I cannot figure out why the rear brakes sound like it has metal on metal grinding when I stop. I checked the pads and they are still practically new. I removed dust in the hub and cleaned the area as much as possible. I cannot find a smoking gun. Has anyone had this problem? and if so what did you find or what can I check?

 

Which brakes? Saginaw or PBR?

 

nash, welcome to TGO.

Posting the year, make, model (and so on) of your car will help members provide answers to your questions.

Best of luck with your issue.

JamesC

 

Disc or drum brakes?
I installed some cheap pads on my wife's van once, and they sounded like metal on metal when you stopped. I replaced them, they were probably still 3/4 pad still left.
A better quality set of pads and it now stops quiet!

 

Sorry bunch, My firebird is a 92 with drums on the rear. The sound is coming from the rear. The only thing I can think that I have done is changed the slave cylinder on the right side when I bought the car 3 years ago, but don't think that would have anything to do with the grinding sound. I changed the brake pads Or shoes about 4000 miles ago and they look good. I used NAPA's better pads not the cheap ones.

 

Sorry, new to the third gen, what do you mean Saginaw or PBR?

 

You said "pads" in your original post; sort of leads down the path of disc brakes, since drums don't have those. Saginaw is the mfr (GM division) that produced the cast-iron calipers on the 82-88 cars; PBR in Australia is the mfr of the aluminum calipers on the 89-up system. But since you don't have discs that doesn't apply.

Drums are eeeeeezy. Just take em off and look for what's scraping. Much eeeeeeeezier than us out here playing guessing games until you finally look and come back and tell us which one (if any) guessed right.