2005 Coupe, 4 cyl. 125,000 miles.

For the past few months, I have noticed a groan like noise that occurred some of the time, usually when the car has been driven for awhile (15+ minutes) as it comes to a stop form maybe 10 mph to a full stop. I jacked teh car up, took off the tires looked at the pads (still plenty of pad), the disks, and checked the ball joints and tie rods, which all looked good as well. Today, I went to stop at a traffic light and my brakes didn't work very good as they fades so badly they were barely stopping the car. I had to use the emergency brake to stop. the dealer was close by so I dropped the car off. They could find nothing wrong. They said there was no fluid loss and some staining where the MC attaches to the booster. The dealer could not state the MC was bad. The fluid was changed via vacuum method about 14,000 miles ago. I told told them to order a new MC, which will cost me $385 installed. $385 is a lot cheaper than an accident, law suit or injury. I hope this is what was wrong. Any suggestions to what I should have done differently than order a new MC?

 

Bump
Anyone...

 

Location of the sound?

Groaning sound makes me think of the vacuum booster or vacuum lines running to that.

You checked the brake pads... inboard pads too? The inboard pads have the metal tab for "break-wear warning". That can make all sorts of strange sounds when it first begins rubbing. Then it changes into the screetch that we recognize.

 

location is left front brake. Car is now at the dealer again. I asked him to actually remove the pads and see if they are glazed over. He is to scuff them up if so.
I did some online research and what I found is glazed pads can cause the moan/groan sound when the brakes gets hot and if it gets too hot, gas can form between the disk and pads causing the fade or complete failure. Once the brake cools down, it functions as normal. I expect a large bill today after his takes care of the pads and replaces the MC .

 

the solution. The left brake pad had a crack in it and both front pads were severely glazed. So if anyone has fade issues, check the pads for glaze and you can scrub it off with emery paper.I hope that helped someone.

 

Thanks for posting the info.