PORTLAND, Ore. — Jason Fenske, the force behind the 3.61-million subscriber YouTube channel “Engineering Explained,” recently posted a video during which he “peels back” the friction material to reveal the attachment differences between different types of brake pads.
The video focuses on the differentiation between brake pads which use a mechanical attachment process and those which use glue to attach friction material to the backing plate. (The Friction Material Standards Institute – FMSI – identifies original-equipment components which specify mechanical attachment with a Z-number designation.)
Fenske, a 2012 graduate of North Carolina State University with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, told AutoWeek for a 2014 profile, he developed the YouTube video series as a means to further his own understanding about how cars worked.
“I really wanted to have a good understanding of cars, and how they worked,” he told the enthusiast weekly publication. “I thought this would come from college. It did not. Though I learned many principles which I could apply to cars, I learned very little about how they work. You don’t know if you understand something until you try to explain it to someone else, after all.”
