Brake repair, and the brake lines mag chloride eats

Brake repair in Colorado is rarely only pads, because the brine on the roads attacks the steel lines long before the friction material wears out.

• Pads and rotors on most cars take about two hours a pair
• Corroded brake lines are the failure the brine causes
• A pedal that sinks while you hold it is a leak, not worn pads
• 18 month warranty on the pad replacement

Magnesium chloride is sprayed on these roads all winter. It does not rinse off the underside of a car the way rain washes a hood. It sits on the steel lines and works through them slowly. A line can look sound and still be paper thin.

So a Front Range brake job gets looked at as a whole system. Joe checks the hard lines, the rubber hoses, the caliper slides and the parking brake cable, not only how much pad is left.

Grinding means the pad is gone and the rotor is being cut by bare steel. That is still the cheaper version of this problem. A pedal that slowly drops to the floor while your foot rests on it is a leak, and that car should not be driven anywhere.

Most pad and rotor work runs about two hours an axle in the driveway. Lines take longer, because every fitting on a car that has seen ten Colorado winters fights back.