If you drive a car, you may sometimes hear one or more of a variety of squeaking, grinding, and scraping noises. That may be due to vibration when braking your car, especially brake noise at Low speed.
To get the picture full and clear, you need to understand the braking system, and how brakes work, thus we can know why these sounds are occurring, and what to do to prevent them from happening.
The working of braking is in the mode of the friction the braking pad applies against the rotor attached to the wheel, so that the speed is decreasing until total stop.
So, when you hit the brake paddle, the braking becomes applied because of hydraulic oil that pressing the pad will squeeze against the rotor, which means size of it.
In this process of breaking you may hear noise when you’re apply the brake at Low speed. Usually this may only point to defect in one of the elements involved in the process of braking.
What are the reasons for Noise when braking at low speed?
If you hear a strange noise when braking at a low speed then you need to be careful. These strange noises could be a warning. Best thus to have a soundcheck and find out what the sources of these noises are.
We outline the main reason for these noises below.
Worn braking pads
One of many reasons for having strange sounds while braking is having “brake pads worn out”. These brake pads itself are made of a mixture of graphite, iron, and copper. These things are Bonded together to form the brake pad.
When you apply the brakes, the brake pad keeps wearing out until the outer metal cover touches the rotors. At that time, you will start hearing a creaking noise when braking at a low speed.
So, if your braking pads used for a long time or have been worn out, go and change them immediately. Else you can do serious damage to your other braking elements or damage them totally as well.
Cheap/low quality braking pads
As we said before that the brake pads are made from a mixture of different elements to make the pad bond, in order to produce the best braking pad, these elements are put by the manufacturers in certain ratio to ensure to get the best braking effect and stop any noise which you hear while braking.
But the cheap aftermarket braking pads are never manufactured with such precision in their selection of substances in the pad. They always aim for a lower price so quality is sacrificed. They not only make sounds, but rub, scrape the surface of your rotor.
So, if you are changing your braking pads, then go for the original pads only.
Worn-out rotor disks
The wearing out of rotor disks may come from having braked with worn out braking pads, or, with a cheaper/low quality braking pad that scratches the surface of the rotors. So, after a while the surface of your rotors will not remain flat as it is anymore.
Another cause of deflection of the surface of the rotors is washing your car and exposing the rotors with cold water whilst hot. This will lead to deflection on surface of your rotors, and you will experience sounds as well as irregular vibrations when you press the brake pedal.
Solid items in between rotor and pad
If you are using your car in a dusty environment, it is normal for your braking parts to have dust, dirt and grime on it. More so, very tiny rocks and sands can get in between the braking pad and rotor. These items will cause grinding sounds even if you are not using your brakes.
Parking your car for too long: Leaving your car parked in the garage for too long in a bad weather. Air full of water vapor can form a layer of rust on the rotors. This may also start corrosion on the rotors and this can actually spread to other elements of the braking system.
Unlubricated caliper screws
This is also another cause of hearing scraping noise while braking due to lack of lubrication on the caliper screws and bolts. If this happens to you then you must ask your mechanic to change them.
Worn Shims
The brake pad shims are basically thin rubber or metal adhesive that fits into the pad in between the brake caliper to fill small gaps that may lead to bad noise. A worn-out shim will make metal to metal contact creating a grinding sound.
And you may hear knock sounds when braking at lower speeds. Make it a duty to replace them when doing any brake job.
Types of the noise of Braking Systems
In this section we are going to make the distinction between the different car braking noise. And we know how to diagnose the defect from the sound itself. Here we have the three types of braking noise and those are grinding, squeaking, and squealing
Grinding noise
This should be your warning. If you hear the grinding noise from your car, you have to stop immediately. Because this means that the brake pad got used up and that you are now making metal-to-metal contact between the caliper and the rotor.
Squeaking
If you hear that annoying squeaking or scraping sound you have each time you hit the brake pedal, this means that the brake pad that is installed in your car is one of the cheaper qualities. Because it might have a big flake of metal in the mixture of it, and so when it drags along the rotor you have this sound.
So, the best way to get away from this type of car noise is to choose a high-quality braking pad. If you hear a squeaking or scraping noise while you are stopping the car using the brake, this means that the rotor is being hit by the brake wear indicator and it is making this noise.
This thing named the wear indicator of the brake is a metal tab attached to the pad of the brake and when this brake pad is worn out and needs replacement, then this indicator starts dragging to the rotor to tell you that it is due for pad change
Squealing
This happens when you park your car outdoor or wet area. What happens is that the rotors build up a layer of rust on the rotor surface.
This will cause a thumping or squealing sound when you start moving your car. This sound might have vanished away after many breaks as this layer of rust will be stroked out.
How to fix the brake noise problems
We’ve learned more about that noise we might be hearing from our braking system and also how to know the difference between them.
Besides, we’ve been exposed to the reason why these sounds may occur. And in this section, we would learn how to carry out some checks to know where the defecting part is.
Find Loose parts
The first step of this check is to remove the front wheels of the car. Then you will try to carry out a simple check by trying to wiggle the braking calipers, pads and rotor or any other brake component you can get your hands on.
None of those parts should begin to cartoon or dance merely by hand. If you can just wiggle it with your hands, then you have a few missing, damaged or loose clips and bolts. That needs to be fixed immediately. You don’t want that leading to vibrating and noisy braking.
Apply Dampening Paste
Excessive vibration from braking parts always led to lousy noise when braking. So, after taking care of your missing bolts and damaged shims or clips, you may want to apply dampening paste. This is a water-based compound that is highly effective in reducing vibrations and noise coming from your braking parts.
You should apply a thin layer of this substance on the back of your braking pad on the metal part of it lying between the braking pad and caliper piston. Give the paste plenty of time to dry (2 or 3 hours or until it is completely dry), before you assemble the brake unit. It will become sticky and darker when dry.
Inspect Brake pads or Brake Shoes
Here, you check if your brake pads are wearing out or in need of replacement. This is the main problem that many drivers face when they’re using their cars. Many braking pads also contain a wearing indicator.
This is designed to make noise when it’s worn out. Because the aftermarket brake pads vary in size and shape in general, that will cause a brake pad to wear unevenly. It’s not sitting completely flat on the rotor.
So, what happens is, it rides the edge of the rotor causing rational braking noise. So, you may hear grinding noise when braking but your pads are fine. In this circumstance, you can sand the lip down and make it even this will increase brake pad life and eliminate the noise.
If you find out that you may need to replace the brake pad, try to find a good one. Sometimes even brand-new brake pads can make a grinding noise too until you get the shape of the brake pad down pat to the rotor’s surface.
Check brake rotor
The last check you can perform in terms of checking the braking rotors. While you are using your vehicle and changing braking pads, the brake rotors may be affected due to all of this. You don’t want a bad rotor; the irregularity causes the brake pad to jump and wiggle.
You have to have that even plane there. You need a very smooth rotor surface. So, if the rotor wear is not too deep in the face, you may have to get your rotors machined in order to make the surface of the rotor smooth.
Always check the rotor’s thickness before machining as this may affect the safety of braking of the audit’s family.
But if the wear is excessive or the whole rotor in the line of that is distorted, as in, instead of being a flat disc, it rises up and rolls into a barrel, plus, it belongs to that era (the age) that mandated that the manufacturing thickness to be cars up, you have to replace the rotors as soon as practicable.
Extra check: I always recommended to check the brake oil too, and the brake lines. You have to check the level of it. If the level is below the marked level notch and mark, then you need to fill it up with the proper oil. This is usually that which the manufacturer Dot 3, Dot 4, and Dot 5, suggestion for use.
Also, check the brake fluid color. It must be clear and bright. If it’s brown you have to change it. You may check for leakage in the brake line and if you find any, change it as a matter of some urgency.
FAQs.
Q: Why does my car make a creaking noise when I brake?
This can probably because the shims, clips, and bolts are not fitted well, and the brake unit wiggling while car moving.
So, in order to solve this creaking sound, you may have to check that all of the above parts are well-fitted or soundly connected to each other. Otherwise, you have to replace the defective one.
Q: What do bad brake pads sound like?
Bad brake pads always make sound that squeal or screech out like the chalk friction on the board.
This sound means that it had a wear indicator dragging into the rotor or that the braking pads are compound of poor-quality mixture and there is a metal flake in the bond of the brake pad dragging into the rotor.
Q: Why does my car make noises when braking?
There are many possibilities for this. Some of it related to the braking pads worn out and also the usage of low-quality marked brake pads. There lies another reason behind it that is the clips or shims not well installed or defective.
So, vibration occurs and leads to high braking noise. There is another that the surface of the braking rotors is not even. This may end up by making noise when brake is applied.
All you got to is just take a look into the reason why it makes that noise and detection of it may lead you to avoid from a big danger.
Q: How do you know you need new brake discs?
Run-on a brake disc inspection. Check the discs by looking at the surface of the brake disc and notice how smooth is it or does it have deep grooves on it.
Besides, try listening and feeling the braking effect if any squealing while braking or does it even have vibrations when braking or not. If all checks became positive this means new brake disc you need.
Final Words
Last of all, a loud noise while braking could indicate a problem. We have covered what type of noise equals a worry and what possible causes can lead to any issues in our guide.
If you believe something isn’t quite right with your brakes, heed our guidance on how to ascertain what vehicle defects you have and try to repair it yourself if you feel that you can.
If you’ve no idea of what the problem with your car is, don’t hesitate to go and get it repaired at an approved workshop.