Q: How to get rid of brakes noise when braking?

Hello! The material used in the brake pads can cause the brakes to be noisy when applying the brakes and sound like grinding metal-to-metal at times. This grinding may be more or less depending on the quality of metallic brake pads that are used.

You may find a large amount of brands of pads on the aftermarket parts suppliers. The pads that are less expensive should still meed manufacture specifications but may have more problems with grinding or squealing noise from the material used when they are made and the sound silencers they use.

Some of these pads do not even come with silencers for the pads to isolate and lessen the noise they make. The pad surface will feel real rough and not look consistent across the pad indicating low quality manufacturing. The higher quality pads you will find a better more consistent material with a silencer pack to install on the pads or already installed on the pads.

These pads are still metallic but the metal in the pads are more evenly distributed in the pad material giving you a more even consistent wear and noise should be less than the less expensive pad. Some manufactures make specialty pads that boast a low noise pad with better performance from original metallic style pads. These pads will be much more expensive than the metallic pads on the market. These pads may not use metallic material and some may use different types of material like ceramic or other fibers.

When you decide on the pads to use then also make sure you replace the rotors with quality rotors since not all rotors are created equal either. Most part stores will have different levels of pads and rotors to use. A certified technician from YourMechanic can come to your car’s location to inspect the brake noise and follow through with repairs.