There is no point in driving your car forward if you can not stop when needed, it clearly is the most important part of the car for your safety.

Regular inspection of your brakes should be considered, visually for the wear on the brake pads, front and rear the thickness or smoothness of the brake disks and the fluid level of the hydraulic system.

When it is noticed that maintenance is required the first decision should be "can i do this myself" or do I need to get a professional to do this for me. most brake systems are easier to work on than you think, but of course safety is priority here, so if you have any doubts, get it sorted by a professional.

Brake Pads

This is normally quite an easy job and normally requires you to take off the required wheel jack up and secure the car. (never just use the jack). After removing the wheel, the pads will be full view for you to take the old out and put new in. You may have toy squeeze the brake cylinder back to its original position to create enough space to put the new pads in.

Brake Disks

This normally requires you to take the required wheel off, then remove the bolts that hold the disk on to the wheel bearing. Sometimes a bit of encouragement is needed to separate the disk from the wheel bearing, such as a hammer. Replace the disk and replace the wheel.

For both the pads and disks, you should do both the nearside and the drivers side at the same time, even of wear id different, to stop your car pulling to one side or other.

Fluid

The brake fluid cylinder is normally situated under the bonnet and is clear to let you see how much fluid there is. It is easy to take the top off and fill up with the correct type of fluid.

If when you check again you notice a drop in fluid, you must get the brake lines checked for leaks, this is very important.

Of course there is much more to learn. more than we can cover here, but when it come to the brakes, be sure.

Brake Repairs And Breakdown Cover Organisations

For your note, breakdown cover organisations do not like to repair brakes at the roadside and will in most cases take you to the nearest garage or home, depending on the cover you had. This is obviously for safety reasons and would not want to be responsible for any accident that occurred from a brake repair at the roadside. So beware if your brakes are faulty, do not expect any breakdown cover policy to fix them for you