Mysterious Brake Squeal

[Mask of Destiny]

When I hit the brakes on my 944 I sometimes get a squeal that sounds like it's coming from the rear. I figured I needed new rear pads so I ordered a set and started the job. Once I took the rear wheels off I discovered that the brake pads had plenty of material left (looked to be roughly 3/4 compared to a new pad).

At this point I figure that I must have heard wrong and it was the front brakes. So I take a quick look at those and at least the outer pads have plenty of material (hard to say precisely since the wheels are still on, but definitely more than 1/2.

I know in a floating caliper system brake wear can be uneven between the inner and outter pads, but I would think that it wouldn't be so uneven that the inners would need to be replaced when the outers still have more than 1/2 the material.

Any idea what the cause could be? Is this something I should worry about or can I just ignore it?

[nynor]

brake squeal is not always due to worn pads. it could be the rotor is worn or there is glaze on the pad or rotor. try driving about fifty feet with the brakes applied to a small degree, just enough to give tension and see if it alleviates the problem.

[carlege]

if you have the foot for it... when riding down the road and you hear the squeal try varying degrees of pedal pressure and see if the squeal changes tone or stops all together.

I had a similar squeal on my xterra and i finally after taking it to numerous people i said screw it and put some pads on myself... and the squeel stopped. the Old pads had life left but they were also cracked.

[Catamax944]

The pads don't have to be worn to squeal,even new pads could squeal if they're cheap enough,depends from what compound they're made of.My old pads were like new,plenty of meat on them but squeald like crazy,i couldn't stand it so i replaced them with some new Metal Master's from Paragon and the squelling stoped.