Oh No! I Forgot About Brake Repair

Putting off your car’s brake repair is not the same as procrastinating about cleaning your house or buying milk. A person can live with a messy house and can drink water instead of chugging milk but having faulty brakes can be disastrous and even life threatening. Brakes are among the most important aspects of automotive machinery. If a vehicle can’t stop, everyone in the car and on the road nearby is put at great danger. Even the pedestrians and houses on the street are in the line of fire when a vehicle careens down the road without the ability to stop. Think it’s no big deal to just keep putting this maintenance task on the “to do” list rather than the “done” list? Think again. Here are some examples of what can happen.

Brakes don’t work when they’re pressed: This is an urgent circumstance that could happen. Emergency brakes might work if a driver pulls the lever, but there’s no guarantee. Pumping the devices might work if there’s enough fluid and pressure left to create one last stopping reaction. Downshifting might be an option if the car is a stick shift. The only other option is to pull off the street onto hopefully deserted terrain and waiting till it finally halts on its own. Oh, and to pray, promising the powers-that-be that you’ll clean up your procrastinating ways for not getting brake repair.

Slick surface lock up: After a rainstorm, streets can be slippery slick. In urban areas with high pollution, this is even truer as moisture mixed with smog turns the road surfaces to butter. Inclement winter weather and ice storms can provide an experience in automotive ice skating. Anti-lock braking systems were designed to curtail this careening potential. Unfortunately, if a procrastinator has put off the brake repair servicing for way too long, the systems might not work.

Vacation time snafus: Finally, two weeks' vacation! You and the family are heading into the mountains with your camping gear and boat. Toting a boat adds lots of extra weight to your auto and becomes a struggle to halt on a dime. Driving up and down hilly terrain is another tough task to ask of a car’s halting system. If you and the family want to make it there and back in one piece, have the auto serviced before heading out on the open road.

Truck bed overload: Have you decided to fill up your truck with a load of gravel in order to beautify your landscaping? Better check the payload of your vehicle to make sure it can handle all that rock. It might not look so heavy, but it is. It takes a lot of strength to halt a truck loaded to the hilt. One with faulty brakes is a smash-up waiting to happen. Pulling into the driveway with a heavy load and bad braking systems can result in being unable to stop in the driveway. You may accidentally bring a ton of landscaping rock into your backyard by driving through your garage. 

Don’t procrastinate about brake repair needs. Without appropriate halting devices, you may lose control of your vehicle on the road, slip and slide on slick surfaces, ruin your vacation and crash through your own garage.