Additionally, if you've made any upgrades to your car or truck that affect the wheels or the overall weight of the vehicle, the way the vehicle is being used, or added towing or increased payload, it's time to change the brake system components to match. Replacing your brake pads and rotors with new, high performance products is the best way to guarantee your safety as you head out on the road!
CLOSE 0. Hawk Performance. Factors that contribute to rotor wear and tear include, but are not limited to: Quality standards: The materials and quality control standards implemented by the manufacturer during the brake rotor construction, treating, and distribution processes. Physical characteristics of the brake rotors: Solid, drilled, slotted, or vented affects heat dissipation capacities differently.
Quality of the brake pads: Interacting with cheap, hard pads or pads not properly installed will cause damage. Driving style and environment: City, mountain, or aggressive driving, and extreme environments think desert heat or frigid winter cold all cause quicker wear rates for rotors. Car weight: The heavier the car or the more upgrades or modifications added to a vehicle, the more quickly rotors and pads wear down. Axle position: The front axle usually bears more weight than the rear, as well as typically forward bias proportioning.
How Do Brake Rotors Operate? The driver wants to stop the car, and depresses the brake pedal. A plunger in the master cylinder forces brake fluid out of the reservoir.
Through rigid brake lines, the fluid flows to the wheels. Flexible brake lines then carry the fluid into calipers. The fluid pressure pushes out the brake pistons in the calipers.
The pistons press on the backing plate of the brake pads. A brake rotor is a heavy metal disc not a rock and roll album from the eighties, an actual metal disc attached to each wheel. When you step on the brake pedal, a pump the master cylinder exerts hydraulic pressure through the brake fluid in a series of tubes.
These tubes brake lines lead to clamping mechanisms called brake calipers that suspend a pair of brake pads along the sides of each rotor. Force applied through the calipers causes the brake pads to squeeze the rotors.
When the pads and rotors make contact, friction increases and causes heat that is used to slow and stop your vehicle on the nerdy side, the kinetic energy of your vehicle-in-motion is converted to thermal energy that eventually reduces the motion to zero. Picture this: You hold in your hand a slice of bologna a disc sandwiched between two slices of bread pads. If that bologna disc was spinning and you squeezed the bread with your caliper hand , the friction would cause the bologna to stop spinning.
If there was a wheel attached to that bologna… oh, nevermind! Forget that analogy. You can probably get a better picture from observing the way a bicycle hand brake works, or how a person in a wheelchair might squeeze the wheels to slow down.
When you think of routine maintenance for your car, you might envision changing the oil and oil filter, maybe the engine air filter, possibly a tire rotation, even brake pad replacement. After all, brake pads are meant to wear down. But the rotors? Why do those need attention? Well, for a number of reasons. Rotor Thickness Brake pads contain a sacrificial friction material that wears away with use. Rotors do not. But they still wear down over time.
Back in the day when heavy metal hair bands were a thing , most original equipment rotors were designed with enough thickness to last quite a long time. But today, in order to save weight for fuel economy, OEMs make rotors that are thinner and lighter. Consequently, those thinner rotors wear down to their minimum thickness specifications in many cases by the first time the brake pads need to be replaced.
Minimum brake rotor thickness is an important factor for safe braking. As your rotors wear and get thinner, they also lose mass - mass needed to absorb and dissipate heat. The strength of the rotor is also affected when it gets too thin and it could fail. This surface ensures good contact with the brake pads. As they wear, however, rotors can become heavily scored and grooved and that contact can be impaired. The surest sign that something is wrong with the braking system is its overall performance.
This depends on the wear and tear on the rotor. However, if the damage is too severe, or the warping is too great, then a replacement will be required. Does this help explain the strange V. E you're getting from your car? If so, it's time for a free brake inspection at your local Firestone Complete Auto Care. During your brake check, we'll determine if your vehicle needs any further brake service or repair and if so, talk to you about next steps. Soft brakes make safe driving hard.
Find out how to tell if your brakes are "soft" and what could be behind this change in braking performance. Blog Categories Blog Home. V ibrating Steering Wheel If you feel pulsing in the brake pedal and vibration in the steering wheel when you slow down, your rotors could be signaling trouble.
I ntermittent Screeching If you ask us, intermittent screeching when you brake is worse than nails on a chalkboard. E xcessive Wear Over Time Like most pieces and parts in your car, brake rotors wear out over time.
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