Causes and DIY Fixes for Smoking Brakes
Updated: Mar. 16, 2023
What does it mean when your brakes are smoking? Learn the causes and DIY fixes for smoking brakes along with brake overheating systems.
Are your brakes smoking? In most cases, the presence of smoke requires immediate corrective action. New brake pads represent an exception, but still require your attention.
Smoke results from excessive heat; a brake system generates heat because of friction and the greatest source of friction in this system lies in the pad-rotor or pad-drum contact.
Prevent an expensive repair: Here’s how to check your brake pads.
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First, How Are You Driving?
Overheated brakes (and yes, smoke) can result from excessive braking. Hard braking from high speed, accelerating and braking at the same time and continuous braking while driving downhill, all may cause excessive heat to build up. Stop your vehicle and let it cool. If you must resume downhill travel, it’s better to shift into a lower gear, that limits your speed, rather than riding your brakes.
Proceed with care once you recognize evidence of smoking brakes. Overheating the brake system can cause brake fluid to boil, which changes its composition and leads to system failure. Even if you plan to fix the problem yourself, you may want to consider a tow if the issue is related to mechanical malfunction and cannot be corrected immediately.
Learn how to change your brake pads. (It’s easier than you think.)
Brakes Smoking After New Pads and Rotors
Many new brake pads need a break-in period. Although manufacturers thoroughly prepare new brake pads for use, the demands of a caliper piston pushing the pad against a quickly turning rotor exceed conditions they can replicate in production. Many pads, therefore, experience a final cure during the days after installation and may emit some smoke as part of the process. If your brakes smoke a little, the vehicle does not pull to one side, it accelerates freely, and a visual inspection shows good pad motion, then watch the situation. Curing should resolve within a few hundred miles.
This is how to check your brake fluid yourself.
What Does It Mean When Your Brakes Are Smoking?
Eliminate post-installation curing of new brakes from the discussion and several mechanical issues remain to explore. Most likely, overheated brake pads come from a malfunctioning caliper (disc brakes) or wheel cylinder (drum brakes). In either case, pistons that transfer hydraulic pressure to the pads can corrode and stick. When stuck in the extended position, the pads can build up enough heat to smoke. And this is what to do if your car shakes when braking.
Here’s when you should replace your brake rotors and how to do it.
Corrosion Can Cause Stuck Caliper Pins
Corrosion can also foul caliper motion at the carrier pins and cause them to stick.
Prevent either of these situations by lubricating any moving parts with a high-temperature brake grease each time you do brake work. This small investment in time and effort can help you avoid headaches later. Uneven wear from opposing sides of the rotor or drum can indicate the beginnings of a problem. Once the malfunction occurs, however, corroded brake pins should be replaced (cheap and easy) and calipers or wheel cylinders may need replacement or reconditioning (a larger investment of time and money).
Less Common Causes of Smoking Brakes
Less common causes of smoking brakes include road debris obstructing caliper motion or internal debris blocking the flow of brake fluid so that pressure does not subside when you release the brake. Rectify the former simply by clearing the obstruction. The latter may require a fluid change or new brake line to resolve.
Learn the things to never, ever do to your car in the video below.
Banging Through Potholes
"Your car's suspension is great at soaking up imperfections in the road, but it has a breaking point. Sometimes it's impossible to avoid potholes, but driving through them at any speed faster than a crawl can bend wheel rims and brake struts." — Matt Smith, senior editor at Car Gurus.
Using Cheap Gas
"Penny-pinching by using less than top-tier-rated fuels can result in expensive engine damage down the road. Filling with regular grade when the engine requires premium can create drivability problems and warning lights." — Richard Reina, product-training director at CARiD.
Not Driving It Enough
"Too much time without exercise will kill your car's battery, misshape its tires, and can leave it with a tank full of stale gasoline. If you want to store a car for a long period of time, be sure to find a suitable (and preferably indoor) location. Then give it a good wash to protect the paint, overfill its tires to help keep them round, use some peppermint-oil-soaked mothballs to protect it from rodents, and hook the battery up to a trickle charger to keep it alive." — Matt Smith.
Driving On Improper Alignment
"This commonly neglected issue can wear down your tires, increase your chances of an accident, and hurt your car's fuel economy." — David Ambrogio, a consultant with Superior Honda in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Not Washing It
"It's easy to wonder why you should keep your car's exterior clean. After all, it's just going to get dirty again, right? Well, washing your car regularly will protect its paint and reduce the likelihood of rust. Giving your car's underside a good spray is particularly important in the winter, when salt can quickly eat away at your chassis's bare metal." — Matt Smith.
Not Cleaning Under the Hood
"We tend to focus on keeping our car's exterior clean, but not under the hood. This is a mistake. Periodic cleaning of your car engine's exterior can remove built-up sludge and debris that is shortening the life of your engine." — David Ambrogio.
Holding the Shifter
"This one's for those few remaining manual-transmission drivers: Don't rest your hand on the gear shifter! While it may feel natural to keep your hand on the stick shift, doing so will result in premature wear to the transmission's components." — Matt Smith.
Using Incorrect or Discount Parts and Fluids
"You might be keeping up with maintenance, but going cheap by using substandard or incorrect parts and fluids is bad. Regular oil changes require the use of the correct-viscosity oil, not just the least expensive stuff you can find in a big-box store. Spark plugs should have the correct heat range. Fuel and air filters should be name-brand, original-equipment-equivalent or better, not just the lowest-priced item you can find." — Richard Reina.
Not Changing the Oil Often Enough
"Changing your oil more often than recommended keeps corrosive materials out of the engine and helps you keep your car on the road longer. This is especially true if you mainly do city driving." — David Ambrogio.
Driving Your Car Cold
"A cold engine needs time to get up to temperature. Avoid full-throttle acceleration until the temperature gauge reads 'normal.'" — Richard Reina
Slamming the Brakes Too Often
"A heavy foot on the brake pedal creates abnormal wear to pads and rotors, resulting in more-frequent replacements." — Richard Reina.
