Regularly maintaining your car is a great way to get the best out of it for as long as possible. At Boucher Auto Group, we are happy to offer quality brake services and general maintenance for your vehicle. Making sure your brakes are ready for the road is one of the most important things you can do as a driver. Don’t wait to hear them screech every time you stop at a red light, come down to Boucher Auto Group today and let us change them for you.
Some signs are easier to pick up on than others when you’re looking to service your brakes. If your brake light comes on, for example, you should know that it’s time to head to the shop to get it checked out. A brake light that comes on is a great indicator that there could be something wrong with your brakes. It could be time for regular maintenance, or there could be a larger issue with them.
No matter why your brake light is on, bringing it to Boucher Auto Group so we can check it out is always a good idea. Another common indicator that it’s time to get your brakes checked out is any potential noises you may hear while driving. While no car is entirely soundless, your brakes shouldn’t be grinding, screeching, or squealing when you use them.
If they are, it’s probably time to bring your car in. Screeching and squealing noises aren’t always significant and can just be the result of having something lodged in your brakes. Grinding noises, however, might be more serious as they can come from your brake pads scraping on metal points within the car itself.
Another common reason to get your brakes checked out is if your steering wheel moves while you drive. If your steering wheel wobbles or shakes while you brake, you could have a problem. Brake rotors are a key part of your braking system and if they become uneven, you’ll feel it at every stop. If your brake rotors become uneven and you don’t get ahead of the problem, it could get much worse over time.
Modern vehicles have a couple of main types of brakes they use. The most common braking system found in cars is the hydraulic brake. The hydraulic braking system uses hydraulics and braking fluid to slow your vehicle down gradually, creating a safe and reliable braking experience. Hydraulic brakes either come in the form of drum brakes or disc brakes. Drum brakes use brake shoes pushed by hydraulic power to slow the car down.
Disc brakes, on the other hand, divert their power to brake pads that squeeze a rotor to stop it from spinning. This method also slows your car down reliably and has been one of the most popular for the past 70 years. Anti-lock brakes are another popular braking system in the hydraulic brake family. They’re a little different than drum or disc brakes because they’re meant to be used during an emergency. If your car’s brakes lock up, the ABS (anti-lock braking system) will be there to stop them.
Hybrid and electric vehicles not only have their own engines, but they also have their own form of braking. Regenerative brakes are completely different from their disc, drum, and ABS counterparts in that they can add battery life back to the car. Regenerative brakes work by taking the unused kinetic energy the car displaces when it brakes and adding it back into the fuel tank, creating an efficient braking system.
When you get your brakes serviced, you experience a ton of great benefits. Getting new brakes means getting rid of old problems. Old brakes can accumulate a lot of issues after years of use. Overheated and overused brakes can produce noxious smells that can make it gross to drive. By changing your brakes, you can get a fresh set of car parts that’ll make you feel like you’re driving a new car.
Getting your brakes serviced means getting ahead of any potential problems that might arise from using old brakes. While we listed some problems above, there are even more issues that can come up by using bad brakes. Cars can drift to one side if they continue to use faulty brakes too often. You can also avoid having a soft brake pedal that offers no resistance. Soft brake pedals can be the result of air or moisture in the brake system.
Boucher Auto Group conducts thorough inspections of your entire braking system during your appointment. When you come in to get your brakes serviced, you can expect the best. We start by inspecting your brake system, checking out the pads or shoes, checking fluid levels, and seeing what type of service we can perform. We also inspect the rotor, calipers, and caliper mounts to see if there is any unevenness.
Before you leave, we’ll also check to see if your car has any unwanted noise coming from the brake system. Once your brake maintenance is over, you can hit the road in a car that feels as good as new.
At Boucher Auto Group, we’re happy to have a team of highly trained technicians who have what it takes to get the job done right the first time. Whether you have an old truck with disc brakes, a used sedan with drum brakes, or a new electric vehicle with regenerative brakes, Boucher Auto Group can diagnose and fix your problem in no time.
We’ll check every nook and cranny during your brake maintenance so you don’t have to come back twice. Give us a call or come down in person today and see what our technicians can do for you.
