Your brakes are extremely important. Having good brakes just keeps you out of trouble. You’ll want to carefully maintain your brakes. With disc brakes, brake pads rub on a disc – or rotor – to slow the wheels. The pads are attached to a caliper that squeezes the pads against the rotor. It’s kind of like how squeezing the handbrake on a bicycle pushes the brake pads against the wheel of the bike.
Now pads just wear away with use – kind of like a pencil eraser wears out. The good news is that replacing brake pads is a straight-forward repair.
If you hear squealing or grinding when you use the brakes, have your service advisor check them out. He’ll have a technician perform a thorough brake inspection to see what needs to be done. He’ll check for signs of brake problems and go over other brake components to see that they’re working properly.