actuate the brakes. It is said that they “run out of stroke.” Stroke is the term used in regard to the distance traveled by the brake chamber push rod or slack adjuster arm during brake application. The shoes and drum cannot make proper contact and the other brakes will have to work harder for the brakes that are fading out. These brakes, if forced to continue this for long, will also eventually get too hot and fade. If they get hot enough, the brakes will smoke. If they get hotter yet, they may catch fire. Brake fade can be the beginning of brake failure!

Brake fade is of particular concern when descending a mountain grade. If you have to apply more and more pressure to the brake pedal to maintain the same braking force, the brakes are fading.
If you have a brake application gauge, watch it carefully and often when descending a grade. Also, know where the Runaway Ramps are located. If you are only ¼ mile from the bottom of a grade when you suspect brake fade, you will probably be fine riding it out. If you know there are eight more miles of grade, you may have a different situation and important decisions to make.

Hot brakes smell very, very bad. After smelling them once, you will never forget what the smell is like. Some drivers joke about “smoking their brakes” - and most every driver has done it at some time, but hopefully only once and hopefully, it taught him/her their lesson!

This article is an excerpt, modified for the web, from "Driver's ABC's, Surviving the First Year Guidebook Fourth Edition," Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved. This article may not be reproduced, nor distributed without the explicit permission of Creative Curriculum FTTI.