Brake Repair Service is Important
Are you ignoring the squealing sound when you stop your car? Do you continue to ignore the growing noise? Pretending it’s nothing will only increase Brake Repair Service costs. And beyond the repair costs, your ability to stop in time to avoid a collision is seriously degraded.
It’s hard to argue any part of your car is more crucial to your safety than your car’s brakes. For that reason, it’s vitally important to have them inspected regularly to avoid unnecessary costs with brake repair service.
Driving conditions can impact both brake repair cost and the need for brakes replacement. Traveling routinely at high speeds requires more energy on your brakes to come to a stop. If you are a city dweller dealing with a lot of daily stop and go traffic, you can also expect more wear on your car’s brakes.
A number of braking systems have been invented, but all work by friction. The two systems used in modern-day vehicles are drum brakes and disc brakes, each with a few variations.
Drum Brakes consist primarily of the following:
- brake drum
- shoe pivots
- brake shoe with pad
- return spring
- actuator
Disc Brakes consist primarily of the following:
- disc or rotor
- brake caliper assemblies
- caliper assembly hydraulic pistons
- float buttons (floating rotor brakes only)
Disc brakes are better at slowing your car than drum brakes, making them more widely used today. The drawback to disc brakes, however, is they are extremely sensitive to even the smallest quality defect or wear, causing very jerky braking. Floating rotor brakes were developed to eliminate this problem.
Brakes work by converting kinetic energy of your car’s motion to thermal energy when shoes or pads push against the drum or rotor, causing friction. Cooling of your brakes then slows your car as the heat disperses. If your brakes get too hot because you are continually applying them down a steep slope, you can experience brake weakness or fade, since the rotors or drums don’t have the chance to cool. The pads heat up instead, causing a vapor to form that hinders contact between the pad and rotor, eliminating necessary friction. Wet brakes can also cause some vehicles to brake differently, so use caution and test the reaction of your brakes under such conditions.
A number of factors, including driving habits and vehicle model, determine how often brake repair service is required. Remember these tips: check your owner’s manual for recommendations on the optimal brake maintenance schedule for your , but always have your brakes inspected at the first indication of wear. If you have a brake performance check every time you change oil, you can stay on top of any braking problem, helping to limit brake repair costs and reduce frequent brakes replacement. With proper maintenance, rotors should last through several sets of brake pad replacement. If neglected, you face costly rotor replacement too frequently.
