You bought your car, truck or minivan to help you get places faster. Equally important, when driving potentially-lethal vehicles like these, is the ability to STOP when you must. Doing one without being able to reliably do the other is asking for serious consequences.

Brake Inspection Intervals

When it comes to advising you how often to have your brakes checked, there is no quick or easy, one-size-fits-all answer. If you’re a lead-footed driver or a city-dweller, you’ll obviously be using your brakes a lot more often, with greater force, than if you’re on a less-traveled rural highway just poking along. Drive 8,000 miles a year in Corvallis and you’ll have to inspect and repair your brakes more often than would a rural driver going the same distance.

Listen to Your Brakes

If you’re having your tires rotated every 6K miles or six months (as recommended), that’s a great time to have your brakes looked at, too. It takes just moments for our trained auto mechanics to inspect pad thickness and brake hardware while the tires are off.

Lots of vehicles these days are outfitted with brake wear sensors. When brakes reach the end of their lifecycle in these vehicles then you’ll hear screeching when you brake or as you release your brakes (depending on the vehicle), indicating it’s time for a break repair!

But because not every make and model features wear sensors, you need to listen for squeaks and squeals. Grinding noises often mean that your brake pads are completely worn away and you’re hearing metal on metal—never a good thing!

Other signs of required brake repair are brake pedal pulsations, increased stopping distances, and a brake pedal that stops closer to the floor than it did when your brakes were good.

Trust G&J’s: We Know Brakes

Because brakes don’t go from great to ghastly overnight, it isn’t always easy to discern when yours have reaching the point where they can fail and cause you and others harm. That’s why it’s crucial to have one of G&J’s mechanics inspect your brakes as often as we rotate your tires—and again, that should be every 6,000 miles or six months, whichever comes first.

The AAA-approved, ASE- certified master mechanics here at G&J’s are happy to inspect, resurface and turn your rotors and calipers as needed to make sure your brakes don’t let you down—call today. What’s stopping you? (541) 752-3445