What If You Hear Grinding And Squealing While Braking?

Posted on: 3 June 2019

Many car owners have experienced squealing or grinding noises from their brakes every once in a while. Obviously, such noises can be incredibly annoying, which is the issue for many people. However, these noises are a lot more significant than that. They could be warning you of a serious issue with your brakes.

When you hear certain noises from your car, you might be able to tell exactly what's wrong with your brakes. Paying attention to these sounds from your brakes could help to save your life.

Causes of Grinding Noises

There are several factors that can result in a grinding noise coming from your braking system. These include the following:

  1. Worn pads: The brake pads provide the friction that's needed to stop the car. When these pads become worn, the backing plate will come into contact with the rotor instead. This metal to metal contact will result in a squealing or grinding noise.

  2. Stuck Calipers: If one or more or your brake calipers are stuck, it will be forcing the pads against the rotor even when you're not applying the brakes. This can cause faster wear of the pads but can also be quite dangerous.

Causes of Squealing Noises

Unlike grinding noises, squealing sounds from your brakes don't always mean something is wrong. Some of the causes of squealing brakes include the following:

  1. Hot brakes – Overheating can cause occasional squealing of the brakes

  2. Poor quality brake pads

  3. Worn brake pads (as pointed out earlier)

  4. Foreign matter trapped between the brake's friction elements

  5. Smoothened brake pad finish, i.e., brake pads that are not completely worn but have been made smooth by the friction

What to Do About Grinding and Squealing Brakes

A grinding or squealing sound from your brakes doesn't always point to an emergency. However, this doesn't mean that you can afford to ignore such sounds. At the very least, you should visit an auto brake repair shop such as Benchmark Motors INC to identify the cause of the noise.

As far as grinding noises are concerned, there are no acceptable causes of such sounds. A grinding noise almost always means that something is being worn down at a very fast rate. If it's your rotor that's being worn down, you could be looking at a hefty repair bill in the future.

As far as squealing noises go, you'll need to pay attention to whether the noises are constant or whether you only hear them on occasion.

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