Three Threats To Brakes You Can Avoid

Do you know how brake damages occur? Many things that can damage the brakes, but most of them are things you can avoid. Here are three examples of such avoidable threats to your brakes:

Using Oversized Wheels

Big wheels are bad for your brakes. Brakes stop the wheels from spinning by creating enormous friction between themselves and the wheel. Each braking system is designed to deliver a specific stopping-force (friction) to stop a specific moving force.

When you install larger wheels than your car was designed to handle, you increase the moving force of your car's wheels. This is because bigger wheels are heavier than smaller wheels. Your brakes may be overwhelmed by the increased force, which may make them overheat or wear out faster than usual. Such wheels are also dangerous because they may take longer to stop spinning when you brake.

Heating the Brakes

Different things can heat up your brakes. For example, your brakes heat up (minimally) whenever you use them. However, continuous use of the brakes, for example if you are using them to slow down instead of using the transmission, can heat up the brakes to dangerous levels. Your brakes can also heat up considerably if they are damaged, for example, if the pads are constantly grinding on the rotors.

Whatever is heating up your brakes, it risks causing serious damage to the brake system. For example, superheated discs may warp, which interferes with the contact between them and the pads. Also, the high temperatures vaporize the friction materials on the brake pads, which reduce the friction between them and the rotors. This effectively reduces your braking efficiency. The short-term solution is to stop the car and let the brakes cool down; the long-term solution is to diagnose and fix the cause of the overheating.

Overloading the Car

Overloading the car isn't just bad for your fuel efficiency, it's also bad for your brakes. This increased weight means the brake pads have to press down harder than usual to stop the car. This not only wears the brakes faster, but it can also lead to overheating, which damages the brakes further and also makes braking difficult. Therefore, get rid of all those unnecessary loads from your car.

Your brakes are some of the most important parts of your car; take care of them well for the safety of every road user. For more information, visit http://petesservice.com/ or a similar website.