tips for keeping your teen safe while driving

Having A Hard Time Pushing The Brake Pedal In Your Car? 3 Things That Can Cause This

23 August 2022 by Phyllis Hoffman

It should be easy to press on your brake pedal when stopping or slowing down your car. If you find it is much harder to do, you should stop driving your car until you determine what is causing this. One thing you should do is take your car to a brake repair service. There are many things they may find that could be causing this, two of which are listed below. 

Need to Replace Brakes

One thing that can cause this problem is the brakes need to be replaced. Every time you press your brakes, brake pads are used to stop your car or when you slow down. Over time, these brake pads wear down. The first thing you may notice if this happens is the brake pedal is harder to press. After this, you will start to hear a loud screeching sound when you press the brake. Once this happens, you need to have the brakes replaced quickly. 

Brake pads cover the rotor which is a more expensive part of the brake. If your brake pads wear down completely, the rotors are what you hear screeching. If you take your car for brake replacement quickly, the pads can just be replaced. If you do not, you would need to have the pads and the rotors replaced, which would be much more expensive. 

Needs Brake Fluid

Another thing that can cause a brake pedal hard to push is being low on brake fluid. This fluid is used every time you press the brake, so it will run out over time. This is something you should check on a regular basis and replace the fluid regularly. New brake fluid looks like a golden color and once it becomes old it turns into a dark brown. Once this happens the fluid becomes thicker and will eventually turn solid. You will then have a clog in your brakes.

You can have the brake fluid flushed out and replaced with new fluid. If the fluid is low and the current fluid is not old, simply add more fluid to the reservoir. Once the fluid is at the right level or is replaced, pump the brakes a few times to get the fluid to flow and your brake pedal should work normally again. 

There are other things that can cause this problem, such as issues with the vacuum or the brakes that may need to be calibrated. A mechanic can give you much more information about these things, as well as the information above.

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