yitshen

This morning I noticed a grinding noise from rear when braking at low speed (less than 10mph. at high speed there is no noise). What that might be?

I checked online and it seems I'm having a worn brake pad. But there is only 7K mi on my car. Do brake pads get worn out that fast?

I'm worrying if the rotor is also damaged. I've already made an appointment tomorrow...

NxTGen

A couple of questions are: Has the vehicle been sitting for a bit? could be surface rust on the rotors causing this. Also how long have you had the Nx?
Seeing that you live in the great Northeast like myself, salt and road debris can get caught in the slides causing the brake pads to get stuck in the brackets. You may also have a bad caliper causing extra drag on the brake pads and premature wear. The dealership should be able to narrow down the root cause pretty easily and worse case covered under warranty due to the relatively low mileage assuming you have'nt had the vehicle for very long.

Good luck!

ukrkoz

Rock could have stuck to brak epad. Neighbor had that on his Subie, to a horrendous grinding noise - and perfectly fine pads. He wet to a shop that quoted him something like half brake system replacement and when he went back home, to talk our other neighbor, who owns repair shop, and he found problem in 15 min and to handshake as payment. Good to have good neighbors.

yitshen

Thank you NxTGen!
I purchased the vehicle in February and drive ~450mi every week. Hope the dealership will repair the car under warranty.

BTW, this is my first Lexus. Can anyone share his or her experience with their service department? Are they honest or friendly? I had a GMC before and had several really terrible experience with the GM service department =( They simply does not honor their warranty!

yitshen

Thank you for sharing ukrkoz!

Mine grinding noise does not sound really horrible. Hope it's not something serious =)

no1SomeGuy

Is it still doing it? Pretty typical for a vehicle that sits over night in humid/wet areas to get surface rust on the rotors and takes a few good stops to clean them off....absolutely nothing to worry about if that's the case. I'd say 90% chance that's what it is.

yitshen

Thank you no1SomeGuy. It is kind of humid these day. But the noise is still there after ~1hr drive. I'll visit the dealership tomorrow to have the brake inspected.

NxTGen

Anytime!
In regards to the Lexus service department experience, the one I go to is hands down the best service experience I've had to date. Honest and to the point, I've only had a couple of trips there for minor things so I haven't experienced any pushy upsell's of any sort. I would look up dealership reviews if you live in an area where you've got multiple dealerships in a close proximity and kind of base it off of that.

Let us know how you make out and your experience.

no1SomeGuy

Yeah, probably good to get it inspected then if it's persistent after using the brakes a few times. Surface rust usually goes away after 2-3 light stops.

Lex2000TL

My wife’ new Acura had grinding noise, not too loud, only noticeable when making left turn. Since I rarely drive her car and my wife is always on the phone [], she did not complain and I did not know about noise for some time, couple thousand miles, I think. I suspected sticky caliper, as usual suspect in case like that.

Anyhow, I took car to a dealer (it is CPO) with complain and they found sticky piston. Fixed under CPO warranty.

yitshen

Hey guys,
Here is the update:

The brake got inspected. It's because of the rust debris during the spring. The brake pads and the rotors are in good condition. Dealership cleaned them for me and it should be fine now. They did not charge me anything for this, just told me to clean the brake once or twice a year, or whenever the noise bothers me.

BTW, the dealership (herb chambers lexus of hingham, MA) is decent and I like this place.

Thanks again for all your kind suggestions! Really appreciate it.