One of the fastest ways to gauge how severe your brake problems are is to lend your ear to your brakes and know the different types of noises they could make. They could end up rattling or grinding, among other things.
Brakes are one of the most essential systems in our car, so you should pay attention when it comes to it exhibiting unusual braking behaviors. It could cost you your life if you ignore the warning signs and bad sounds coming from your brakes.
Get your brakes fixed now instead of later where it's more expensive or deadlier, like your brakes failing in the highway.
Listening For The Different Brake Noises
- Rattle: Are your brakes displaying a rattling sound whenever you let up off of your brake pedal? This is actually a common concern. It typically sounds like shaking a can of spray paint. If you hear rattling from your brakes, it's usually caused by noisy brake pads and that's perfectly fine. Due to heat expansion, your pads might rattle from time to time. This is especially true if they lack anti-rattle shims to keep such noises down. Have your brakes checked all the same.
- Grinding: If your brakes are grinding then that's a serious problem and should be dealt with post-haste. The two major causes of brake grinding are contact of the rotor disc with part of the caliper and the presence of a foreign object lodged somewhere in the caliper. Either way, you want to get that fixed to keep the grinding from continuing or else you might end up replacing the rotor disc, the caliper, or both.
- Fade: As for brake fade, this is a condition that happens whenever your brakes become overheated. As a result, they don't function as well as you'd like. If you're braking more often than necessary, such as going down a long hill, fade can happen. The brake fade effect can get accompanied by grinding sounds. When experiencing brake fade, the pedal needs extra effort to get normal stopping power. You can use engine braking techniques like low gear functions to prevent brake fade.
- Conclusion: Have your mechanic check your brakes if you believe that there is something wrong with them. Don't be stingy with your money when it comes to brakes maintenance. It's better to be safe than to be sorry, after all. Don't let the irregularities with your vehicle last for too long or wave off funny noises as nothing in light of the potential brake failures they could be symptoms of. Have the mechanic do hydraulic checks and pressure checks to ensure that everything is on the up and up.