Car Brakes Overheating: Symptoms, Causes & Prevention

Heat can be damaging to a lot of internal parts and components of your car. For instance, high temperatures can primarily damage pistons, radiators, exhaust inlets and outlets and cylinder heads. Brakes can overheat due to the friction produced between brake pad rotors on applying brakes. Car brake overheating results in various mechanical damage.

The temperature of the car brakes is critical as the brake pads start to slip on the disc and the efficiency of the brake system drops at a higher temperature. Let’s explore in detail the symptoms and causes of overheating of car brakes and the best possible solution to it.

SYMPTOMS OF CAR BRAKES OVERHEATING

worn out brake pad — Watch out for the signs of overheating brakes in car to get them serviced before its too late

Here are the symptoms of overheating car brakes that you must watch out for because, as obvious, they tend to manifest in more than one way.

Fading brakes: stepping on the pedal will feel spongy, indicating a fading or loose brake.
Smoking brakes: you’ll spot a smoking brake – literally – with smoke emerging from the wheels every time the brakes are applied. Additionally, you may also spot a burning smell.
Squealing brakes: there’s a squealing sound that emerges when the parts of the brakes have become overly worn out and the metals are grinding together.

After knowing the symptoms of overheating car brakes, let’s now learn how to detect them.

DETECTING BRAKE DISC OVERHEATING

Besides knowing the symptoms, you can detect overheating by visual inspection. Since steel is the most common material used to manufacture brake discs, you can inspect that part for signs of changed colour. Overheating tends to change the colour tone of the disc. For example, if it has endured critical temperature, it will turn bright orange and cool to a purple tone.

After identifying changes in the colour of the brake disc, you can take your car immediately to a service station for elaborate analysis. A replacement of the brake discs and pads is necessary if the colour-changed due to overheating of car brakes.

CAUSES OF CAR BRAKES OVERHEATING

As mentioned earlier, the primary cause of car brakes overheating is friction. If you’re an aggressive driver, overheating levels are bound to increase sooner or later. Standard friction, combined with the heat produced from aggressive style of driving leads to the temperature of the car brake discs shooting to 600-700°C. Some other possible reasons for car brakes overheating are:

Brake mechanism failure
Incorrect installation of brake pads
Usage of brake discs and pads after the expiry of their service life
Deformation of brake discs
Low-quality pads and brake discs
Jamming of brake calliper guide pins

HOW TO AVOID OVERHEATING OF BRAKE DISCS

car brake repairing — Take preventive measures to avoid overheating of car brakes and save on repairs

First things first; it’s better to take preventive measures than to spend hefty prices on repairs. To begin with, you must not skip your vehicle’s maintenance schedule as it will regularly ensure that your brake system is working optimally and replacements are done as suggested by the manufacturer. Other preventions that you can take to avoid car brake temperature overheating are:

Replacing the brake pads and discs in due time
Ensuring installation of high-quality components only
Entrusting repair work to the service station mechanics
Exercising engine braking during prolonged downhill movement
Monitoring the brake disc thickness

It is important to remember that the useful lifespan of front brake discs is around 30,000 – 40,000 km whereas, for the rear ones, it is 40,000 – 50,000 km. Ultimately, the values depend upon your driving style – aggressive driving behaviour with sharp accelerations and braking reduces the lifespan. This thus yields early replacement requirement of discs and rotors

Most manufacturers recommend carrying out a replacement when your front brake discs and rear brake disks have completed the standard distance mentioned above. However, different auto brand manufacturers will have different schedules in their vehicles.

NORMAL BRAKE ROTOR TEMPERATURE: WHEN TO WORRY ABOUT TEMPERATURE VALUES

smooth car brake application — The more forcefully you apply brakes, there are the chances of wear and tear ahead of time

The brake rotors reach a maximum temperature of 200-degree Celsius when you’re out on a regular drive. However, for trips that are longer or when driving at higher speed, the rotors tend to reach up to 540 degrees Celsius.

If you want to avoid heating the rotors and stick to a normal temperature that’s considered standard, make sure the temperature of the car brakes and rotors do not exceed 200 degrees Celsius. The only way you can prevent it is to avoid using brakes often and use the downshift method instead.

Moreover, you can prevent brakes from overheating with good driving practices such as leaving enough distance between obstacles and your car amidst driving on the road. When driving downhill, try engine braking instead of pressing forcefully on the pedals, or downshifting or letting up on the accelerator rather than putting pressure on the brake pedals.

These are some of the tips you must employ to ensure your vehicle keeps running smoothly. Besides, always keep a check on the signs of overheating car brakes, discussed earlier to help save brake repair hassle and cost.

If your car brakes continue to overheat despite repairs, the issue could be much bigger. If you don’t want to spend more on repairs, you should consider buying a used car in the UAE. Have a look at the second-hand cars available:

Stay tuned to UAE’s top auto blog for more information about different car parts, their working, maintenance and more.