Steve2424

So this morning after some highway driving (no racing or fast acceleration included) about 5 minutes into city street driving a metal rubbing noise started up. This noise only progressed into what sounded like taking a metal fork and screeching it across a chalk board. It lasted about 20 minutes in all and then went away like nothing ever happened. To mention: after starting my car -- every time for the first couple of minutes -- there is always this sound that I know is the sign of a caliper that hasn't "unstuck" itself yet after sitting parked. It comes from my passenger side and most likely is from the rear corner.

This morning was the first time it ever progressed into what sounded like a horrible freddy kruger meets edward scissor hands chalk board scratch-off. Yet, it went away and hasn't returned since. Drove it to work afterwards and back - both trips without any incident. Has this happened to anyone before? I am meaning to address the caliper issue when I perform the 60K service, and given the faint sound it makes for about the first minute or 2 of driving I figured it wasn't severe since it does go away. I did a visual check of the rotors and the pads to see any uneven wear, but didn't see anything eye catching.

Any insight about this is greatly appreciated! Aside from this surprising unpleasantry, I have to say that the 3GS is a great car to have. Loving it every day!

**BTW, forgot to mention that I did do a search related to any caliper freezing/noise/squeal issue and it's not the noise that you typically hear as if the brakes are rusted over or anything -- none of the threads I looked through had the same issue. Just curious if anyone here experienced the same thing, and what the issue was caused by. Thanks

warandcar

the only time i heard that was when my wife wore down the pads to the metal. she mustve been drifting… i would look for a free check of your brakes coupon and check those calipers. maybe one of the pads slipped off. but if they are in place there wouldn't be any reason for a metal to metal sound…. interested to hear whats wrong.

Steve2424

Thanks for the reply! It's not a noise that came about from braking, but while driving -- and became louder the faster I went. When I applied the brakes, there was no noise other than the grinding noise I mentioned coming to lower decibel due to deceleration. The pads are all there when I checked all 4 corners and none of the calipers seemed off in any way. The rotors were fine with no visible scratches/ scrapes/ indents of any sort.

My only guess (so far, unless this happens again) is perhaps a tiny rock/ fragment got lodged between the pad and rotors and basically ground away to dust? Since there is a ton of road work going on in NY lately that was my only guess aside from it being a caliper issue.

Mistahoo

I had an odd noise due to a slightly warped rotor that would make a relatively loud noise when I would go faster and go away when applying brakes. Had the rotor evened out and the noise went away on its own. This noise wasn't anywhere close to a screeching noise though...

warandcar

so is the noise gone now? that sounds like it may be the case...

Steve2424

Yes, haven't heard it since. On my last car ('01 Maxima) the calipers were notorious for freezing up which is why it was odd to me that it would have escalated to such a loud screech/ metal rubbing sound for the GS without any indication -- usually a progressively louder whirring sound until it just gave up and cried for help lol

Thanks for the replies guys. If anything else comes up I'll update this thread and share the results. Much appreciated!