Last night, on the way home from work, I heard and felt a sharp whack like I’d run over something. I was in the middle of the road and there didn’t seem to be anything behind me I could have hit. I pulled over as soon as I could and checked under the car to see if anything was dragging. No problems. I drove the rest of the way home with no incidents. However, the next time I got in my car the brakes were grinding big time, even though hadn’t had any audible or physical problems with them before. Any idea what could be wrong before I take this thing in and turn myself over to the mercies of the mechanics?
This may sound very strange and highly unlikely but my sister actually had a brake pad fall out of the front caliper and disappear into the great unknown. She also reported hearing a thump which may have been the brake pad bouncing off the road into the underside of her car. It seems her husband at the time, idiot that he was, had heard some cow-orkers discussing bleeding the brakes and thought he could do this. Not exactly sure how he screwed up the process so badly that the pad would fall out but that is what happened. Now I truly believe it is next to impossible that this could happen, I would believe it impossible if I hadn’t seen it myself. BTW it cost my sister about 150 bucks for a new caliper and rotor.
My best guess is that you ran over something in the road and some of the debris has got stuck between the brake pad and the rotor. Most likely in one of your front wheels. Jack up your car and remove one of the front wheels. Turn the steering wheel all the way to one side so you can see both sides of the rotor. See if you can spot anything stuck between pad and rotor. Also check the thickness of the pad. Typically, a new pad is about 1/2 inch thick. If any pad is less than about 3/16 inch thick you should replace all the brake pads. Replace the wheel and then do the same for the other side. This would be good practice for replacing a flat tire if you never done this before.
If you can’t find any problem yourself get thee to a mechanic pronto.
As Rufus said, it is probably something stuck in the brakes. I once got a stone jammed between the caliper and the disk and it made a terrible grinding noise.
In any event, this needs to be fixed quickly because you can;t trust your btrakes at the moment.
As a first step to Rufus’s suggestion just jack up the wheel and turn it by hand - you will feel if it is grinding or stuck. If it is, do what Rufus said, if it isn’t, try another wheel.
I’ll take “Famous Last Words” for $500, Alex.
Thanks for the input, everybody. I’ll give that a shot when I get home. I figured it would have to be something other than just worn brakes due to the suddenness of the grinding (I didn’t have any problems with noisy brakes prior to last night). I’ve had experience with worn brakes before and they tend to deteriorate and get worse over time. I was thinking that either the pad had split and fallen off or that I’d run over something that had gotten lodged up in there somewhere. Nonetheless, I didn’t know how to go about checking for this kind of thing so I appreciate the advice.
Is it a constant grinding, or only when you apply the breaks? If its constant, it may be that your bearing assembly is getting bad. If so, get it up on a lift right away, a new bearing assembly is much cheaper to replace than having your spindle weld to the axle.
San Francisco seems to be home to a lot of slackers when it comes to car maintenance as I see a frightful number of brake pad backing plates along the side of the streets. People just keep on driving with their squeaky brakes progressing to grinding brakes, then one day, the pad has been worn down to the bare metal backing plate and falls out.
Now, assuming your brakes haven’t been making horrible noises, it probably is a stone or other road debris caught in the brakes. As Rufus and Pergau suggest, jack up the car, (chock the diagonally opposite wheel first) remove a wheel and look at both sides of the brake rotor. The rotor itself should be clean and shiny without any grooves, gouges or ruts. Assuming the car is in neutral and the parking brake is off, the wheel should turn easily by hand without making funny noises. Hopefully, you’ll be able to spot a rock, bolt or whatever wedged up against the rotor and be able to pop it out. If your pads are thin, or the rotors are grooved, put the wheel back on and drive (carefully!) to a brake shop to get a professional opinion. Brake repairs only seem expensive until compared with hospital bills.
Assuming I do have to take the car in for brake replacement, what is a reasonable price to pay these days? For reference I have an old 87 Subaru
It can vary a lot depending upon what you need. I would expect just pad replacement to run from 75-150 at a good shop, depending on the quality level of the pads and the area of the country you’re in. If the rotors need replacement or resurfacing, or the calipers need replacement, it will be higher. Similar scenario with drum brakes.