My brakes started to squeal about 2 weeks ago but the sensor hasn't gone off. Should I replace or wait longer for the sensor?

Thanks.

 

Well where is the squealing coming from? If its coming from the back there is no sensor, and i should also note that the inner brake pads wear about 40% faster than the outer pads on the A8, so pull the caliper and have a look.

 

What he said^^^^ ...posted while I was typing ....plus:

Mileage on car or brakes?
Original pads? If not who replaced them, with what?

I'd want to look at the actual pad thickness, both sides of each rotor. Pads worn too thin generally make a grind noise, rather than squeal.

Squeal can be caused by glazed over cheap or overheated pads...can be temporarily solved by removing and sanding off glaze.

Also cheap pads without vibration dampening material on back of pads will squeal with only a little wear.

In some cases, squeal can be caused by pads "stuck" in corroded or dirty caliper. Believe it or not, flooring the car backwards and locking the brakes can dislodge the pads from stuck position...I've done it a thousand times. Squeal goes away at least temporarily...sometimes a long time.

If you don't do any of your own tooling and simply want to get rid of squeal, new pads (good quality, with vibration dampening coating on back of pad) could be the only solution. But squeal doesn't necessarily mean diminished braking performance.

 

I bought the car certified pre-owned last year so I assume it has OEM brakes. It has about 36k miles on it.

I'm not sure where the squealing is coming from. Sounds like front. Too cold to roll down window. I'll check that out today. Sounds like maybe I should just take it to a garage and have them take a look....

 

36K on stock organic pads are probably almost worn out, its about time to upgrade the pads or change em out.

 

Will do. Thanks!

 

If your replacing the rotors at the same time, let em go until they start to grind, no sense replacing them before that. If your not replacing the rotors get some new pads. I tried Akebono rear ceramic pads, but they squeaked when not warmed up so I had them replaced with stock. If its front pads you'll have to find a different alternative because Akebono doesn't offer front ceramics; but stock have the best bite but the most dust!

 

Hawk ceramics are the best bang for the buck, almost no dust, decent braking, absolutely no squealing and they last more than 50k.

I just put a set on a VW touareg a few days ago and was very impressed with thier stopping power, probably not as good as stock, but with no dust and no sound whatsoever, can't really complain.