Brakes were squealing now they are not

[MMMdude]

My brakes started squealing the other day and did so for a few weeks.  Took car in and they told me $1100 to replace fronts (rotors and pads) and rear (drums and shoes).  I though that was crazy.  Another place said they could do it for half assuming i needed all that work.  I will take it in tomorrow.

Anyways since then the brakes have stopped making that noise.  How is that possible?  Rear brakes have never been touched in 200K miles.  Fronts I completely redid about 60K mles ago (4 years) so surprised the rotors have to be done again.

[terran]

The wear indicator is a little spring or piece of metal that pops out and scrapes when the pads get down to a certain level, so it can break off and stop scraping.

[Cecil]

They stopped squealing as terran said, because the wear indicator has worn off. This means your brakes are now critically low.

Rotors are probably fine, you may not actually need to replace them, and they won't actually know unless they took the wheels off to check.

[Thegoblinchief]

+1 to what others said about the pads.

Rotors - 3 possibilities:

1. If there's vibration/pulsing when braking, the rotors are warped and need to be resurfaced or replaced.

2. Running the pads down so long has gouged the surface.

3. If either 1 or 2 has happened but the rotors of your model are too thin to resurfaced, they need to be replaced.

I'll issue you a CHALLENGE. Find a DIY friend or family member. Failing that, go on YouTube. Brakes are very easy to repair yourself (disc, drums...they're a PITA I'll admit to hiring out because I just don't do them often enough to get good at it). Even if you need to buy the tools, the tools will pay for themselves the very first time you do it.

[Uturn]

Learn to replace brakes.  It is amazingly easy, even drums.  Get a set of drum brake tools, should be about $15, I bought mine in 1986, they last.  You will save many hundreds of dollars doing it yourself.  You can take the long way and figure it out yourself in about an hour, or get a friend to teach you in about 20 minutes. 

Most important thing to know about brakes is only do one side at a time.  The other side will show you how it is supposed to go back together, especially drums. 

[Rural]

Learn to replace brakes.  It is amazingly easy, even drums.  Get a set of drum brake tools, should be about $15, I bought mine in 1986, they last.  You will save many hundreds of dollars doing it yourself.  You can take the long way and figure it out yourself in about an hour, or get a friend to teach you in about 20 minutes. 

Most important thing to know about brakes is only do one side at a time.  The other side will show you how it is supposed to go back together, especially drums.

Take multiple pictures as you take them apart. First thing that really sold me on digital cameras back when they were new.

[neo von retorch]

What Uturn said - I haven't worked on cars much at all, but I replaced the rotors and pads on the front wheels of my wife's car this summer. Took maybe an hour. Saved about $300. Felt great to do it.

[snappytom]

Were the brakes squealing under light brake pedal pressure and would not squeal when braking hard ?  Or did they squeal / grind regardless of the pedal pressure ?

If squealing / grinding regardless of pressure ... time for a brake job.

If only squealing under light pressure then a simple adjustment and lube of the sliders may fix it.  In this situation the noise is from vibration when the pads are not engaging evenly.  May be due to uneven pad wear or the sliding surfaces being gunked up and need a cleaning/lube.

Doing brakes is easy and very mustachian.  A half hour on youtube and you should be able to do a brake inspection and go from there.

[Greg]

Changing brake pads is easy, it's the first car repair job I learned.  Just changing the pads isn't ideal, but it will suffice usually.  Get a repair manual for your car and be methodical.  Ask a handy friend to mentor you.

Odds are your rear brakes are not working well if at all.   I suggest doing the same with them.