2014 LR4: Metal in brake pad causes squeal

All,

I don't think I ever shared this problem, but back in October I noticed my LR4 would make a noise some of the times when driving slowly (8-25 mph) and mostly during or after a left hand turn. The noise was a rotational metal-sounding squeal. This noise would occur after ~20 minutes of driving (things had heated up reasonably well) and could occur as I was coming to a stop or accelerating after a stop (noise mostly occurred as I was driving and not braking). This noise in no way affected the drivability or braking of my car. Unfortunately, these conditions are typically rush hour traffic and I got to be the embarrassed driver of a nice new luxury vehicle that sounded un-luxurious to everyone in stop and go! Once the problem occurred, stopping for 45 seconds then going would often have the problem go away.

So in November the dealer removed all 4 wheels to look for anything that could be rubbing (I wasn't able to repro the problem on a test drive). At the end of the day they said everything looked good and gave me my car back. I soon found that the problem was still there. A couple months later it got worse as this rare sound (once every 3-4 weeks) was starting to occur more frequently on my same commute (once every few days). The issue was especially apparent on a recent drive up mount Hamilton, about half of the left hand turns heading up and down the mountain would produce this squeal. I went back a week ago to talk to the service manager. After again failing to repro the problem in a test drive he figured there may be a resonance coming from the disc brakes and suggested removing everything, re-lubing, and putting it all back together.

So I brought my car in for this issue a second time. Lo and behold, they called me at the end of the day to say they found a piece of metal (size of a thumbnail) in the left front pad! They didn't know how the metal got in the pad but it wasn't from my car and and must've been in the pad at the time of installation. I was told everything else looked great and they replaced brake pads for all 4 wheels (@6700 miles) and the problem should be solved. So far it is <sigh of relief>.

Anyway, wanted to share this in case anyone else has this strange issue occur for them. I hope this will be the worst problem to pop up on my LR4!

PS: Once I figure out how to post/share the audio file of the problem I'll link it to this thread.

Weird one there! Glad you got it resolved.

I wonder if it was something that got kicked up off the road and wedged itself in there?

I had the same kind of thing on an Acura Integra back in 1990. Brand new car and the brakes had some random squeal - eventually after complaining they finally said they found some odd piece of metal and after that the problem went away. They could not explain how it got there either.

I always wondered if they made up the story and it was actually something else (they seemed like cheeseball lie to your face kind of people), but now I wonder if it was true. I guess anything is possible! Glad your sorted out - that kind of thing can drive you insane!

I asked how the metal piece ended up in the pad. The service manager said the space between the pad and the disc was like 1/100 of an inch and he couldn't see how an object got in there. We don't really know. I do wish they would've showed me the pad though for my own curiosity. And yes it was driving me nuts, only peace of mind was that it seemed purely cosmetic and was not causing any damage (which was confirmed when the inspection was done). Sounds like the same issue you had catman.

I should add that LR of San Jose is awesome, they gave me a brand new xf loaner for the day and overall I was very satisfied with the service.

Also, I wish I had an integra back in 1990 lol! Though my 86 Toyota truck did me well and lasted 220k+.

Hi all,
I am very new to this forum. And i would like to share with you about the same noise that "Jotade" mentioned. It all happened as i was driving my LR4 on a rather steep track, right after i locked the vehicle to the right, the rotational "metal-sounding squeal" started...only to stop about 20 min later as nothing happened ! the noise seemed to come from the right front wheel. i examined all the wheels and the brake components, but i found no suspect heat, nor any stuck object in there...after driving some more (about 20min) the noise disappeared suddenly, and i thought that this was probably a tiny stone was stuck against the brake discs...but after reading "Jotade's experience...i am a lot more suspiscious about this creepy noise, although i have had this trouble only once for now !
I hope we will found out where this trouble comes from, before it changes to a more serious stuff !
Thanks for sharing !

Unfortunately the noise happened again a week later. Ugh!
Though it was less pronounced (quieter) and doesn't seem to occur as often. In going to have to talk to the dealer again to see if they did relube all the pads and rotors even though they found the metal piece in the left rear pad. At least this still seem like a cosmetic noise issue and not indicative of any excessive wear and tear.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Perhaps whatever metal they found in the pad scored and damaged the rotor. They didn't replace the rotor, did they? Just the pads?

I do get something similar from time to time when I'm wheeling - especially going through deep mud puddles where water will carry a tiny stone into the rotors. It happened this past weekend when driving a very muddy, wet trail with lots of large mud puddles. Tim Scully, a LR trainer, was with me. He said the usually come out (and the one I had did) but when he gets them he can often help get them discharged by stopping hard when going in reverse. In my case the "rock" came out before we could try this procedure.

They just replaced the pads. The problem happened again at lunch and was persistent throughout stops and starts, but I noticed that toggling the parking brake immediately resolved the squeal. Maybe there is something to there. I'm going to showcase my vehicle ignorance here, but I don't know anything about parking brakes.

Could there be a reason a parking brake could cause a squeal even if it's not engaged?

Yeah, if it's broke. Get the park brake shoes and drum checked asap, it may have been the problem all along, unless you are positive the squeal was definitely originating from the front end. That EPB has a nasty habit of seizing on you at the most inopportune time.