When it comes to the safety of your vehicle, there is nothing quite as important as your braking system. Brakes and brake pads cannot be neglected, otherwise they may become incredibly worn and you would never know. Safety needs to be your driving force when it comes to car maintenance. Many people get lazy or neglectful which is only going to make your problems so much worse. Checking and changing your brake pads is something that will go a long way in maintaining your vehicle and optimizing the performance. Schedule it into your regular maintenance routine.

You need to take a good look at the brake pads in order to determine if they are still good or if they are in need of replacement. If they are worn down more so they are less than a quarter inch, they need to be replaced right away. If they get any thinner than that, they will end up being too thin and the rotor will become damaged. That could be both dangerous and expensive. It can easily be prevented so make sure to check them over often. Checking them by sight is just one way. It is not hard to tell that you need new brake pads once they start squealing. Ignoring that sound will not make it go away.

When it comes time to take care of your brake pads, start by parking your car somewhere that is a decent temperature, on level ground. If it is a hot day then you will want to park it somewhere shady. Before you attempt to get to work on the car, you should take care to put blocks behind all of the tires. This makes it much safer so that the car will not roll away on you once it is jacked up. That could be very dangerous and something you surely want to avoid.

Make sure that you have all of the tools necessary to handle the job of changing the brake pads. Having them laid out before you makes it easier to grab what you need without having to go hunting around for something. Loosen up the lug nuts on the tires that you will be removing before you jack it up. It can take a lot of strength to do this and is much easier when the car is on the ground. It is essential that you have a jack stand for this job. Having only a jack is too dangerous and not reliable enough.

You will have to take the entire wheel off in order to access the brake pads. Put the wheel beneath the front end of the car and lie it down. It will catch the car if it were to fall somehow and could prevent you from being crushed. Identify the brake parts. The rotor is shiny and should be hard to miss. There will be clips to remove to take the pad off. Put the new one in much the same way. Consult online videos or step by step tutorials for confirmation. This process requires more safety than skill so always be careful.