Originally, most systems for stopping vehicles were mechanically actuated drum brakes with internally expanding shoes; i.e., foot pressure exerted on the brake pedal was carried directly to semicircular brake shoes by a system of flexible cables. Mechanical brakes, however, were difficult to keep adjusted so that equal braking force was applied at each wheel; and, as vehicle weights and speeds increased, more and more effort on the brake pedal was demanded of the driver.

Mechanical brakes were replaced by hydraulic systems, in which the brake pedal is connected to pistons in master cylinders and thence by steel tubing with flexible sections to individual cylinders at the wheels. Front and rear hydraulic circuits are separated. The wheel cylinders are located between the movable ends of the brake shoes, and each is fitted with two pistons that are forced outward toward the ends of the cylinder by the pressure of the fluid between them. As these pistons move outward, they push the brake shoes against the inner surface of the brake drum attached to the wheel. The larger diameter of the piston in the master cylinder provides a hydraulic force multiplication at the wheel cylinder that reduces the effort required of the driver.

Further increases in vehicle weights and speeds made even hydraulic brakes difficult for drivers to operate effectively, and automobiles consequently were equipped with power brake systems. These are virtually the same as the hydraulic system except that the piston of the master cylinder is multiplied by power assists of several types instead of by foot pressure on the pedal.

Overheating of the brake drums and shoes causes the brakes to fade and lose their effectiveness when held in engagement for a considerable length of time. This problem has been attacked by the use of aluminum cooling fins bonded to the outside of the brake drums to increase the rate of heat transfer to the air. Vents in the wheels are provided to increase the air circulation for cooling.

Disc brakes, originally developed for aircraft, are ubiquitous, in spite of their higher cost, because of their fade resistance. Although there are some four-wheel systems, usually discs are mounted on the front wheels, and conventional drum units are retained at the rear. They have been standard on most European automobiles since the 1950s and most American models since the mid-1970s. Each wheel has a hub-mounted disc and a brake unit or caliper rigidly attached to the suspension. The caliper employs two friction-pad assemblies, one on each side of the disc. When the brake is applied, hydraulic pressure forces the friction pads against the disc. This arrangement is self-adjusting, and the ability of the discs to dissipate heat rapidly in the open airstream makes them practically immune to fading.

Antilock braking systems (ABS) became available in the late 1980s and since then have become standard on a growing number of passenger cars. ABS installations consist of wheel-mounted sensors that input wheel rotation speed into a microprocessor. When wheel rotation increases because of tire slippage or loss of traction, the control unit signals a hydraulic or electric modulator to regulate brake line pressure to forestall impending wheel lockup. The brake continues to function as the system cyclically releases and applies pressure, similar to but much faster than a driver rapidly pumping the brake pedal on a non-ABS-equipped automobile. The wheels continue to roll, retaining the driver’s ability to steer the vehicle and stop in a shorter distance.

Parking brakes usually are of the mechanical type, applying force only to the rear brake shoes by means of a flexible cable connected to a hand lever or pedal. On cars with automatic transmissions, an additional lock is usually provided in the form of a pawl that can be engaged, by placing the shift lever in the “park” position, to prevent the drive shaft and rear wheels from turning. The service brake pedal must be applied to permit shifting the transmission out of the park position. This eliminates the possibility of undesired vehicle motion that could be caused by accidental movement of the transmission control.

Steering

Automobiles are steered by a system of gears and linkages that transmit the motion of the steering wheel to the pivoted front wheel hubs. The gear mechanism, located at the lower end of the shaft carrying the steering wheel, is usually a worm-and-nut or cam-and-lever combination that rotates a shaft with an attached crank arm through a small angle as the steering wheel is turned. Tie rods attached to the arm convey its motion to the wheels. In cornering, the inner wheel must turn through a slightly greater angle than the outer wheel, because the inner wheel negotiates a sharper turn. The geometry of the linkage is designed to provide for this.

When the front wheels are independently suspended, the steering must be designed so that the wheels are not turned as the tie rods lengthen and shorten as a result of spring action. The point of linkage attachment to the steering gear must be placed so that it can move vertically with respect to the wheel mountings without turning the wheels.

As the engine and passenger compartment in automobiles beginning in the 1930s in Europe and the United States were moved forward to improve riding comfort and road-handling characteristics, the distribution of weight between the front and rear wheels was shifted toward the front. The weight carried on the front wheels increased to more than half of the total vehicle weight, and consequently the effort necessary to turn the wheels in steering increased. Larger, heavier cars with wider tires and lower tire pressure also contributed to drag between tires and road that had to be overcome in steering, particularly in parking. Considerable reduction in the work of steering resulted from increasing the efficiency of the steering gears and introducing better bearings in the front wheel linkage. Additional ease of turning the steering wheel was accomplished by increasing the overall steering gear ratio (the number of degrees of steering-wheel turn required to turn the front wheels one degree). However, large steering gear ratios made high-speed maneuverability more difficult, because the steering wheel had to be turned through greater angles. Moreover, steering mechanisms of higher efficiency were also more reversible; that is, road shocks were transmitted more completely from the wheels and had to be overcome to a greater extent by the driver. This caused a dangerous situation on rough roads or when a front tire blew out, because the wheel might be jerked from the driver’s hands.

Power steering gear was developed to solve the steadily increasing steering problems. Power steering was first applied to heavy trucks and military vehicles early in the 1930s, and hundreds of patents were granted for devices to help the driver turn the steering wheel. Most of the proposed devices were hydraulic; some were electrical and some mechanical. In hydraulic systems, a pump driven by the engine maintains the fluid under pressure. A valve with a sensing device allows the fluid to enter and leave the power cylinder as necessary. Speed-sensitive systems are available to provide larger ratios for reduced effort at low speeds and lower ratios for steering at high speeds. Four-wheel steering systems in which the rear wheels turn in the opposite direction of the front wheels have had limited commercial use.

Suspension

The riding comfort and handling qualities of an automobile are greatly affected by the suspension system, in which the suspended portion of the vehicle is attached to the wheels by elastic members in order to cushion the impact of road irregularities. The specific nature of attaching linkages and spring elements varies widely among automobile models. The best rides are made possible by independent suspension systems, which permit the wheels to move independently of each other. In these systems the unsprung weight of the vehicle is decreased, softer springs are permissible, and front-wheel vibration problems are minimized. Spring elements used for automobile suspension members, in increasing order of their ability to store elastic energy per unit of weight, are leaf springs, coil springs, torsion bars, rubber-in-shear devices, and air springs.

The leaf spring, although comparatively inelastic, has the important advantage of accurately positioning the wheel with respect to the other chassis components, both laterally and fore and aft, without the aid of auxiliary linkages.

An important factor in spring selection is the relationship between load and deflection known as the spring rate, defined as the load in pounds divided by the deflection of the spring in inches. A soft spring has a low rate and deflects a greater distance under a given load. A coil or a leaf spring retains a substantially constant rate within its operating range of load and will deflect 10 times as much if a force 10 times as great is applied to it. The torsion bar, a long spring-steel element with one end held rigidly to the frame and the other twisted by a crank connected to the axle, can be designed to provide an increasing spring rate.

A soft-spring suspension provides a comfortable ride on a relatively smooth road, but the occupants move up and down excessively on a rough road. The springs must be stiff enough to prevent a large deflection at any time because of the difficulty in providing enough clearance between the sprung portion of the vehicle and the unsprung portion below the springs. Lower roof heights make it increasingly difficult to provide the clearance needed for soft springs. Road-handling characteristics also suffer because of what is known as sway, or roll, the sidewise tilting of the car body that results from centrifugal force acting outward on turns. The softer the suspension, the more the outer springs are compressed and the inner springs expanded. In addition, the front end dives more noticeably when braking with soft front springs.

Air springs offer several advantages over metal springs, one of the most important being the possibility of controlling the spring rate. Inherently, the force required to deflect the air unit increases with greater deflection, because the air is compressed into a smaller space and greater pressure is built up, thus progressively resisting further deflection.

A combination hydraulic-fluid-and-air suspension system has been developed in which the elastic medium is a sealed-in, fixed mass of air, and no air compressor is required. The hydraulic portion of each spring is a cylinder mounted on the body sill and fitted with a plunger that is pivotally attached to the wheel linkage to form a hydraulic strut. Each spring cylinder has a spherical air chamber attached to its outer end. The sphere is divided into two chambers by a flexible diaphragm, the upper occupied by air and the lower by hydraulic fluid that is in communication with the hydraulic cylinder through a two-way restrictor valve. This valve limits the rate of movement of the plunger in the cylinder, since fluid must be pushed into the sphere when the body descends and returned when it rises. This damping action thus controls the motion of the wheel with respect to the sprung portion of the vehicle supported by the spring.

So-called active suspensions incorporate a microprocessor to vary the orifice size of the restrictor valve in a hydraulic suspension or shock absorber (a mechanical device that dampens the rate of energy stored and released by the springs). This changes the effective spring rate. Control inputs may be vehicle speed, load, acceleration, lateral force, or a driver preference.