I have a 2001 honda accord ex with 165k miles. at high speeds I hear a repetitive squeak coming from the rear (like crickets) coming from the rear. It is intermittent and sometimes stops when i touch the brakes. I looked at all the pads and they have about 30% left. I only hear this at high speeds, 50mph+ and only occasionally. The rotor shroud looked like it was rubbing so I bent it back but the sounds still occurs. any suggestions?
At high speeds it’s very unlikely to be a stuck caliper or anything else associated with your brakes. I would guess there is a problem with one of your wheels, or even a tire.
the tires have about 10k miles on them. Wheeling bearing maybe? Never had one go so I don’t know what that sounds like. when I press on the brakes at high speed the sound diminishes and comes back. but it always goes away after about 10 miles or so.
No, go with the sticky (not stuck) caliper. A bad wheel bearing would result in a high-pitched but consistent sound that might “go away” at high speeds only because, at certain early degrees of failure might just be too high pitched for your ears to hear. As the bearing fails, the sound would be audible at all speeds at some point prior to failure and by then would be a constant noise.
It’s not a tire either.
What is happening is, when you brake, and then let off the brake, you have a brake caliper that is not fully retracting. The reason for this is usually that the brake pads were allowed to wear down too far and the calipers were neither replaced or rebuilt.
The sound you hear is intermittent because the rotor is no longer true as well, but is warped. Your sticky caliper is keeping the brake pad in contact with the highest part of your warped rotor.
Somewhere along the way, when you get on a highway, if you drive normally you don’t brake for a little while. The brake pad wears away a little and the sound goes away.
Ideally, see if you can locate the wheel making the noise and replace the calipers, both rotors and both sets of brake pads. At least replace the rotors and pads and one caliper. If this is all much too much expense, at least be prepared to change the pads regularly. This is like buying one cigarette at a time for a buck each. But if necessary, do at least that.
OK. That makes sense. I felt all the rotors and calipers after the last time it did that and they all felt the same temperature. But if the pad wore down and it was allowed to cool back down I wouldn’t be able to tell. Now to wait for some decent weather to do this. I am almost sure it is the right rear rotor, but I will just replace all the rotors, pads, and the two rear calipers. Thanks for the help.
Last brake job I just replaced the pads, didn’t even turn the rotors. But that was about 70k miles ago.
You are way overdue for new pads at least. If you feel any kind of vibration while braking at high speeds, you need at least two new rotors (one per wheel, front or back, but most likely front).
Don’t put this off for better weather. You need to do this right away.
No vibration on braking. Last pads lasted over 80k. The front rotors clearly need replaced. I can see some rust and clear wearing of them. The back rotors look ok, have not checked the runout with a dial indicator but I will replace anyways. Good point on brakes, you really shouldn’t play chicken with them. Maybe I should change on the calipers, not happy about the cost of that.
pull tire lubricate pad backing plates, pins or slides etc. (With disc brake lube) Reinstall. Good time to rotate tires too.