No brake pad wear sensor?

I heard a scrunching sound coming from the front wheel wells of my
2004 Chrysler Pacifica.

I took off the brake pads to look to see how much life remained and to
determine if this was the source of the noise.

To my surprise, there are no wear sensors on these. There was some
remaining life on the pad material. These are the original factory
pads and the car now has 57000 miles on it.

Do they make the pads near the backing plate out of a different
material so that it emits this noise these days?

 

You sure your ABS isn't kicking in? Scrunching or crunching is a
typical description of an active ABS.

 

I thought it might be, but there is no pulsing and it occurs at very
ordinary decelerations when the car is close to stopping.

I got some new pads today (from Chrysler) and, sure enough, no wear
sensor on the new ones either.

Tim

 

I'll mention just one weird possibility that you can quickly rule in or
out: Do you perhaps have one tire a different size than the others that
is making the one wheel not turn as fast as the others and fooling the
ABS into activating?

 

I thought it might be, but there is no pulsing and it occurs at very
ordinary decelerations when the car is close to stopping.

I got some new pads today (from Chrysler) and, sure enough, no wear
sensor on the new ones either.


They probably just didn't put "wear sensors" on them to save money.

A lot of people may not pay attention to the noise of a wear sensor anyway,
not realizing the idea is to take the car in for new brakes, not ignore
the noise by turning up the stereo.

Ted

 

OK, tonight I installed the new brake pads and the same noise is
there. It doesn't sound like metal on metal, but instead like a
creaky rocking chair. I don't think the wheels are different sizes
but maybe it is the ABS.

It is difficult to separate out whether it is the brakes or simply the
weight of the car shifting to the front upon stopping. I bounced the
car up and down and I don't hear the noise. I also only hear the
noise as the car is about to stop (in other words not when the car is
decelerating, say, from 50 to 30mph).

Tim

 

Just a follow-up for those interested: it turned out to be the sway
bar end link.

Tim

 

An end link problem should only make noise when the wheels on opposite
sides of the same end (front or rear) of the car are moving out of phase
with each other - i.e., one wheel moving up or down and the other wheel
moving the opposite or not at all due to small bumps, going over speed
bumps at angles, going over parking lot entrance dips at an angle,
potholes, ext., and would not be too speed related.

Assuming that your description of the symptoms is accurate and complete
(and I'm not at all saying that that was not the case), I am a little
surprised to find that out the problem was an end link.

Anyway - glad you got it figured out and fixed.

 

Follow-up to the follow-up:

You were right to question the diagnosis. The end links were, in
fact, broken but they were not responsible for the noise.

Next, replaced the left and right struts and mounts. The problem went
away but returned the next day.

Looks like I am doomed to have this noise for the life of the car.

Tim