Brake Noises, What Causes Brake Noises and How to Fix Them

My brakes squeak is one of the most common complaints of all brake issues. Brake noises can be annoying, but can also alert us of an upcoming danger. It's best to play it safe and have it checked by a trusted mechanic, you never know what could be lurking in your braking system and causing you problems. If you can't find your brake problem here, check out my other article; 5 most common brake problems

I will cover 3 of the most common brake noises I encounter on a daily basis and try to shed some light on the repair. Some of the repairs I share with you here are not common and you will never find them in a service manual or TSB. (Technical service bulletin) If you decide to try any of my techniques please be cautious and safe. Some of my remedies are proven by trial and error and are solely my techniques. With that being said, let’s check out the 3 most common problems that cause noisy brakes.

A grinding noise when applying your brakes is really like hitting a rumble strip on the edge of the highway. If you’re hearing a grinding noise when applying your brakes, you need to wake up and stop driving. Hearing a grinding noise when hitting your brakes is usually caused by lack of brake material, and it usually is an indication that the pads and rotors are now metal to metal with no brake pads material left.

When your brakes get to this point, just imagine dollar signs rising into the air every time you step on the brake pedal, even just a little. The grinding noise is just a little voice whispering in your ear saying” You’re killing me!” Mechanics have an acronym for this, it’s called CPR (calipers, pads and rotors) and when you get the bill for your brake job, you will need CPR. If your brakes are grinding, stop driving and call a tow truck, it’s worth it in the long run.

This brake issue is one that will annoy the hell out of the driver, and suck the life out of the technician. It took me month to figure out what causes a thumping noise in the rear of a vehicle when braking. After several days of scratching my head and tearing apart the rear of the vehicle, lubing every bushing, checking clearances of every part imaginable, I came to the conclusion that it’s the rear drums that cause the noise.

Rear drums are resurfaced on a brake lathe, and a cutting bit is what removes the old braking surface and leaves a nice new mating surface. During this procedure, the cutting bit will create a groove in the brake drum so slight that the naked eye can’t see it, it’s like a groove on a vinyl record that the needle of the record player follows.

When the brake shoes ride on the new surface, they will follow the groove like the needle of your record player. When the shoe can no longer move along the groove, the shoes will snap back, hitting the backing plate. This phenomenon happens very quickly causing a thumping noise, a noise that will drive you crazy and wondering if your car is falling apart or even safe to drive.

There are several ways to fix this noise; one is to replace the rear drums. The second way is to remove the drums, install them on a lathe and sand the crap out of the mating surface with coarse sandpaper. The third way I found to remedy the noise is more of a band aid, a quick fix. I will explain the procedure to you, but just keep in mind that the remedy was found through trial and error and out of pure frustration. You will not find this information in any service manual or car repair manual, not even on car repair talk radio. The remedy can be dangerous if not preformed correctly so please be careful.

The procedure can only be done on cars that have an emergency brake handle in the center console for safety reasons.

Drive your car in a remote area with little or no traffic at a speed of about 40mph. Lightly pull up on the emergency brake handle while holding the release button,(this is so the emergency brake handle can be released quickly and will not lock in the braking position) Do this several times while keeping a steady speed. Only hold the emergency brake on for about 3 seconds because you don’t want to overheat the drums. Do this procedure about 3-5 times or until the noise softens.

Understand that you car’s rear brakes only do about 30% total braking under normal conditions, when you perform this procedure, your rear brakes are doing 100% of the braking, causing the brake shoes to wear the grooves out of the drum without having to remove them. Once you have done the procedure 3-5 times, drive the car at normal speeds and use the brakes the way you normally would, The noise should be gone or at least 90% gone. If the noise has not changed, you may have a different thumping noise than what I have described here in this article.

My sister had come to me with this noise after she had her brakes checked at her local garage. They had checked her brakes and adjust her rear brakes so the emergency brake handle had less free play in it, and this is when her troubles began. I took her car out on a test drive for about 10 minutes, performed the procedure described here in this article and *poof* the noise was gone. She was happy because the garage that had caused the noise had no idea how to fix it, and she was headed out for a long trip, happy day.

I would not recommend this remedy if it did not work, and I would not do it to family members car if I thought it was damaging to the vehicle. I have done this procedure to over a hundred cars, so I know it works.

A brake squeak can be very annoying and could be a prelude to what’s going on with your brakes. There are a number of reasons brakes squeak, some could be a sign of danger and some a sign of cheap brake pads.

The most common brake squeak is caused by inferior pads. A cheap brake job sounds good when you’re paying for it, but it could cost you years of painfully annoying brake squeal. Cheap brake pads have large pieces of metal flake in the break material, when this metal chip hits the rotor, it will cause a squeal or squeak when pressing on your brakes lightly. The metal flake will have to wear off the pad before the squeak will go away, but usually there is another metal flake right behind it. The best way to avoid this is to choose quality brake pads.

If your brakes are squeaking or squealing while driving down the road, but the noise goes away when you press on the brakes, I have a hunch that your brake wear indicator is hitting the rotor and causing the noise. The wear indicator is a small metal tab that hangs off the brake pad, when the brakes pads are worn and need replacing; this metal tab starts to hit the rotor, warning the driver of the potential problem. Don’t ignore the noise to long, the brake pads are thin and need servicing very soon.

I have one other noise I run into a lot that has nothing to do with brakes but I thought it was worth mentioning here because a lot of customers assume it's their brakes causing the noise. If your vehicle has a scrapping noise while driving or when turning a corner that sounds like something being dragged across a tin plate, it's possible you have picked up a rock from a dirt road or from a place where there had been some freshly repaired potholes. If you happen to drive through an area where there is new pavement and you hear little rocks hitting the bottom of your car as you pass, it's a good possibility that you picked up a rock and it is now lodged between the rotor and the backing plate making a awful noise that is causing your ears to bleed. Just have the rock removed and be on your way.

I sincerely hope that all the information here will help in diagnosing your brake noise problem or other problems that may sound like brake noises. I know that some of my method are a bit over the edge but it's what we do sometimes to repair vehicles. Sometimes you need to step out of the box and try new methods. There is always a better way, but if you don't ever try new ideas, you'll never discover it. A wise man once said "if you do the same things over and over, expecting different results, you must be crazy"

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