Your CR-V or Insight’s brakes can be an intimidating thing – they’re dirty, often hot, and largely hidden behind the wheel. Unlike oil changes, too, they’re largely overlooked when it comes to routine maintenance. Hondas are lauded for their dependability, but brakes are a consumable component on your car just like gas and oil. It’s not if you’ll have to replace your brake, but just a matter of when.
The braking system is arguably the most important part of your car, yet since they’re often not considered part of routine maintenance, it’s not uncommon for drivers to be unaware of the symptoms to look for when spotting a failing brake system.
The first is easy – do your brakes…work? Do you have to plan ahead for a longer stopping distance when approaching a red light? If someone cut you off, are you confident you would be able to stop or slow down without hitting them? If no, then your brake pads may be worn out, your hydraulic brake fluid may be low or old, or both. Worn out pads don’t grip your rotors (the silver disks inside your wheels) well, causing you to have reduced braking power. Old, dirty, low, and/or worn out hydraulic brake fluid creates less pressure on the pads when you press the brake pedal, too, and results in the same weak braking system.
While brake pads themselves are just one component of your braking system, another common failure symptom in any car is a screeching or grinding sound when you press the brake pedal. The screeching comes from a small piece of metal embedded into the back of the brake pads themselves. When your brakes are new, this piece of metal is covered with enough brake pad material to keep it from coming in contact with your rotors. However, after around 60,000 miles of driving (or less if you drive aggressively), the majority of the brake pad will have worn away and exposed this metal strip. This is by design. The screeching sound you hear is the metal rotor making contact with the metal strip in the brake pads. Don’t panic – your car has not broken. It is merely announcing you’ve worn through most of your brake pad material and it is time to visit a service center for new pads.
Grinding, however, is a different and more urgent story. If you are experiencing this you likely have either ignored the screeching mentioned above for far too long, or you have a piece of road debris stuck between your pads and rotors. Neither of these are good, and neglecting them will only cause damage to your vehicle (and thus otherwise unnecessary expensive repairs).
Lastly, does your steering wheel wobble while braking? This is likely a symptom your rotors are warped and need replacing. What causes a warped rotor, you say? In short, heat. Prolonged braking (think riding the brake pedal when going downhill) or excessive, aggressive braking creates a lot of friction between your pads and rotors. Friction creates heat, and when the rotors heat up more than they’re designed to, they become weaker and start to change shape. A good braking system presses smooth brake pads across a flat, smooth rotor. If your steering wheel is wobbling under braking pressure, you’re likely feeling the vibration of your brake pads surfing over a wavy, warped rotor being transferred through your steering column to your hands.
Automotive work puts a lot of people on edge. If you don’t understand what the symptoms mean, it’s hard to tell if a shop is taking advantage of you. At M & R Automotive we’re happy to publish these articles and show you in person what your car needs so you are both educated and know you’re being treated fairly. If you experience any of these braking symptoms, please come back to this website or give us a call.
