I have about 5mm left on the front pads but I am getting noise as if my pads are running out. funny thing is some time it goes away if I turn right until I go straight or turn left again. any clues?

would cleaning the brakes help? any instruction on how to do that (exactly what needs to be cleaned)?

 

oh, and the car brakes fine... I don't feel the rotors are warped or anything...

 

have you had any luck with this problem? i have a similar problem, high pitch squealing that seems to come from both sides. It is quite loud - didnt think it was the brakes because braking has no effect on the noise, it doesnt increase/decrease in pitch or get louder or not. it seems to be a rotational noise because at very low speeds (5mph), although less noticable it is still there and can be heard intermittently as whatever it is rotates.

The similarity i have with your problem is as far as i can tell, the noise seem to stop or be less noticable when turning corners and comes back on straightening up. i think my pads are low but thought braking would affect the noise in some way if it were the issue and do not see how cornering would affect the issue

 

It turns out that I was getting a 'lip' above and below the brake pad foot print on the rotor. So basically the rotor was rubbing the side/edge of the brake pads as well as the face of the brake pads. In my case it was too late to turn the rotors and I ended up replacing the pads and rotors on all four. Good luck with yours!

Leo

 

just discovered that these pads have "squeelers" that remind you to change them (although only my drivers side has it for some reason?) there seems to be enough pad left but i think ill change them as a matter of course and see what happens. Thanks for the info on the "lip" tho, ill take a look at that too.

 

My brakes were squeaking badly upon applying the brakes and the sound was getting louder as time went on. It turned out to be the rear brake pads' wear indicator (the sheetmetal tab you found). Initially, I thought I had a couple of thousand more miles on the rear pads because it didn't look like the wear indicator tab was yet making contact with the rotor, but after I changed the pads the high-pitched squealing noise was gone.

--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

yeah, btw, one mistake I made was to check the outside pads only (too lazy to remove the wheels). I had uneven wear on the inside/outside pads.

 

yep, your right.. it was the squeelers on the inside pads. problem sorted - thanks