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Electric cars produce less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars

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Re: Electric cars produce less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars

#201
post #16

We should obviously ban combustion engine cars, at least starting with cities. I can’t think of a single clearer win for air quality.

Yeah maybe starting with what they’re doing in places in Europe where gradually emission requirements become more strict.

Excluding the worst polluters makes a surprisingly big difference, yes.

It’s still been a problem in several places though, because it forced poor people with old cars to either upgrade or stop driving. An equitable alternative would have included a way to get a new car free or at least cheap.

Re: Electric cars produce less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprisingly you can get nearly same effect in automatics. I put around 60k miles on my first automatic (after120k+ on my first two cars, manual transmissions) and when i got my brakes checked at 63k they noted my brakes were still "brand new". I do gamify reading traffic to try and brake as little as possible (to help pass time etc), but was still surprised how far this takes you given i do plenty of stop and go tra…

No reason for it not to work, even more so if you think to downshift. It’s more common with manual as downshifting is a lot more natural but not fundamentally different. It’s just trivially easy with electric thanks to regen braking. Though with modern cars getting heavier if you have a small ICE these days you have almost no engine brake which makes some cases more difficult (unless it’s a mild hybrid with an electr…

I don't know about today's engines, but some early fuel injected engines would actually use more fuel when engine braking. In those early designs spark could not be cut off, so if this extra fuel were not added then the mixture would run very hot and risk pre-ignition and damage. I don't know about carbureted vehicles.

Re: Electric cars produce less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on how you drive. I never engine braked on my manual. Brakes are easy to replace. Clutches are not.

You don't engine brake with the clutch, you engine brake by downshifting and using the higher engine RPM in lower gears to brake the car via wasted compression.

And that downshifting involves a clutch operation, moving the engine into a higher RPM. That most certainly wears down the clutch, talking as someone who's replaced quite a few of them.

Re: Electric cars produce less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article says that even including tire and road wear, EVs generate 38% less particulate pollution than ICE cars before considering the lack of tailpipe emissions.

But tires are black, and black carbon has additional climate effects — even once the aerosol lands, it can still have effects like black carbon on snow.

On that topic, Norwegians have been reporting that the piles of snow at the sides of their roads are noticeable cleaner since EV adoption took off.

Re: Electric cars produce less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars

#206
Brake pads are small parts that last for years. It is nothing compared to the number of tankfuls of gas that an ICE car goes through over the lifetime of its brakes.

This is like the March of Dimes syndrome. We got rid of exhaust with electric cars, but the cars-are-bad activists continue to exist and need something to gripe about.

Re: Electric cars produce less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars

#207
post #88
post #41

I suppose the same should apply to hybrid cars, which outnumber pure EVs significantly [1]. The effect comes from converting the kinetic energy back to the battery charge via generation instead of wasting it via friction, which is the whole point of hybrids. [1]: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/how-many-electric...

To some extent, but not really. Effectiveness of regenerative braking depends on having an extremely large battery that can sink enough current to stop the car. An EV can do that, hybrids at best help the brakes out some. You just can't charge the battery fast enough doing anything but a very slow rolling stop. My model Y can effect a very reasonable stop in traffic without touching the brake pedal except to hold the…

If your Model Y is like my Model 3, then it seamlessly switches to friction breaking below 20 kph. That said, I'm at 110,000 km and the brakes look like new.

Re: Electric cars produce less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars

#208
post #16

We should obviously ban combustion engine cars, at least starting with cities. I can’t think of a single clearer win for air quality.

Just don't do as we did in Norway. Sure, we've seen great adoption to electric, but with the insane amount of money spent and subsidies, we've could instead have improved public transit and reduced car dependence.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23939076/norway-electric-...

Re: Electric cars produce less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars

#209
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and have to throw 1-2 tyres in the bin. That's your choice. We jack the car, pull the wheel, extract the screws, and use a tyre plug kit. Howto repair tubeless tyres with plugs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCwWPlaghfs Tyres with inner tubes can also be repaired, that's slightly more involved.

depends where the puncture is. too close to the sidewall and you have to bin them. if they've already been plugged once and theu get another puncture its off to the bin.

Yes, this, it depends. It has to be in the middle 100mm or so of the tyre, and not between the treads, otherwise they won’t plug it.

Annoyingly, plugs are not perfect either: after a tyre has been plugged I’m putting air in it like every 2 months, so anecdotally I guess the plugs leak really slowly.

Re: Electric cars produce less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some tyre compounds wear a lot faster than others (though often with better grip). I wonder if that's contributing. The other thing is poor alignment (especially toe settings) which cause the tyres to fight each other constantly. It can be a very small difference, almost imperceptible but still accelerate the wear. 10k miles is very short for a tyre. Often you can tell a lot from the tyre temperature after a drive: i…

Aren’t higher speed rated tires softer? Maybe try swapping for a lower speed rating unless they plan on driving it at extreme speeds.

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