brakes

The only way your really going to know where you stand with your brakes is to pull wheel off and look. If the front and back brakes are the same age you can usually get away with pulling a front tire off and looking at the pads and rotor. Your back brakes, especially if they are drum will usually not be as worn as the front since most wear occurs to the front brakes first from having all of the cars weight applied to them in stopping. On some brake pads there is a wear tab installed on one edge of the metal backing plate. The idea is that as you wear down the pad that piece of metal will rub you rotor making an annoying noise telling you it's time to do your brakes. On brake pads without a wear tab the only warning you get is when you've worn out the pad material and now you have metal on metal which damages the brake rotor. Todays brake rotors have also gotten thinner and usually can only be turned(resurfaced) one time before they have to be replaced. If your brake rotor has grooves in it deeper than a record album you probably won't be able to turn it. Now the other cause for noise from brakes can be caused by glazing of the pads and rotor. I attribute that to cheap brakes (In brakes you get what you pay for). A quick fix for glazing is to get a can of brake cleaner and drown the hell out of the pads and rotor. It also doesn't hurt to take a piece of emory cloth and LIGHTLY sand around the rotor. If your problem isn't because of glazing but is from wear then you should also check and replace the back brakes just so you're not going through all of this again in a few months. Easiest brakes to do in the world or pads and rotors which if your lucky your front and back brakes will be the same. I bet you'll probably run into pads on the front and shoes on the back. Rear brake shoes are a little more complex to replace. Now you have the emergency brake cable attached to one shoe and numerous springs criss-crossing between the two shoes. Bottom line is if you are mechanically inclined and have a Chilton or Haynes book for your vehicle you probably could do your brakes yourself. If not, stay away from Midas because they will screw you!! Good luck!