A pretty new car came into the shop with a really bad constant high-pitched squealing noise that happened whenever it moved. With low miles, it’d be unlikely that the brakes had worn all the way down to reach metal-on-metal contact, so the likely culprit was that the backing plate had gotten pushed into the rotor and was rubbing as the car drove.

I put the car up on a lift and took a look. Surprisingly, the backing plate was not rubbing. At the bottom of the backing plate I found a very small stone wedged in between the backing plate and rotor.

Despite its small size, it was just scraping against the rotor enough to create a very loud noise. Sometimes something can sound like a major problem when it’s really only a small thing that’s not a big deal.

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-Dan