The newest batch of prake pads has a little round sticker on them.
Black and white,
Three leaves touching a line under them and a letter under that.
Some stickers have three black leaves and an N under the line.
Some have one black , two white leaves and an A under the line.
Haven’t bought enough new inventory to se one with two black leaves yet.
I don’t believe us parts people need to know what it means, but we’re all curious because they’re new to the biz and they’re trademaked to boot.
Anybody know the meaning of these stickers ?
Organic content ?
Copper content ?
Friction rating ?
I was unable to find anything on your question about the leaves, but I did stumble upo9n a very interesting document on pad material. I recommend the attached link. http://web.ornl.gov/~webworks/cppr/y2001/rpt/110463.pdf
And safebraking.com has some intersting reading too. Like a list of brake pad edge codes . I see my Ford o.e. pads’ friction material is Federal Mogul.
The edge codes are contained in the DOE document under section 4.1, however there’s no such thing as too many sources of information. For guys like us the DOE document is great, but for the average guy seeking info it’s probably a bit “heavy”.
Washington state is following suit with CA about copper content in brake linings. We also were among the first to outlaw lead wheel weights.
Most of our major metro areas are on the saltwater coastline or lakes and rivers. We have a lot of salmon and other fish here. It rains a lot. Most of the storm drains go directly into the bay or lake. Anything that leaks or drops from a car finds its way into the water supply or fish habitat pretty quickly.
What’s wrong with Cu? My water is brought to me by Cu pipes held together with Zn solder…and I ain’t dead. Something that’s GRAS for HUMAN consumption ain’t good enough for Spongebob Squarepants?!? What a prima donna!
Is there one single thing on the Periodic Table of The Elements (Atomic Chart for the older of us…) that is not going to kill us?
If my life was to end unexpectedly it’s more than likely going to due to a careless driver on the cell or due to their poking randomly at the infotainment center on the dash…
I love the link to the Oak Ridge brake material report. Very interesting reading.
It does make me wonder why our tax dollars went to Oak Ridge for the report when the Society of Automotive Engineers has this data, the member manufacturers of brakes and the expertise to write a more effective report.
I wasn’t advocating for or against the regulations, just explaining the reasoning behind it.
There’s a difference between having your drinking water brought to you in copper pipes and grinding it up into powder and feeding it to your livestock which you in turn eat.
Lead weights were outlawed for the same principle that leaded gas was. Weights fall off wheels on the road, get ground down to dust, and get into our water supply and food.
MY Ford guys found it too, the label has to do with copper content.
But what good does the label do ? WE don’t get to pick ! There’s just one part number for that vehicle and we get what we get without any possibility of it mattering to us…so why bother with the label ?
Copper
lead
uranium
it all CAME from in the ground and is still there now , so what’s the big deal ? put it back into the ground when we’re done with it. Not near ground water tables but maybe in a reverse mining method ?
The idea is to try to leave it in the ground where it will do no harm.
In truth, the only thing the consumer needs to know is
metallic,
ceramic, or
organic (usually considered to mean OEM, although that isn’t technically correct).
Actually, I’d bet that 98% don’t even know that much. Someone says “you need brakes” and they say “okay”. They have no clue, or care, what gets put on. They leave that to the mechanic.
But, but, but, its for the fish, the ducks, and the animals. Lead shot has been outlawed for a long time now in favor of steel shot because the ducks eat the shot at the bottom of the lake. Last night had a news story on a swan that had lead poisoning that was rescued. They said one little pellet ingested was enough to infect the swan. I dunno, I guess. Steel shot is not that bad, but just lets not get nuts over the whole thing. OTOH history may have been much different had lead not been used in cups way back driving out leadership nuts along with the hat makers. Personally I’m concerned with the lead paint and crap being imported from China and the paint on old houses people love to keep going. Myself, I’d tear them down.
So, Bing, you’d tear down my house?
Have you ever heard of mitigation?
Are you willing to build me a new house to replace mine? I’d love a new house. If I give you the address, will you send a check?
Naw, you can stay there (as long as you don’t chew on the window sills). Mitigation in a house is really expensive though when you consider all the inside and outside paint and the pipes. Just seems like the goat herders sometimes strain the knat and swallow the camel in their zeal.
