Most people do not consider it important to maintain their brakes. Brakes can save your life and hence it is important to keep them maintained. When you hit the brakes, there are complex parts involved in the action. One such crucial part is brake pads and there are signs when you know you have to change your brake pads, here are those signs:
- When you hear squealing noise- When you are driving, do you hear any faint scrapping or squealing sound and when you hit the brake, it goes away and then you hear it again? Most brake pads come with built-in wear indicators used for emitting the unpleasant screech you hear. However, when the brake pads itself wears downs and reaches a dangerous extent, the indicator located on the top of the pads, scrape against the rotors. This is why you hear the squealing noises and it is your sign to change the brake pads as early as possible.
- It takes more time to bring your car to a halt- This problem has a famous name known as ‘brake fade’. This type of fault with brakes can happen when you drive downhill or winding road, where you keep applying brakes from a long distance but don’t stop your car. This takes on the braking mechanism, heating the parts inside and the friction is reduced, causing a delay to bring your car at halt immediately.
- The brake pedal vibrates on being pressed- Whenever your brake pedal vibrates or shakes violently when being pressed, it is a sign that your brake pads need to be changed. Brake pads are held together with the help of a binding resin. When the brake pads start to wear down, this resin starts to get hot and smear across the rotor. When the pads overheat, they don’t smear evenly across the rotor causing the pedals to vibrate. In mechanic terms, this is called glazing.
- When you press brake, the nose of the car pulls to one side- When your brake pads wear down, it can be only from one side and this may cause your car to turn slightly on one side when you press brakes. This will cause pressure on steering if not taken care of at the right time.
So just make sure you get all the necessary brake parts from trusted companies and Cross Drilled brake pads are the best bet in this regard.