My brakes are squealing (high pitched noise) while reversing only. They never squeal while moving forward and applying the brakes. Also, the pads have a quite a bit of life left in them. Any ideas why this could be happening? Thanks.

 

Overnight rust, which clears as soon as you have reversed out of your drive.

Loose or worn anti-squeal shims. Loose caliper. Loose pads. Sticky caliper pistons.

In my experience with my own vehicles squealing brakes can usually be put down to something a little loose or slightly worn.

Maybe check and clean your disks, sand off any varnish from the pad surface.

Or, simply avoid reversing.

Others will add their own thoughts.

 

I agree with all that Richard said.

Sanding/deglazing the rotors and pads will probably do the trick. There are numerous anti-squeel products that are applied to the back of the pads. They usually work well so I'd go ahead and use one of them as long as I had the pads off. I think I've had the best luck with Loctite brand.

There's always a chance that your parking brake pads are the culprits. Awfully hard to even get even a decent visiual inspection given their location.

Cheers
DD

 

Excellent, thank you all for the suggestions. I will try the cleaning up route this weekend.

 

Use this information at your own risk, I always recommend going to a professional to get work done to your car.

My best friend has been a mechanic for 7 years. We've done a lot of work together on various cars. We've always dealt with the brake squealing issue the same way.

Take off the pads, and file the edges down ever so slightly so it's not 90 degrees to the rotor. It seems weird I know, but if you notice a lot of pads come like this from the factory. Applying gunk to the back only if absolutely necessary. Think about it this way, the more stuff you put on the back of the pads the worse the heat transfer and the easier it is to overheat the brakes (wearing them prematurely or causing them to fail)

Also "high performance" pads are almost always a little noisy at least sometimes. If you want quiet, long lasting brakes, always try to stick with OEM or quality OEM equivalents. It was chosen as the factory for a reason even though other pads may provide slightly better stopping power.

Of course, do this at your own risk, and try not to use the internet as your only source of automotive education.

Good luck