Thomas, in looking at the pics again, i saw that the worn out pads show
signs of rust. Is that side of the car exposed to a sprinkler or
something of that nature?

Thomas Hanno wrote:

> Hey,
> I just changed the front brake pads on my '97 Legacy Outback 2.5L with
> 146,000+ miles. I bought the car a year and a half ago and the brakes
> have been squealing for about a year. I heard metal on metal grinding
> the other day and decided to stop driving until I bought pads from the
> dealer and replaced them. I got the new ones on and the squeak is
> gone.
>
> Here are two pictures of the pads I removed, the front left pads are
> on the left and the front right pads are on the right. The furthest
> pad on the right is the outside pad of the passenger side.
>
> www.rpi.edu/~hannot/side.jpg
> www.rpi.edu/~hannot/above.jpg
>
> Should I worry about this uneven wear? My rotors seem fine, though
> there are some minor grooves from the pad being almost completely worn
> down. I used a drill and sandpaper attachment to grind them down as
> much as I could. I suppose it's possible that someone replaced just
> the driver's side pads before I got the vehicle, but after a year it
> doesn't seem like the replaced pads would look that thick. Although,
> writing that last sentence reminds me that the guy I bought the
> vehicle from said he had replaced all the pads right before he sold it
> to me...
>
> On that same passenger tire, I noticed that one of the gaskets from
> the piston (I think. The pistons are the cylinders you depress to
> rotate the assembly back together...right?) looked like it had slipped
> out a little. I would have grabbed a picture, but my hands were
> filthy. It wasn't seated completely like any of the other ones,
> anyway. Is this part of the problem?
>
> When driving today, it sounded like the rear brake might have been
> part of the squealing. I may pop the back tires off tomorrow to see if
> the rear pads are in terrible shape as well.
>
> Thanks for any tips.
>