Good brakes are essential for keeping you, your Chevy, and other drivers and pedestrians safe. Brakes can suffer wear and tear over time, and at some point, you will need a brake repair. As your Chevy dealer in Porterville, CA, we can easily repair them for you. These are a few signs that you’re having a brake problem that needs to be checked out.
Screeching Brakes
When you apply the brakes, brake fluid is forced into the brake hoses. This fluid is under pressure, and it exerts a hydraulic force on the calipers that sit above your wheel rotors. This pressure forces the pins out of the calipers, and they close on either side of each of the wheel rotors. A brake pad is attached to each caliper, and they provide the friction that brings the rotors to a stop.
The friction material on the brake pads gradually wears off as they work. When a pad has worn down and needs to be replaced, a piece of metal in the pad will scratch against the wheel rotor when you apply the brakes. The resulting screech is an obvious sign that at least one pad needs to be replaced. This piece of metal doesn’t cause any damage to the rotors; it just makes a terrible noise.
Grinding Brakes
If the pads aren’t replaced when they start to screech, the friction material will continue to wear off, and they will continue to screech. Once the material has completely worn off, the metal of the brake pads will connect with the metal of the rotors when you apply the brakes. The result is a horrible grinding sound as the pads gouge into the rotor surface.
Driving with grinding brakes will cause serious damage to your rotors. The grooves cut into the surface of the rotors will make applying the brakes more difficult due to the uneven rotor surface. If the damage is particularly severe, you may need to have the rotors resurfaced.
Pulling to One Side
When your brakes are working correctly, your car will stop when you apply them. If your brakes are damaged, your car may pull to one side when you step on the brakes. This is caused by the brakes on one side of your car working and the brakes on the other side failing to work at all. This situation is the result of a damaged caliper or a fault with the brake fluid supply.
The caliper on one side of your car may have jammed. This means it won’t slide out as it should, and the caliper on that side of the car won’t engage. Air in the brake hose can block the flow of brake fluid and prevent the caliper from engaging. In either case, your car will swing towards the side that has a working brake.
If your brakes aren’t working as they should, call us immediately at Merle Stone Chevrolet, and we’ll repair them.
Image from Pixabay.com
Connect with us
