Caliper rubbing on Brake Rotor, awful squeaking noise
 

So for the past couple weeks my front driver side wheel has been making a horrifying squeaking noise. It does not constantly make this noise, just very occasionally. Sometimes ill be able to go for a 20 min drive without it making a noise, but sometimes it wont stop for more than 15 seconds at a time.

I originally thought it might have been a braking problem, as it started off only doing it as i was braking, but now it does it when accelerating, cruising, and breaking. Occasionally it even stops making the noise when i start braking, so i am very puzzled.

Pulled the wheel off today just to check it out, seems its definitely coming from the caliper, but not anywhere that i can see. As i turn the rotor just with my hand i can hear the squeaking and feel a bit of resistance from turning as well. Im about to take the caliper off but dont want too unless its necessary.

Any ideas of what could be going on?

Thanks 8Club!

Can you see how thick the pads are?

havent really checked for that, but i havent ever changed the pads (car has 37k miles, bought it at 21k) so im not sure when they were last changed, thought i think they are just about going out - when i brake it is getting a bit jerky.

might have discovered the problem: when i removed the whole caliper the right side of the brake pad fell out, so i think the pad might not have been snapped in properly, or could have accidently partially came out and was resting up against the rotor.

as for the brake pad, there is no pad on it...it is just metal, so im assuming it will need to be replaced..

ahhhhhhhhhhhh..........yep...............you need new pads. Check all four corners.

yeah...think im gonna let a shop do it.

the pad fell out, and it doesnt pop back in from the inside so now i need to remove the inner caliper part from the outer to put it back in... :sad:

You can do that with a single bolt and then just swing the caliper holder back off the caliper and rotor.

Assuming your rotor isn't trash you could replace your pads in all of an hour... front ones easily about 10 minutes each.

Don't forget the grease and anti-squeak. A caliper tool is also helpful (significantly simplifies the rear) but you can compress the front fairly easily with a C clamp.

I know which bolt you are talking about, but when i try to remove it the whole bolt on the inner side turns with it and will not loosen.

ill have to try holding it down with a wrench, if my shoulder can handle it haha

Sounds like you don't know which bolt I'm talking about then.... try the other one ;)

i got it all figured out, put back in and bolted back up! havent driven to see if it fixed it, but thanks for the tips on getting the brake pad back in!

So did you end up replacing the pads or did you just put the junk one back in? If the junk one went back in you definitely need to make your first trip to a shop. Your rotors might still be good and could possibly just be machined but the longer you wait the more money it will cost you.

Hopefully you just changed the pads yourself though and saved yourself several hundred dollars.

will be changing them as soon as i can get em to my door, any recomendations on where to get em from?

I prefer low dust pads over stopping power.... tirerack.com Akebono ProACT Ceramics ... you'll get 20 different opinions on pads... all depends on what you want.

stopping power vs low noise vs low dust ... noise and dust tend to go hand in hand.