The steering wheel shakes when I brake
A shake you feel through the steering wheel only while braking, and not at a steady speed, is coming from the front brakes rather than from the wheels or the tyres — a wheel-balance problem shakes the car at a particular speed whether you are braking or not, which is the quickest way to tell the two apart from the driver’s seat. The usual mechanism is that the front discs are no longer running perfectly flat, so the pads grab and release fractionally as the disc turns. What a workshop has to establish is whether that is wear, heat distortion, uneven pad deposits, or a hub or wheel bearing behind it — those feel identical through the wheel and are not the same repair.
Can I keep driving it?
Drivable, but do not leave it
The car will still stop, and a light judder is not an emergency. But this is the braking system and it does not improve on its own, so do not leave it for months — and if the shake is getting worse week by week, if the pedal has started going down further than it used to, or if there is a grinding noise with it, have it looked at before you drive it further.
How we find out which one it is
Pads, discs, calipers and fluid — what is actually worn, priced before it is replaced.
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01
Wheels off, every corner checked
Brakes cannot be judged through a wheel gap. All four wheels come off, and the inner pad — which is the one that usually wears first and the one nobody can see — is checked separately from the outer.
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02
Discs are not replaced by default
Plenty of workshops fit new discs with every set of pads, because selling the pair is easier than explaining the difference. A disc that is cracked, deeply scored or running out of true is replaced. A disc that is still doing its job stays on the car. You will be told which of the two yours is, and why, before that line goes on the estimate.
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03
Fluid is tested, not eyeballed
Brake fluid absorbs water from the air, and water boils long before brake fluid does. A DOT 4 fluid leaves the factory boiling around 230 °C and is considered wet at 155 °C. That is why a pedal can feel fine in traffic and go soft after a long descent, and it is why the test matters more than the colour.
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04
You approve corner by corner
Front and rear are separate lines on the estimate, and so are pads and discs. A car that needs front pads only leaves having had front pads only. We will also tell you how much life is left on the parts we are not replacing, so you know when to come back.
Other complaints with a page
- The car pulls to one side when I brake Pulling only under braking is a difference between the two front brakes — caliper, hose, pad or slide pin. Pulling all the time is usually alignment. How the two are told apart.
- There is a knocking noise over speed bumps A knock over a bump is free play in the suspension or steering. Drop links, bushes, top mounts and shocks all sound identical from the seat — how they are separated on a lift.
- The AC is cold when moving but warm in traffic Cooling at speed but not at a standstill points at heat rejection at the front — fans, a blocked condenser, or the wrong charge — not at the refrigerant circuit. Checked in Sharjah.
- The automatic gearbox jerks when it changes gear A jerky shift is as often fluid, a solenoid or adapted software as it is a worn clutch pack — and the cost gap is enormous. Why codes and live pressures are read first.