Checking your brakes on your car

Brakes are one of the, if not the, biggest safety features on your car. At times, they are the one thing that can prevent an accident before it happens. All cars have a foot brake and a handbrake, although on more modern cars the handbrake is often automatic so you may not be able to see it.

There are checks that you can do yourself to test you brakes and these are recommended to be done as often as possible and especially before driving on a long journey or through bad conditions.

When checking the handbrake you should be stationery and see how many clicks your hand brake will come up. If it comes up too far it may mean the cable is worn or damaged and need replacing or adjusting.

Foot brakes are a little different as you need to really be driving the vehicle and be in a position to press them quite hard and see if you stop in a reasonable distance. You can of course take your vehicle to a garage that will check this for you, and this is advised if you are not confident in doing it yourself.