I don’t need an alarm clock. Why? Everyday, when my neighbor’s wife leaves for work I hear her brakes squeak and squeal as she makes four-point turns attempting to back out of her driveway and get on her way. This annoys me. I don’t like it. I used to think the noise my alarm clock made was annoying—this is worse.

So I asked my buddy neighbor about it. “Hey,” I said, “your wife’s car really has a brake squeaking problem.” “Really?” is all he says. Next, I try for the wife. “Hey hon,” I try, “your brakes really squeak.” I did not get the reaction I expected.

She threw her hands in the air yelling, “Oh no, what should I do, are my brakes going to quit working? Will I die on the highway?” After I calmed her down, I told her a little about brakes and why they squeak. Then I thought, maybe this experience could help some of you, so I decided to write about it.

Why the Squeaking?

Most of the time, our brakes squeak due wear and tear on the brake pads. This can be caused by excessive wear and tear and people like my neighbor’s wife, who SLAM their brakes over and over again—and every time they stop. It can also depend on the type of brake pads you have—ones that are made from carbon metallic materials can cause squeaks faster than others.

Take a trip to your mechanic to see if you need to replace one or all of your brake pads—if it’s the brake pad. You should also prepare for these types of wear and tear failures with an extended warranty.

Another reason the brakes can squeak can be related to calipers, especially loose calipers, incorrect brake pads, glazed rotors or warped rotors. Your mechanic can do a quick inspection of these components and let you know if any of these items need to be repaired or replaced.

I really didn’t want to tell my neighbor’s wife this one, but I did. I told her if her brakes squeak and she hears a sort of clunky noise, it could mean there is a big problem in the entire braking system, which could result in total brake failure. Back to the hysterics we went, much as I thought.

After I calmed her down a second time, I tried a better approach. I told her it could just be the brake pads and the make and model of them and that they may be prone to squeaking. I told her that a good mechanic could put brake pad vibration damper pads on to stop the squeaking.

Of course by now, I was sort of having fun tormenting her, so I told her it could be a drum brake squeak. This, I explained, was where there is poor contact between the brake shoes and the drum. If this was the problem, a mechanic could fix this too.

I then realized, since I’m no technician that I was running out of reasons why her brakes were squeaking but felt confident that I had given her a pretty good list of reasons. It’s been a week now and I still don’t need an alarm clock. She’s still making those four-point turns to get on her way each day and well, she told my wife, her husband told her I was an idiot and it wasn’t nice to scare her that way. I hope they move soon.

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