Why Do My Brakes Squeal Like a Pig?

Brakes squeal, is never a good look.

For any vehicle owner, hearing your car sound like it’s doing the motor equivalent of squealing like a pig can be quite tough to put up with. Not only is it a wholly unpleasant sound, but also it’s not exactly a great indicator for the health of the vehicle.

Brakes squeal is wholly irritating and a embarrassing thing to go through, especially when you see half a street looking at your car with a funny face.

However, worse than the sound of the brakes squeal and the public laughing, are the comical prices you may be quoted to get brakes squeal fixed. Brakes squeal tends to be the mechanical equivalent of the blue screen of death on a PC; and an opportunity for the mechanic to drive the price up.

The thing is when your brakes sound as if they are on their last legs, whatever the mechanic suggests to fix the problem you will probably accept it. So if you want to avoid this type of situation, here are the two key reasons why your brakes may start to cause such an awful sound.

Brakes Squeal

Vibrating Brakes

The irritating hum and squeal you hear coming from your brakes may be due to vibration. This might seem like amateur hour on the part of the manufacturers, but a vibrating brake pad may be the reason for this noise. Whilst most vehicles come with an absorber for the vibration, they eventually thin down and become less effective – and require replacing. Thankfully this problem is less expensive and a lot easier to cope with financially, than many of the suggestions a mechanic might just decide to try and scare you with.

General Wear and Tear

If your brakes are coming to the end of their lifespan don’t fret. This is something that happens regularly with all vehicles and therefore is a common and cost-effective problem to get sorted. So long as you get the pads replaced before your vehicle starts to chew up the brake disks, you’ll be fine. The brakes squeal that we’ve been discussing is the most common indicator of a change being required. If you are a decent DIY mechanic, this is easy to sort and can be done with relative ease otherwise it’s a fairly cheap to have the repair carried out by a mechanic.

As you can see, your brakes squeal and sounding as if they are on the verge of death is probably because they are. But the be warned, the issue might not to be because of the terrifyingly expensive reason a devious mechanic may tell you.

To health and vehicle happiness,

Your fearless mechanic,

Phil.