Just imagine you’re ready to go somewhere, you get in your car and as soon as you start driving you realize your brakes are making noise.
Now you’re scared imagining whether its brake fails or not. Believe it or not, noises from brakes are not that uncommon. It can be a continuous noise or it can get loud only when you press on those brake pedals.
Today we’ll dive into why we experience these noises and how to solve them so that they don’t stop completely working when we actually need them. Let’s jump in.
Before understanding the reasons let’s talk about all the components so that you don’t feel like an alien when I talk about them.
Brake noises are mainly vibrations of different parts. So, exactly how do brakes work?
Well, there’s a brake rotor and there’s a brake caliper. When you press the brake hard the brake calipers squish the brake rotors and your car eventually stops. And when you take your foot off from the brakes, the calipers release the brake rotors and the car then can move smoothly.
Now here you have to understand something, the distance between a brake caliper and brake rotor is very low, it’s usually in the millimeters.
Let’s talk about the reasons behind noisy brakes.
Worn-Out Brake Pads
The most common one is the worn-out brake pads. There’s a thick braking material but as time goes by, with heavy usage, these braking materials tend to deteriorate and at some point, you’ll see there’s no braking material left at all.
But how do you know whether your braking materials have worn out or not? You won’t be opening your tires every day to check, won’t you?
That’s where an indicator comes out. You see, some of the brake pads, come with an indicator, As soon as braking materials wear out to a certain point the indicators make a squicky noise and that’s when you realize that it’s time to change the brake pads.
Worn-Out Brake Rotors
Brake pads are not the only thing that gets damaged. The brake rotors also tend to get slimmer. Usually, brake rotors get damaged in the middle. Sometimes the edge of the brake rotors gets rusty. Noise can be made from there also. So, if you just clean the rust you should be good to go.
Contamination
Contamination can do a lot more harm to your brakes than you imagine. Maybe you took your car off-roading. Dirt & water get stuck between the brake calipers and rotors. That’s how it gets contaminated.
Also, brake rotors tend to get rusty pretty easily. When you’re buying a new brake rotor, you actually have to clean it first, Because manufacturers leave an oil coating on top of your brake rotors. Most people don’t know this and they install the brake rotors directly.
But Before installing you actually have to clean the rotors with a proper brake parts cleaner. You may want to clean the brake pads also with brake cleaner. One thing you need to keep in mind is that, don’t use much brake cleaner as it will damage the braking material.
Brake Hardware
Brake hardware is something we don’t give much attention to. These are equally important. When your brake pads and brake rotors are rusting out, your brake hardware is also getting damaged.
Btw, You do know what brake hardware is right? It’s the hardware that lets the brake pads slide smoothly. When it gets rusty, brake pads can’t slide smoothly and that’s when noises kick in.
When you’re buying a new piece of brake pads make sure it has brake hardware with it. Whenever you remove the brake rotors make sure you clean the hub as well. Because it doesn’t take that much time and the benefits are immense.
Lubrication
Another reason you hear noise from the brakes is you probably didn’t use proper lubrication in your brakes. Actually, it’s not your fault. Most people don’t know that lubrication is required in brakes. You need to lubricate all the contact points so that the movements get easier.
There are two lubricants you can use while lubricating your brake parts. One is copper anti-seize lubricant and the other is silicone paste lubricant.
There’s also another lubricant which is graphite lubricant but you don’t want to use that, trust me. Because graphite is not that great under pressure. You can literally break graphite into sands but you can’t do the same thing with copper.
Now you may wonder, actually which parts should I lubricate? Well, you can lubricate the areas where brake pads slide inside and outside, you can lubricate the brake hardware and you can use some lubricant on brake pads as well. Don’t overdo it though.
Dust Shield
The last reason is actually a dust shield. The dust shield is basically a thin layer located behind the brake rotors. Dust shield prevents dust from entering into suspension area also it keeps the brake parts dust-free.
But as the shield is so thin itself, Sometimes it tends to bend and touch the brake rotors and that makes noise. You can simply take the brake shield and straighten it up, and the noise should go away.
So, that’s pretty much all the reason for brake noises and some popular solutions for it. Try to keep your brake parts clean and check for any damage every once in a while. You don’t want your brakes to fail in the middle of nowhere just because you didn’t do a proper maintenance check, do you?
