The paper offers an overview of the motor vehicle brake pad wear process. Considering the types of wear that occur between the pads and the disc, the study begins by presenting Archard’s fundamental wear law. It explains how the hardness and roughness of materials can influence the wear rate. Furthermore, the analysis describes factors influencing the wear coefficient, including chemical affinity between materials, surface quality, thermo-elastic instability (TEI) of the materials, and environmental effects. The paper also presents detection systems for brake pad wear, such as sensors-based monitoring and artificial neural networks (ANNs). These systems monitor brake pad wear in real time, thereby improving the driving safety by alerting the driver to the condition of the brake pads. The principles and systems analyzed form the basis for predictive maintenance, minimizing the risks of brake failure due to excessive wear.

The wear of internal combustion engines is strongly influenced by dust particles from the atmosphere by that pass through air filter and reach inside the kinematic couplings of the engine. Air filters have relatively low initial efficiency. As they are used, air filters are impregnated with a layer of fine dust and their filtering efficiency is increasing. This paper aims to investigate the technical state of air filters that equip Renault K9K engine that are being replaced during the preventive maintenance schedule according to manufacturer recommendation. The study refers to the measurement in laboratory conditions on a specialized rig of the restriction generated by the air filter housing, as well as the restriction generated by new and used air filters. The used filters were collected from vehicles that came to service stations for air filters replacement as part of the preventive maintenance schedule. The results are used to establish to what extent the air filters replaced during planned maintenance could still be used, if they were replaced too late or at the appropriate time.

The previous research on air filters has shown that they are replaced prematurely before reaching full capacity of utilization, leading to increasing maintenance costs and to reduced engine protection against abrasive wear. Also, the customers play a very important part because beyond the warranty period, they have the last word, making decisions about replacing or not the air filters. In this context, the present research aims to analyze drivers’ perceptions on the air filters maintenance for internal combustion engines. We also investigated drivers’ level of knowledge about the consequences of their decisions regarding air filters maintenance. We conducted a quantitative research, using the survey method based on a questionnaire. Most respondents are aware of the main filters used by cars systems. The best known filter is the fuel filter and the less known is cabin air filter. The most important characteristic in selecting air filters is higher filtering efficiency. When choosing the air filter, the first criterion taken into account by respondents is the recommendations from the maintenance and repair handbook of the car. The main consequence of dust penetration inside the internal combustion engine is the engine's wear. This study is useful both for practitioners and academics.

Automotive engine air filters have numerous shapes best suited for each engine. Most used filter materials are paper fibres (cellulose fibres) and felt (non-weaved fibres). Current maintenance practice for replacement of air filters is indicated by certain distance travelled, by certain number of hours in use, or less common by a specialized transducer indication. The current paper is about experimental research done on Renault K9K 612 engine air filters. Experimental tests were done on a specially built testing stand based that includes the original air intake system from the said engine. This air intake system has a special transducer that measures the air restriction and gives indication for when to be replaced. We measured air restriction produced by new and used OEM air filters, and two types of aftermarket filters and came to the conclusion that the filters were changed prematurely. Also, while the specialized OEM transducer showed a higher value of restriction as a mark to change the filter, the actual air restriction of the used filters shown by our test stand is much lower.

In order to fulfil the latest EU emission standards, the average amount of CO₂ emissions for each vehicle sold has to be reduced to avoid fines for manufacturers. One of the simplest and cheapest ways of hybridization is the belt starter generator (BSG), which makes it suitable for an entry-level range of vehicles. This paper presents a software strategy developed for internal combustion engine (ICE) and belt starter generator (BSG) control on a vehicle equipped with automated manual transmission and also the drivability, comfort and emission performances improvements expected by using this strategy.