Odd brake squeak only at the very end of the stop

Question

I have a 2003 Infiniti FX 35. It has ~130K miles on it but new front and rear brakes were put on in the last year.

Just recently, after about a month of sitting around without being driven, the car has been making a squeaking sound during breaking but only in the last foot or so of travel. Nothing until the very end when the car some to a stop there is a short squeak.

My regular service repair person can't find anything wrong and is suggesting that I get it up to about 20mph and then hit the brakes hard.

Answer 1

His idea isn't a bad one. Brake noise can be caused by minor debris/rust on the rotor surface, pad misalignment, or missing pad shims. If you haven't driven in in a while and then the problem appeared, you may have some surface rust that formed and has gotten stuck on the rotor/pad.

Try his suggestion. If it were me, I would try braking hard at speed (45 mph, say) to really heat up the brakes and hopefully burn off anything in the way.

An empty parking lot is perfect to do this without having someone rear-end you.

Answer 2

Additionally, you could try driving in reverse at 5-10 mph and braking hard. I had a piece of grit stuck in mine once and it made a very strange squeak. It didn't come out under braking forwards, but dislodged itself when I went backwards.

Answer 3

If you have Shoes with drums on the back it could be that the star wheel adjustment needs to be adjusted and the noise you hear might be the sound of the rear shoes shifting forward just a bit at almost the very last second because there is not enough tension between your rear shoes and the rear drum.