Front brake squealing on 6 Wagon

[yimmy149]

Hello! I've got a 6 Wagon that's got a squeal that comes & goes on the front left/driver side wheel. It's a 2005 with 34k miles.

The squeal can almost always be heard when backing up with the wheel turned to the left. At slow speeds it's more of a metal on metal grinding, at higher speeds it turns into a piercing squeal. Once it starts, it will do it from 1mph to 100. It goes away when I depress the brake pedal, gets louder when climbing hills, louder when turning left, goes away when I turn right. It's really really loud when it gets going, quite embarrassing to drive.

Sometimes when I look at the wheel, it looks like the outer half of the rotor has more aggressive wear, and is "shiny", the inner half is smoother and has the normal black streaking I see on the other 3 wheels.

I've now taken it to the dealer 3 times to try and get it fixed, the first two times they did a "complete brake inspection" and couldn't find anything wrong. This time they told me there is a lip on the rotor, and that the only way to fix it would be to replace both the rotor and pads, and obviously you'd have to do it on both wheels. And that it's not a warranty item.

Any suggestions?

-james

 

[autoxes]

You could get the rotors turned at your local PepBoys for 10$ a piece, it'd be essentially the same as replacing the rotors, though far cheaper. If it doesn't work, you're only out the 20 (if you do both). Also try greasing your caliper pins, if they aren't allowing the caliper to go through it's full range of motion, the brakes will squeal.

 

[FORZDA 1]

Hello! I've got a 6 Wagon that's got a squeal that comes & goes on the front left/driver side wheel. It's a 2005 with 34k miles.

The squeal can almost always be heard when backing up with the wheel turned to the left. At slow speeds it's more of a metal on metal grinding, at higher speeds it turns into a piercing squeal. Once it starts, it will do it from 1mph to 100. It goes away when I depress the brake pedal, gets louder when climbing hills, louder when turning left, goes away when I turn right. It's really really loud when it gets going, quite embarrassing to drive.

Sometimes when I look at the wheel, it looks like the outer half of the rotor has more aggressive wear, and is "shiny", the inner half is smoother and has the normal black streaking I see on the other 3 wheels.

I've now taken it to the dealer 3 times to try and get it fixed, the first two times they did a "complete brake inspection" and couldn't find anything wrong. This time they told me there is a lip on the rotor, and that the only way to fix it would be to replace both the rotor and pads, and obviously you'd have to do it on both wheels. And that it's not a warranty item.

Any suggestions?

-james

Sounds like the pads are worn down to the little tale-tell piece of metal that touches the rotor to make the squeal sound so you know to replace the pads before they trash the rotor. The dealer goons should have known it instantly...

 

[autoxes]

Sounds like the pads are worn down to the little tale-tell piece of metal that touches the rotor to make the squeal sound so you know to replace the pads before they trash the rotor. The dealer goons should have known it instantly...

he said the sound goes away when he applies the brakes. The indicator squeals only when the brakes are applied.