Each brand of brake pad was subjected to five tests in measuring its performance under various conditions and determined pad and rotor wear characteristics. Five companies donated brake pads for the test. The brake pads were tested on a 1997 Ford Crown Victoria and a 1996 Chevrolet Caprice. They represent the vast majority of police cars in service by law enforcement agencies at the time of the study. Because driving conditions in various parts of the country vary widely, no "winners" or "losers" were identified. Each agency must place the appropriate weights on those portions of the test data most like the conditions its patrol officers may encounter. A table shows the sample distribution of category weights. The test results may be used in two ways: 1) to determine the brake pads that best meet the needs of a particular agency; and 2) to adjust the manufacturer's bid or local retailers' price for these brake pad brands. In each test category, the absolute difference between a brake pad and the best-scoring brake pad is divided by the best brake pad's score to show a "deviation factor." This factor is then multiplied by a category weight to produce a weighted category score. The total of these weighted scores for a particular brake pad is then used to adjust the brake pad's bid or local retail price. The objective, methodology, and tabular data are shown for each of the five tests.
Equipment Performance Report: 1997 Evaluation of Replacement Brake Pads for Police Patrol Vehicles
NCJ Number
168101
Date Published
October 1997
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This Bulletin of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) summarizes the agency's comprehensive evaluation of replacement brake pads for police patrol vehicles.
Abstract