Car is 2003 SE with ~120k miles. Still has the stock OEM brake pads/rotors on the back.

Over the last week or so, i am hearing an interesting noise while driving on the freeway or even at city speeds (40-50mph). It sounds like a metal chain dragging on the pavement somewhere under my car. This is the best i can describe it. I looked - there is nothing hanging under the car and nothing is touching the ground, so i know that there are no hanging wires, ropes, metal pieces, chains, strings under the car that can be making this noise.

The reason i suspect the rear brakes is that when i hear this noise (it's not there all the time) and i gently pull on the hand/emergency brake - it goes away for some time...then may come back. Same happens if i tap the brake pedal.

So ... could this be the brake pads making the noise even if i am not using the brakes at the time??? Can they have some worn down noise indicators?
Only sometimes, when i am using the brakes i hear the typical brake squeak...but i also suspected that i comes from my front brakes. Overall, my brakes are quiet on a day to day use and i checked the front pads 2 weeks ago - they had 35%. Not sure about the rear.

Or.... could this be a bearing or something else going bad?

Let me know what you think.

Thank you!

 

yeah, it's the pads.
mine were making a high pitch when moving and not applying the brakes, and the noise would gone if brakes or handbrake was applied. it turned out that the pads were worn out and the rotors were warped also.

 

x2 exact same thing for me, constant noise when driving, stopped when braking, changed pads and all is well again.

 

I hope that you're both right, guys. Brake pads are easy to change. I am really paranoid about bad wheel bearings but it looks and sounds like this is not the case here.

What rear pads did you go with? OEM? Aftermarket?
I know that not a lot of braking happens on the rear, but still...maybe it's time for a more aggressive pad set. I was looking at some HAWK pads but i also read some so-so reviews about their noisy behavior, tricky break-in procedures and etc.

Any opinions?

 

OEM because it doesn't dust, make noise, and like you say rear brakes don't do much.

 

Yeah, I have the same noise coming from the fronts right now. Its the wear indicator doing its job, letting you know its time to change them.

I have zinc plated RTP slotted rotors and either hawk ceramic or hawk HPS pads all around going in on Monday. I havent decided which pads I am going with yet.

It sucks that I am going to spend labor day doing actual labor.....

 

Which labor is better for you? Your own or the stealership/ auto repair shop?

 

if you want an improvement over stock that is consistently quiet across the board with no tricky bed-in procedure and very little brake dust, then you might wanna look into akebono brake pads.. they're not as powerful as the hawks, but like i said, they do have those other advantages that the hawks do not have.. but if you're just changing the rears, you won't feel much difference in performance.. they're not terribly expensive, so if i were you, i'd change both axles with akebono and enjoy a more powerful, quiet, clean braking experience