Mobile brake repair at your home in Kansas City, KS

Brakes give plenty of warning before they quit. The trick is knowing which warning you have.

• A high squeal when you stop. Many pads have a small metal tab that rubs the rotor once the pad gets thin. It is there to bug you into getting them done.
• Grinding or a growl. That is usually metal on metal, with the pad material gone and the steel backing cutting into the rotor.
• A pedal that pulses, or a steering wheel that shakes when you brake, most of all coming down from highway speed. Usually the rotors have worn uneven. Most people call it warped rotors.
• A soft or spongy pedal, or one that sinks closer to the floor than it used to. That can be air in the lines, a fluid leak or a worn part in the hydraulics.
• The car pulls to one side when you stop. A caliper may be sticking, or one side has worn faster than the other.
• The brake warning light on the dash. Low fluid is a common reason, and low fluid often means worn pads or a leak somewhere.

Grinding brakes mean stop driving on them. Every stop cuts deeper into the rotor, and the car takes longer to stop. A pedal that suddenly goes soft or drops toward the floor is the same story. Park it and call.

This is where a mechanic who comes to you earns his keep. A car with bad brakes doesn't have to be driven across town to get fixed. It can sit in the driveway until Josh gets there.

Pads are the part everyone knows about. But before he quotes a brake job, Josh looks over the rest of the brake at each wheel. If the trouble is a caliper or a hose on top of the pads, you hear about it before any work starts.

• How much pad is left, and if the inner and outer pads are wearing evenly
• The rotor face, for grooves, a lip at the outer edge, rust and uneven wear
• The calipers and slide pins, which need to slide easily or the pads drag and wear crooked
• The rubber brake hoses, for cracks and bulges
• The brake fluid level and how the fluid looks

Pads wear by design. Rotors wear too, only slower. When pads get changed before they are down to nothing, the rotors can often stay. When the pads have squealed for months, or ground at all, the rotors usually need to go as well.

A shake in the pedal points to the rotors no matter how good the pads look. So does a groove deep enough to catch a fingernail. Josh will tell you which way he would go on your car and why.

Brake fluid matters too. It slowly takes on moisture from the air, which is why many carmakers list a change interval for it. Check your owner's manual for yours.

Winter road salt is rough on brakes here. It rusts rotors, it builds up on caliper hardware so the pads stop sliding the way they should, and it eats at the metal brake lines under the car. After a salty winter it is common to find one brake that wore faster than the others.

But summer driving adds up too. Stop-and-go traffic around Village West on a race or game day heats the brakes over and over. Coming off I-435 or I-70 at highway speed puts a lot of heat into them in a single stop.

Brakes are a good fit for mobile repair. The car has to be jacked up and supported safely, so Josh needs a flat, firm spot with room to get at each wheel. A paved driveway works. A soft yard or a steep slope doesn't.

Text him the year, make and model and what the brakes are doing. If they make a noise, have someone ride along and record a stop with the window down. That clip goes a long way.