PURPOSE: To enable the temperature and the lining thickness of a brake to be detected by assembling plural connected resistances in parallel respectively with a brake shoe as a stepped wire loop to constitute a lining thickness/ temperature sensor.

CONSTITUTION: This lining thickness/temperature sensor to generate braking force by pressing against the inner face of a brake drum has plural connected resistances R1-Rn in parallel whose connection lines are constituted as a stepped wire group 15. Since the synthetic resistance of the parallel circuit changes when the wire loops are broken in order by friction of the lining upon braking, the changes are detected as voltage changes by an electronic evaluation device 2. The voltages are sampled at fixed time intervals and converted into digital values by an A/D convertor and outputted.