A daily drive within city to your home, office and regular activities requires the most efficient braking system for your vehicle. The braking system is usually has a lot of metals, plastics, asbestos and many other materials clanking back and forth which requires the most attention possible. The braking system and brake pads are very important and could become a leading cause for many accidents and deaths further damaging other auto spare parts as well. The wear and tear of braking system may happen gradually but if the right attention is not paid at the right time, the parts will end up deteriorating much faster before major damages. There are always obvious signs of when your brakes needs to be changed such as a physical depress of the brake pedel or obvious noises from the wheels when being driven around.
The most obvious noise comes from an intelligent technique of brake pad wearing out indicator. Usually when you buy brake pads, there is always a small metal clinging on the side of the brake pad and pointing outwards. When brakes are almost ¾ used up, the indicator comes into play and starts giving early warning signs that brakes needs to be replaced soon. This indicator is the one hitting and touching the wheel rotor of the brake drums. If urgent attention is not paid, it might damage the brake rotor completely. Even though the indicator after a presumable amount of time wears and falls off, you might feel the brakes are normal but which is not the case. These days, there are so many OEM brake pads and aftermarket brake pads that hardly even comes with that indicator at all which also comprises of bad quality of brake pads. These must be avoided and hence genuine brake pads are always recommended. The brake rotors usually doesn’t require much change or replacement but an obvious sign for replacement would be if you can feel the steering wheel wobbling around the hands when driving around in normal road conditions.
Many garages not have options of turning or shaving off the excess eaten away brake rotors if required. These are an easiest way to ensure new brake pads are much more efficiently used compared to older brake pads. Most of the new models being launched these days comes be default with much more aerated and thinner brake rotors which are lighter than older models. These rotors eat away much less brake pads while preserving your fuel economy at the same time.
Top Ten Signs of Brake Wear:
1. High pitched squealing
2. Vibration in the steering wheel when stopping
3. Grinding noises when stopping
4. Increased braking distances
5. Longer pedal travel
6. Feeling the car “pull” to the left or right when stopping
7. A weak emergency brake
8. A bad smell after coming to a hard stop
9. Pedal “fade”
10. Not stopping