DIY Brakes - Not My Thing!
We Are All Good At "Our Thing"! Hire Brake Experts Who Are Good At Their Thing!
On my way home from work today, my car was making a terrible noise. After contemplating getting rid of it or having it fixed, I decided I would take my first stab at analyzing and fixing my car trouble. The sound was definitely coming from my front wheel, and so I felt I should start there. These are the lessons I learned from my first DIY car repair.
Diagnosing the brake problem
First, I attempted to take off the front wheel. Now, I had injured my wrist earlier in the week, and in my exertion, I nearly stripped the lug nuts trying to turn them with the tire iron. Eventually, I was able to take the front wheel off. Next, I investigated the brakes. The caliper was a challenge since I knew that there hadn’t been any brake service on this car for almost four years. Initially, when I took the outside brake pad off, it looked fine. I ran my hand along the rotor, and it felt smooth.
So, at this point, everything looked fine. But then the inside brake pad or what little was left of it fell out from behind the rotor. With no evidence of a pad on this piece of rust, I decided to check the back of the rotor. It felt jagged and rough and was clear to see that this was the source of my vehicle's noisy “wheel” problem.
I proceeded to remove the rotor but hurt myself more while doing so. Struggling with one bolt, I slammed the back of my arm into my fender, leaving a nice bruise. When I finally had the rotor in my hand, I saw the back—rusty, ugly, and damaged.
Out of sight
So why do I share this? Sometimes when we drive our cars, the feel and the sounds of the car convince us that our car is in pretty good shape. But this should remind us to look beyond the shiny outside or at the pieces of the car that are easy to reach. Pulling apart the internal parts of a broken module or finding what has been missed in the routine maintenance log in the owner's manual, can be quite illustrative as to the actual value of the car that you are driving.
Don’t ignore problems
A car is a machine that requires regular maintenance or it could cost you your life. What would happen if I ignored the sound and lost all brake power on the highway or on a narrow road? I could try to use the emergency brake, but would that guarantee my protection from an accident if I was moving at 60 miles an hour? If I had ignored the sound my brakes were making, would I not have lacked wisdom?
Don't be afraid to get the help you need
Car repair takes education, hard work, diligent attention to detail, and sometimes a few bruises and scrapes. It is worth it to have a car that is finely tuned and adjusted both inside and out. I have also learned a lot about the complexity of the brake systems, and that there are many parts of a brake system that act together to cause a car to slow down and stop efficiently. But, all my fruitless exertions caused me to realized that at some point, it made more sense to work with a professional brake shop in my town. I found
Ann Arbor Auto Brake Repair shop and found them to be caring, courteous, and respectful, as well as helpful in my time of need. I could not have found a better team to help my car get back on the road again.
