Your car's brakes are one of the most important parts of the entire vehicle, as they allow you to control your speed. As such, old and failing brakes can greatly increase the risk of an accident occurring. Further, brake repairs tend to be fairly expensive and complicated to do, since brakes are such a central system within your vehicle. Thankfully, you can do a number of different things to extend the lifespan of your brakes for as long as possible, increasing your safety and saving you money on auto repair services.

Moderate Your Car's Speed

Though fairly simple, the benefit that moderating your speed has on your brakes is significant. The faster that you are travelling when you apply pressure onto your brakes, the greater the amount of friction and wear that your brakes experience. In general, if you have to brake while travelling at high speeds for non-emergency reasons, you are likely travelling too quickly. You can reduce the overall amount of wear and tear that your brakes experience by matching your driving speed to the speed of traffic around you.

Soft and Complete Braking

In a similar vein to the above point, the method in which you apply your brakes can have a huge effect on the amount of strain that they experience. Hard braking, in particular, can cause excessive stress to your vehicle's brakes, and should only be used in emergency situations or when an accident would otherwise be unavoidable. In addition, you should make sure that you come to a complete stop when you apply the brakes, and don't keep inching forward or applying pressure to the gas pedal while you are also applying pressure to the brakes. This is because any sort of minor movement when the brakes are applied causes rubbing, which can build up over time and cause severe strain to your car's brake system.

Reduce the Car's Weight

Another fairly simple but important way that you can reduce the overall amount of strain placed on your brakes is by removing excess weight from your vehicle. The more weight that your brakes have to slow down, the more grinding and friction they will experience. In order to reduce your vehicle's weight, you should remove any items, like luggage, boxes, or other heavy items, that you may have stored in the trunk and move them into your home or garage. You may want to also remove roof and bike racks that you may have installed on your vehicle.