Brake servicing in kwik kar Lewisville is one of those routine maintenance chores you just cannot ignore. Brake parts have a life span and they do need to be regularly serviced and sometimes replaced to work properly.
Fortunately, your car or truck usually gives you some clear signals that your brakes are due. Sometimes they’re harmless noises that don’t require repairs or have simple fixes. Other times not.
Your brakes are one of the most important safety components in your vehicle. So if you notice any of the following common warning signs of brake issues, it’s time to get a professional to check your car, truck, or SUV pronto. You’ll drive safer and head off more expensive damage.
Brake Light Alert on the Dashboard
The most obvious sign of brake trouble is a warning light on the dashboard, which you should never ignore. The brake system has two warning lights, including the handbrake light (red) and ABS light (orange), and either one of these (or both at the same time) could be a sign that there’s a brake issue.
When you see a brake warning light, check that the handbrake is off and that the tires aren’t kidding. If this isn’t the case, you should pull over immediately and call for assistance.
Grinding Sound Under Braking
Do the brakes make a grinding sound and can you feel it in the pedal? This could be something simple and easily fixable, like a loose stone caught in the caliper, or something more serious, such as worn brake pads or a build-up of rust around the brake shoes or drum surface of rear drum brakes.
In either case, it’s better if you take the car to a mechanic, who will be able to diagnose the problem more easily and get it fixed for you straight away.
Squealing, Squeaking or Grinding Noises
Hearing a Metallic Squeal While You’re in Motion?
If you start hearing a high-pitched noise that stops when you apply the brakes that’s likely the sound of the brake pad wear indicators. They’re made of steel so they make this sound when they start contacting the rotor.
They’re letting you know that your pads are worn out and need to be replaced before you get rotor damage, which can be an expensive fix.
Grinding Sound When Brakes Are Applied?
Grinding that you also feel in the pedal could mean several things. There could just be some gravel or a rock caught in the caliper unit, easily remedied.
But you may have gone too long without brake servicing. The brake pads may be worn through, and you’re hearing metal on metal that could be creating grooves in the brake rotor. Not good.
Grinding could also be an indicator of a lack of lubrication in vehicles with rear drum brakes. The brake shoe (the component that presses on the rotor to slow the vehicle) could be scraping on metal contact points like the backing plate, due to rust.
If you hear any of these sounds, get your brakes looked at right away to head off more expensive problems.
Vibration or Wobbling Feel
One of the most common brake problems is vibration in the steering wheel or a wobbling sensation when you apply the brake pedal. This happens when the brake rotor comes out of alignment with the wheel itself, causing the wheels to track ‘untrue’ with the road. It can also be a sign that the calipers in the front brakes aren’t detaching themselves properly from the rotor when you lift your foot off the pedal, due to rust or a build-up of debris.
While brake vibration shouldn’t affect the system’s efficiency, it’s something you should get fixed sooner rather than later. Vibrations could be a sign of a more serious underlying problem and may cause premature wear of brake components, leading to higher repair costs.
Wobbling, Vibration or Scraping When Braking
Shaking in the steering wheel or vibration when you apply the brakes may be the result of an uneven rotor.
Brake rotors are big discs that sit inside of the wheels. When you hit the brake pedal, the brake pads hug the rotors, slowing them and your vehicle. You want rotors to be smooth and completely even in thickness.
Over time and thousands of wheel revolutions, it’s normal for the rotor surface to get slight variations. Rust can also sometimes develop. During brake servicing, the face of the rotor is often trued (smoothed and evened out) to correct these flaws.
This work has to be done exactly to your vehicle’s specifications. The tiniest differences in disc thickness — we’re talking thousandths of an inch, about three sheets of paper in width — can cause a wobbly feeling when you brake.
An uneven rotor surface may also cause the rotor to hit one of the brake pads as it spins, causing some of the pad material to transfer onto the rotor in that spot. Then you’ll feel shaking when braking, as the pad hits that bump in the rotor.
Another possible cause of rough braking is the brake caliper not releasing properly. The job of a brake caliper is to squeeze the brake pads against your brake rotors, which slows your vehicle down. It’s the motion of the piston inside the caliper unit that causes this contact.
Due to wear from heat or road debris, the piston can get sticky. It may not retract the pads back into the full “off” position when you let up on the brake pedal.
The fourth cause of bumpy braking could be damage to your brake components from improper wheel lug nut installation. (The lug nuts are the big bolts that clamp your tire and wheel onto the hub of your car.)
Any time tires are removed, the lug nuts must be put back on in the right order, evenly, at just the right tightness (torque). It has to be done in a star pattern, with just the right pressure. If not, you’ll get uneven, premature rotor wear and be back for service sooner rather than later.
Leaking Fluid
If you’re experiencing a soft brake pedal, have a service technician look for fluid leaking from the master cylinder or elsewhere in the brake system.
The master cylinder is the unit that creates the power for your brakes. It has a reservoir like the one for your wiper fluid that contains brake fluid.
When you apply the brakes, this fluid is pushed through thin piping, creating hydraulic pressure. If the fluid is leaking from this system, there may not be enough power to force the brake pads to clamp hard to the rotors.
Often, you may only notice this problem when braking hard, with the car behaving normally at lower speeds. It’s still a good idea to get it fixed, however, as brake pull could be enough to cause an accident. It can also lead to premature component damage and may cause the brake pads to wear unevenly.
