Dear All,

I've got an 86 firebird w/ 4-wheel disc brakes. After being on the brakes for maybe 20ish seconds (particularly at higher speeds), and then letting off and pressing on the pedal again, when pressing only a little, I hear a rubbing noise. When I let off, it goes away, and when I think it goes away when I press on the brake further. The car stops fine, and the pads have plenty left on them. Any suggestions of what this might be? The only thing I've thought of is that for some reason a rotor is warping when it gets warm and when I press on the brake only a slight bit of one brake is making contact, but I'm not sure how reasonable this is, and the car is not noticeably pulling to either side.

Thanks,
Mike

 

A warped rotor will be indicated with a vibration at braking - the tall spot on the rotor comes around and hits the pad, and at regular speeds above 10mph this creates a vibration.

More than likely, if there's no vibration, you may have glazed the pad and/or rotor with the hard braking. You can remove the pad that makes the noise, and sand the surface with 80 or 100 grit sandpaper, and also sand the rotor gently with some 150 or 200 grit, and replace. That should remove any glazing that might have occurred.

If it's not glazed, and there's plenty of pad on BOTH sides of the disc, then I dunno. But always check BOTH SIDES of the disc (ie both pads), as one pad always wears faster than another on the same disc.