Give Me A Brake

[Taylor Martin]

I check my brakes and fluids pretty frequently, so the problem isn't them (yet). In fact, this problem has persisted for as long as I can remember, and it's not really a problem at all.

I like to try and brake as smoothly as possible: make initial contact, press down, then ease off real slow so that my foot is applying little to no pressure by the time I come to a stop. It's at that point, when the car is barely moving, that my brakes grumble.

I've ran a series of tests: the brakes don't squeak when I stomp on them either at high speeds or stationary, they don't even make a sound. If I brake kind of hard and nix the smoothness, they don't make noise either. It's only when I'm nearly stopped (and sometimes if I want to inch forward, say in a parking lot or at a red light, I'll let go of the brake and the car might grumble as I inch forward from taking a tiny bit of pressure off the brakes).

I'm guessing it's the brakes being somewhat applied while the car is lurching forward that causes the noise, but I'm curious as to if that's a bad thing or not. They work just fine, and slamming on the brakes will stop the car no sweat, so I assume no damage has been done.

EDIT: No more comments necessary. It's all normal!

[A Former User]

That's fairly normal in my experience - lightly apply the brake at low speed, and the pad will vibrate at a relatively low frequency.

I can intentionally do it in every car I've owned if I just let off the brake juuuuust right.

[Old Busted Hotness]

Yep, jut pad chatter. Nothing to sweat about.

[MM54]

Just a resonance with the pads grabbing/slipping/grabbing/slipping on the rotors under the right (low) pressure. All my cars will do it to an extent, some much more pronounced than others (in the 4Runner they'll groan quite loudly if I inch forward just right). It's nothing to be concerns about from a "is this broken?" standpoint; different compounds on the pads / surface quality on the rotors will have an impact on it.

[spacekraken]

Is it more "chatter" than "grumble"? If so yeah I think that's pretty normal. My car definitely is quietest if you really dig into the pedal too.

[jminer]

@taylor-martin As others have said, completely normal. There's a ton of force in play when applying brakes so occasional noise is expected.

[Taylor Martin]

@bhtooefr Looks like that's the general consensus, to thank you! I wanted outside opinions in case that's a glaring red flag for an issue I've never heard of haha.