Brake noise is your car’s way of saying “pay attention” without the courtesy of a warning light.
Common culprits include glazed pads (squeal after gentle driving), surface rust on rotors (morning scrape that fades), wear indicators (steady high-pitched squeal), and loose hardware or warped rotors (clunks or pedal pulsing).
Grinding means the pad’s gone and metal is meeting metal—park it, unless you fancy buying rotors as well as pads.
Quick DIY triage: check pad thickness through the caliper, look for rotor scoring, and do a few firm 80–20 km/h stops to deglaze (somewhere safe and legal).
If the noise eases with light braking, suspect pad vibration; if it worsens downhill, think heat-soak and rotors; if the steering shimmies, fronts are the likely villains.
A decent workshop can measure runout and pad condition quickly—cheap peace of mind in AUD, and far less dramatic than a tow truck cameo.
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