Time for new brake pads?

[gladis]

The Camry is making some annoying as hell squeals whenever I apply the brakes enough to slow the car down to any extent, such as coming to a light, etc.

I'm assuming I need new brake pads.

However, there're two things I found interesting. If I brake hard, the squeal is still there, but much more muted, and I felt the brakes grinding at one of my harder stops today, any chance of a problem?

I ask because I don't really know when the last time the pads were replaced, though it should certainly have been within the last 3 years. It seems like both the Sienna and Camry are always making some squealing noises, but so far they've been minor until today.

[BMR]

The front pads have a metal clip that starts scraping on the disk when the pads need to be replaced. When it first starts touching, a little more braking pressure will often make the noise go away or reduce significantly. With time, the scraping noise is there regardless of braking pressure. If you felt/heard a grinding, that's possibly the pad's backing plate contacting the disk. The clip I mentioned is on only one pad in each caliper, so the other pad may not have worn equally.

Bottom line; get 'em looked at soon. If the pads are not worn reasonably evenly, inner Vs outer in each caliper, then you've got a problem with the caliper not sliding on its pins properly.

[gladis]

^^ Definitely a sign of worn pads then? I'll get them looked at this wkd.

On the Sienna, it doesn't squeal, it sounds almost like a faint creaking noise when you're creeping, and your foot is on the brake and you let go of it enough so the car moves.

[BMR]

I wouldn't say it's definitely worn out pads. Sometimes brakes just squeal. The noise the clip makes is more of a metal-on-metal squeek. "Normal" pad squealing is different; higher pitched. Hard to describe the difference with words.