Your car’s brakes can be louder than usual for a lot of reasons. This list from MotivWerks is just a few of the more common causes of brake noise that you might experience throughout the life of your car’s brakes.
Glazing on the Brake Pads
Glazing is a hard, smooth condition caused on the surface of the brake pad after the pads get overheated. That can happen for a variety of different reasons, but when it does, that glazing rubs against the rotors and creates a squealing noise as it breaks down. If there’s a lot of glazing, you’ll hear noise until it wears completely away and that might take a little while. Pushing your brakes too hard causes more glazing, which can make your brakes noisier all around.
Worn Out Brake Pads
As your brake pads wear down, they’ll eventually get to something called the wear tabs. These are small pieces that are designed to make noise as your pads wear down to that level. The idea is that you’ll hear that noise and take your brakes in to get them inspected. That’s when you’ll find that your brake pads have worn down and need replacing. Manufacturers put those tabs in place so that you’ll take action before your brakes are in danger of not working because the pad is too worn.
Damaged Brake Parts
If there’s damage in some of the other parts of your car’s brakes, like to the rotors or calipers, you may also hear some strange noises coming from your brakes. These can vary, ranging from clunking sounds to grinding or whirring noises depending on what exactly isn’t working properly. A thorough brake inspection will help you to understand exactly what is going on with your car’s brakes.
Water on or Around the Brake Parts
Your car’s brakes are made up of a lot of exposed metal parts and when those parts get wet, like when it’s rainy out or there’s a lot of moisture in the air, they can start to build up tiny layers of rust. Much like glazing, that rust is pretty noisy as it grinds off via friction from using your car’s brakes. This type of noise should be fairly temporary, though, wearing off the first few times you use your brakes again.
Your brake noises don’t need to be a mystery. Give us a call at MotivWerks in Chambersburg, PA today and we’ll set up an appointment to inspect your brakes for you.