Brake Skimming Service
Brake skimming, also known as brake disc or rotor machining, is a process aimed at restoring the smoothness and flatness of a vehicle's brake discs or rotors. Over time, brake discs can develop irregularities and imperfections due to wear and tear, leading to issues such as vibrations, noise, and uneven braking. Brake skimming involves removing a thin layer of material from the surface of the disc using a specialized machine, thereby eliminating surface imperfections and restoring optimal braking performance. This process helps prolong the life of the brake discs, enhances braking efficiency, and ensures a smoother driving experience.
Disc brakes
Modern cars are fitted with a brake system using disc brakes. This system guarantees weight reduction, simpler inspection and maintenance, and excellent brake deceleration. The developers of new vehicles are paying increasing attention to safety, mileage cost and comfort. The balancing of the brakes is essential for the achievement of these objectives.
Brake maintenance
Friction between the brake pads and the brake disc causes heat and wear on both components. Optimum brake deceleration can be achieved only if both parts are completely flat and parallel. As soon as one of these components is replaced because of wear, the other must be adjusted to fit as well as possible to its new "partner".
Brake problems
Because of constant refinement of materials, assembly tolerances and quality awareness, even minor defects in disc brakes are noticed by the driver. Vibration in the steering wheel or brake pedal can be felt immediately and brake noise is audible. Simply replacing the discs with new ones will not necessarily completely stop the vibration as disc runout can still occur due to the drive flange having runout. We can now skim discs on the vehicle so the disc will be perfectly matched to the drive flange this will eliminate any vibration issues & save the cost of replacement. There are three directly attributable causes:
Run-out is oscillation of the brake disc. This may be caused by tolerance in the brake disc and hub or by distortion of these parts by shock loads. The oscillation of the brake disc can be felt in the steering wheel. The brake disc and the brake pads are not in line!
Disc Thickness Variation (DTV) is the difference in thickness of the disc measured at different points in the radial plane. This phenomenon is the logical consequence of differences in material structure, run out and constant changes in brake conditions such as ambient temperature, humidity and load on materials. DTV can be clearly felt in the brake pedal. Once again, brake disc nd brake pads are out of line!
Roughness of the brake disc surface leads to high or low frequency vibration of the brake components. The differences in surface structure do not conform to the manufacturer's specification and will result in excessive brake noise.
Solution
Most car manufacturers agree that the only correct method to eliminate brake problems is to realign the brake disc on the car. We charge from £150.00 inc vat for the pair to carry out brake skimming.
The Result
All brake problems solved in one action, requiring about 1-hour for each brake disc, including dismantling and re-assembling the wheel.
