Hutch

2 weeks ago I went into my local dealer (Cutrubus Motors in Utah) and told him my brakes were squeeking and I could hear a light dragging noise after breaking for a short time after braking at a slow speed. He said it was probably brake dust and they get this question all the time. He said my brakes would last alot longer than 22,000 miles, and to go hose them off. So I went and hosed off all my brakes and got rid of alot of the dust. Yesterday I get a loud grinding noise from the driver side wheel when braking. A loud dragging noise continues until I get up to 30 MPH or so.. Took a look at it and I have a groove in the disc and looks like the pads are about gone on both rear brakes..

My 99.5 A4 1.8T Quattro has 22,000 miles on it, I do not do autocross and have really babied it.. I'm a bit disgusted that the dealer didn't at least look at the pads during the last 2 services, or offer to look at it when I brought it in and asked about the squeek. It's saturday and the service dept is closed..am I safe to drive it until tuesday when they open? and do you think they'll replace the pads and the disc under warranty?

Thanks in advance for your feedback!!

Mark Langford

but the other side's just fine. Which leads me to believe that the caliper is dragging on the driver's side. Otherwise "they" COULD say somebody drove it with the parking brake on. The front pads were replaced with Rofrens when the car was new (and the brake dust got cut to about 5% of what the new ones did)and they still look great. My car has been driven very "nicely" by my wife.

I wouldn't want to go on record as saying "just drive it and don't worry about it", but if it were me, I'd drive it til they can get you an appointment. If your disc is already scored, it's history anyway, and since it's on the rear, the effect on braking isn't as big as if it were a front brake.

Mark Langford

I forgot to mention. Whenever your pads get low, the caliper piston is extended a long way, and the loads are higher than normal due to the reduced bearing area. I wouldn't drive it anymore than I HAD to. Mine's parked till I can get some brake pads, but then I caught it just before the pads were completely gone, so I have no disc scoring yet, and won't have to replace the disc (more than likely).