2008 Saturn Vue - Scraping noise from brakes

I have a problem with a noise when I slowdown with my foot on the brake , increasing pressure until I stop. So far so good. But the problem is a rubbing sound I hear as I do this. I went to my mechanic and explained what I heard. So he looked at all the brakes and could not find anything. He went for a drive and told me he heard nothing. I toke him for a ride and He finally heard something. He looked at the rotors, Nothing. He took them off and out on a machine to see if there where any high spots , nothing, looked at the brake pads nothing. The brakes work fine but the scraping noise is driving me nuts. what else can I do? I have 128,000 miles on it

Buy some better pads.Ceramics are usually very quiet. Missing shims on the back of the pads can create noise as well.If you have disc brakes in the rear,the parking brake drum assembly is often to blame for noise.

Front brakes or rear? If you can safely apply and release the parking brake while driving, you can tell. They operate only the rear brakes. It’s more complicated if you rear brakes are disc, but this can still help track down the problem area - if you can do it safely.

A scraping sound is most often the metal dust shield that runs behind the rotors. They usually get disturbed or bent during brake servicing. They are made of thin metal and are in very close proximity to the inner surface of the rotor… on the “Back” side.

If this noise suddenly happened out of nowhere with no brake service or wheel removal recently then that scrape sound can be the same thing…just for a different reason. If the brakes were done the metal shield can be bent by contact…if there was no intrusion behind the wheel or service done the rotor can still contact that dust shield when the wheel bearings begin to go bad…the rotor gets “cockeyed” and contacts the metal dust shields or “pie pans” as I call them. If this noise just occured with no way to relate it to any event… you need to ensure the integrity of your wheel bearings as best you can. Most common way is to jack up the vehicle and with the wheel still bolted up tight…grab the top and bottom of the wheel and try to deflect it…if you can…its your wheel bearings. If not…then look into the dust shields and also the brake wear “squeal indicators” to be sure they weren’t disturbed and contacting the rotor…

Remove the wheel and just ensure the rotor isnt contacting the dust shields…if it is…just bent it out of the way with your hand or a suitable tool. I see this condition all the time and for some reason its stumps people and mechanics all the time… I dont know why… I just know how to look for it and remedy the situation.

OP said its only happens when pressing on the brakes pedal.Not a constant noise like if it was a bent dust shield touching the rotor.

Crap…did they say that? I must have missed it. OK in that instance…I move to brake pad wear indicators or go so far as to suspect wheel bearings/rotor deflection as you will get noises as the caliper tries to correct the rotor from being “cockeyed”.

But I’m flying in the dark and with no ears here. Most descriptions of car problems are severely limited to the OP’s perception and or mechanical understanding or misunderstanding.

If I could hear the noise I would have more creative suggestions… I couldn’t hear a dang thing to be honest. LOL

Yes,a sound clip should be added to the OP description of the problem.