97 Strat - 133k mi. I have been noticing over the past several months that the back brakes tend to squeal (a sort of metal on metal sound) when just coming to a stop. Seems to be coming from passenger side rear. The sound seems to vary depending on where the wheel is in the rotation making a woo--woo--woo sound as I roll to a stop. I have replaced the brake shoes and wheel cylinders within 6 months so I thought maybe it was something with that.

Today I am driving around town and I hear some pretty serious sounding clunking and scraping noises coming from the back of the car. At one point I got out and looked underneath because I thought some metal rod or my muffler was dragging on the ground - nothing. It would come and go and I couldn't verify that it was brake related or not. I continued to drive carefully and got home without hearing much else. Took both brake drums off, everything looks OK with the brakes. Nothing out of place or so it seems with everything else. The rear wheel bearings were also replaced recently. Spun the bearings with the drums back on - no problems. I am completely stumped.

I am nervous about taking this car on any extended trip because it has had a history of leaving me high and dry before. Any thoughts as to what this mystery noise might be?

TIA

 

are you sure it's comming from the back? sometimes it's hard to tell or will sound like it's comming from one place when it's realy another. try looking at the bushings/suspen sys. i've had to get my suspen lubed 'cause of some ugly noises in the past. try driving down the most uneven road you can find to see if the noise comes back, then a smooth one to see if it goes away. i would think it would be easy to tell if was the brakes, if it made noise when you stepped on them. hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the reply. Well, I took the drum off again and the wheel bearing - still nothing obvious. The only thing I did notice was that one of the oblong rubber plugs was missing from the flange. This must have been letting in water and debris so I greased up the brake shoes where they make contact with the flange and put it back together and I haven't heard the noise since. Very weird. I am pretty sure it was this though because in the past several weeks, I did notice some brake squeal and I could always repeat it. This time I can't. And the other noises I was hearing seemed to be directly related to the rotation of the wheel.