Rear Brake Squeal

[DocShmoc]

Hi all,

I have an 04 RX 300 SE-L that I've had for about 5 years now. I love the car but the rear brakes are driving me nuts.

Basically, after I've been driving for about 15 minutes there's a very loud squeal that comes from the real left brake. If I press the brake pedal it stops.

If I turn the steering wheel slightly it can change the sound (pitch / tone) or also stop the squeal altogether (though that's not always practical but offers some respite when cornering! :) )

It's had new disks and pads already.

It's had a seal service.

My local Lexus dealer couldn't pinpoint it, though they skimmed the disks which did seem to fix the problem for a couple of months but now the squeal is back.

Any thoughts or ideas? I was thinking a new calliper next?

Thanks!

[steve2006]

You seem to have covered most of the possible causes with a pad change and disc skim.

I assume all the anti rattle shims and pad pull off springs are present and correct and all pad contact points are greased with Lexus doing the work.

One thing you haven't mentioned in a wheel bearing on its way out, if the bearing is worn and not running true the application of the brake can "straighten" it out and the noise will stop also the fact the fault seems to be temperature related may be a clue as the bearing heats up.

[stringbender]

If it's not the wheel bearing (which it probably is) then I'd check out whether the parking brake is binding. My SE L is '05 and the cables do like to set solid. If you can run the car for a good 10 minutes then come to a halt without using any brakes the discs should all be cold. If the drum is binding on the rear then that part will be nicely hot and may even have heated up the actual wheel if it's really bad.

Do let us know how you resolved it.

Alan