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Do You Regularly Check Your Brake Pads & Discs?

Car Brake Disks
Photo by David Zieglgänsberger on Unsplash

The blog this week is about performing regular maintenance check- ups on your Volvo or Toyota. This time we will focus on your Brake Pads & Discs. You risk not being able to stop your Volvo or Toyota, in order to avoid an accident if your brakes fail. Everyone is trying to save money at the moment, interest rates are rising, fuel bills are rising, food costs are soaring, insurance costs are rising etc so when it comes to owning a car, we need all the help we can get to keep costs down. Read on to find out more:

When was the last time that you checked your brake pads and discs? Do you just wait for your annual MOT or your annual service and see what your Local Independent Garage tells you? Your brakes are one of the most important parts on your Volvo or Toyota – without them you will not be able to slow your vehicle down or stop your vehicle, or try and avoid an accident. You risk invalidating your car insurance if your vehicle is found to be unroadworthy – no brakes! Here we will explain how you can check them yourself on a regular basis, along with the warning signs.

How to tell if your brake pads or discs need replacing:

  1. You hear screeching sounds when using your brakes
  2. You can hear a scraping sound
  3. You have vibration through the steering wheel
  4. Your car is pulling to the left or right
  5. Your brake pedal feels spongy

The brake discs are the large silver part that you can see on the inside of your wheel. They are around the size of a dinner plate. Over time they can
deteriorate which will affect your ability to brake. They may deteriorate because of corrosion or pitting. If your brake pads have worn down your discs will be affected. Especially if there is metal on metal contact – you will hear this noise! If there is corrosion or pitting this will reduce the area
of contact thus reducing the amount of friction between the pad and the disc thus reducing the effectiveness of the brakes. As a general rule of thumb, brake discs are designed to last at least 50,000 miles. However, if you are heavy footed on the brakes this will be different, the same applies to your brake pads. For instance, you can cover a lot more miles doing motorway driving and have less brake use than town driving. So regular visual checks are very important. You don’t want to risk damaging your discs with worn pads and be forced to replace both.

The thickness of the brake pads is what you need to check also – over time and use, the thickness will reduce obviously – once the remaining pad is the thickness of the backing plate it is time to change your pads. As a general rule of thumb, they need changing every 40,000 miles – however some people make them last longer. As previously mentioned, if you are heavy footed on your brakes you will find that your pads will need changing more often, motorway driving will need less brake use than town
driving. Please pay attention if you get an advisory on your MOT or at your Volvo or Toyota car service stating pads/discs require changing within
a certain amount of miles – it is because they are coming to an end of their life and really do need changing. Make sure that you carry out this essential work – ignoring it wont make it go away! Preventative maintenance is always going to be cheaper than reactive repairs. Happy Safe Motoring Folks!

Here at ACC UK Ltd, Winners of The Motor Trader Independent Garage of The Year 2015, 2019 & 2020, The IGA Big Awards 2022, The Inspire Customer Service Excellence 2016 Award, The Eagle Radio Customer Focus 2017 Business Award, The Workshop Magazine Workshop Manager of the Year 2017 Award, The LiveWire Excellence In Vehicle Servicing 2019 Award and The Aftermarket Excellence Award for Best Website 2019, The Eagle Radio Biz Award – Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 & the SME News Magazine Most Trusted Car Servicing Provider 2020, we pride ourselves on offering an outstanding customer experience for a fraction of the cost of a dealership. Give us a call and let us quote you for your next service or repair on your Volvo or Toyota. We service all areas around Farnborough, Fleet, Aldershot, Farnham, Guildford, Frimley, Camberley, Hook, Sandhurst, Crowthorne, Yateley, Hampshire and Surrey. We offer free collection and drop off services. We also have a fleet of courtesy cars to allow you to get on with your schedule whilst your Volvo or Toyota is with us. Happy Motoring from all at ACC UK Ltd – Independent Volvo & Toyota servicing, repair and MOT specialists based in the heart of Farnborough, Hampshire