The brake pads can start to wear over time. Your carโs braking system can be solely responsible for your condition in an unfortunate occurrence of a collision. After your reaction time, your braking system can make the difference on whether an unfortunate event results in a fatality or minor injuries. Below are the most common instances that scream brake pad replacement, or an overall braking system inspection and maintenance. The first and most obvious sign includes the wearing out of the brake pads.
Wearing Out of the Brake Pads
The brake pads consist of a metal plate and attached to it is ceramic padding. This padding can also compose of semi-metallic material or carbon fiber. These plates act as calipers that tend to grab on the rotors when you apply pressure on the brake pedal. By doing so, the brake pads manage to prevent the rotors from spinning and as a result, this stops the vehicle.
As time goes on, and you apply the brakes excessively, the padding on the brake pads tends to lose surface area in regards to width. When this happens, you are likely to hear a noise when you apply the brakes. To test whether your braking pads are still in good health, check whether the padding is starting to get close to the metallic base at the back.
When the pad material wears so thin that it scratches through to the metal backing, then you hear the horrible noises when you hit the brake. This noise occurs because the metal in the brake pads starts to grind with the metal in the rotor. This grinding of one metal against the other results in a screeching noise that can be alarming to the driver.
Indicators
Some brake pads have small metal squealers popping out from one end that act as indicators. These squealers make sure that you hear the noise before the brake pad completely wears out and damages the rotors.
At a certain thickness of the padding, the indicators or squealers start touching the rotors when you hit the brakes and making a noise. This design of them alarms you about the potential threat of damage before it gets worse so that you can perform a timely replacement of the brake pads.
The optimum thickness of the pads padding is a quarter of an inch. If you notice that the padding is lower than a quarter of an inch, then get to the technician for replacement. Checking the braking pads is easy, just a glance in between your wheel gaps will make them visible, and if they have signs of wear, then it will likely be very noticeable. Like all components in the car, the brake pads will suffer from wear as time goes on. Make sure that you are consistent with brake pad maintenance, along with brake fluid checks and all that surrounds it