# Help Me Diagnose My Car

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-diagnose-my-car/324622>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 3, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-diagnose-my-car/324622 "2005-10-03T18:53:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-diagnose-my-car/324622/1 "2005-10-03T18:53:33Z")

</div>

Ok,

It’s 2000 Chrysler Sebring Convertible pushing 100K miles. It runs fine but there’s a noise, that appears to be coming from the left-front of the car when moving (seems to be unrelated to engine speed, but directly related to car speed). It does not appear at idle. It’s a high pitched whine.

Could be anything, right? Well, Ok, here’s the weird part that should narrow it down: if I touch the brake pedal ever so slightly (not even enough to engage the brakes but enough to light the brake light) the noise completely disappears and reappers the moment I let go. Now, usually noises APPEAR when you press brake pedals, not disappear 🆒

Well, any ideas as to how urgent this is and what is it? Can it wait til next week?

Regards,

Groman

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-diagnose-my-car/324622/2 "2005-10-03T18:57:08Z")

</div>

Brake wear indicators. aka: Crikets. They are a tiny metal tab that rubs on the rotor when the brake pads get worn to a certain point. The rubbing is what’s causing the squealing.

Time to replace the front brake pads. Do it fairly soon–next week or so.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-diagnose-my-car/324622/3 "2005-10-03T19:03:16Z")

</div>

Here’s a [picture](http://auto.howstuffworks.com/disc-brake4.htm). 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-diagnose-my-car/324622/4 "2005-10-03T19:14:11Z")

</div>

> [@Inigo Montoya](#):
>
> Brake wear indicators. aka: Crikets. They are a tiny metal tab that rubs on the rotor when the brake pads get worn to a certain point. The rubbing is what’s causing the squealing.
> 
> Time to replace the front brake pads. Do it fairly soon–next week or so.

I concur. The only thing I could think of is the brake wear indicators. Not a big deal to replace the pads if you do it soon enough. If you wait too long you’ll end up damaging the rotors and then you can double or triple the repair bill.