Chevrolet Brake Services: 3 Signs It’s Time for Maintenance

Regular brake servicing is crucial for your driving safety. Brake components slowly wear out due to friction, heat, and pressure, and this reduces your brakes’ effectiveness. As your Chevy dealer, we want to tell you some of the signs you need to visit us for a brake service.

Pulling to One Side

When you hit the brakes, you expect your Chevy to come to a dead stop. If one of the wheels continues to move and even turns your car to one side as it does so, you have a brake problem. This particular problem is caused by one of the brake calipers failing to correctly engage, and this causes its rotor to continue to move until brought to a stop by the other three wheels.

The brake caliper could be jammed or rusted, or there could be a blockage in the brake hose leading to the caliper. Pressurized brake fluid travels down the brake hoses and forces the pins out of the calipers. Once the pins are removed, the calipers automatically close on the wheel rotors. We’ll examine the affected brake and repair the cause of the trouble.

Glazed Brake Pads

Brake pads have a friction-producing material covering. When the calipers close on the wheel rotors, the brake pads inside the calipers generate friction against the smooth rotor surfaces, and the friction brings your wheels to a stop. The calipers withdraw once you remove your foot from the brake, and your wheels will move again.

Glazing occurs when a pad is held against its rotor for an extended period. This can happen if you are riding your brakes, or a damaged caliper might not withdraw when it should, and this keeps the pad in contact with the rotor. Constant contact with the spinning rotor turns a pad’s surface smooth and glass-like. A glazed pad doesn’t produce any friction. Our technicians can easily replace glazed pads to fix this problem.

Brake Fluid Leak

As we’ve seen, brake fluid provides the hydraulic power that enables the brakes to work. In time, natural wear and tear can create a leak in the brake hoses or lines and fluid will be lost. Unlike most other leaking fluids, brake fluid is very difficult to notice, as it is slightly yellowish and looks similar to cooking oil.

You’ll usually only notice a fluid leak due to the reduced pressure in the braking system. If you push down on the brake pedal and feel little resistance, or your brakes take longer than they should to engage, you could have a fluid leak. We’ll investigate and permanently seal any leak. Once the leak is repaired, we’ll refill your brake fluid.

Driving with damaged brakes is dangerous. Visit us today at Jim McKay Chevrolet in Fairfax, VA.

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