My Mazda 323 is making a terrible noise when I brake - is it dangerous? It is braking ok but noisy. There is plent of fluid and I have disc brakes on all wheels.

Anything I can do to fix it myself?

Cheers

N N

A dab of grease or oil on the disc will solve your noise problem EDIT. IMPORTANT this is a joke, do NOT oil your pads or discs, no responsibilty accepted for following 'advice' in this section of the post :D

Seriously, check the pads, could be worn out. If the pads are low avoid driving until they are replaced, otherwise you'll score the discs and have to exchange them as well.

Read this http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/howto/art...87/article.html

They are easy enough to change, but why get dirty when a man will change them for you CHEAP.

Edited December 6, 200619 yr by Crossy

OK, cheers Crossy.

Check pads first. How long have you been running on these pads?

A dab of grease or oil on the disc will solve your noise problem

You startled me there for a second Crossy, I was ready to jump all over you. Does sound like the pad(s) are gone. May have to have the disk itself honed smooth again if it has been like that for a while. Not expensive to have it checked and repaired. Also if you had mud in them and it dried, would act like sandpaper and damage the pads and the disks.

A dab of grease or oil on the disc will solve your noise problem

You startled me there for a second Crossy, I was ready to jump all over you.

That's why I added the edit, always some drongo who's going to interpret these jests literally

Not that Neeranam or any other member of this board would take that seriously, actually, I CAN think of one or two

I took my Toyota to the shop and told them to give it whatever it needed. I asked them to check the brakes and to replace them if necessary. I did notice some light scoring on the front rotors. They had them off and turned before I could stop them. It wasn't all that expensive but I have lost a lot of pedal. I have put new pads on rotors that were badly scored and the new pads wore into the grooves and all worked fine. The rotors even eventually got nice and shiny again grooves and all.

when I was working in garages many years ago, new disk brake pads came with a a little appendage that would rub the rotor causing a squeal (but not damaging the rotor) when braking to let the driver know that the pad lining was worn and needed to be replaced...it's the rivets on the pads that cause damage when in contact with the rotor when the lining is spent...

however this was 30 years ago when disk brakes were rocket science...