a squirrel stuck in the wheel bearing

Have you verified that your rotors can be resurfaced? Most rotors have a spec for minimum thickness, and some rotors may not be able to be resurfaced.

While I can’t necessarily give you expert info about the rotor resurfacing process, I can tell you the basics of what they did to the rotors and how brakes are typically bedded. When you resurface a rotor (also called “turning” rotors), you are removing material from the surface so they are more flat. This prevents the excessive runout that causes that “warped” feeling when you apply the brakes and the pedal pulses.

The bedding process for brakes is different with every pad, but typically it involves repeated hard stops to transfer an even layer of pad material to the rotors. It’s possible the brakes weren’t bedded in properly, and this left an uneven layer of pad material on the rotors that is giving you that low-pitched “wow” sound.

Took it to dealer and service manager said it’s just bedding in and will take 500 miles or so to disappear. Well ….. it’s been 500 miles and the noise is still the same.

I’d appreciate any expert info you may have about the rotor resurfacing they did … and why I have that offensive noise. Thanks you!

Yeah, it might have been the splash guard, a mud flap, a fender liner, the bumper, or something like that. I’d make sure nothing is loose under there. You might even be able to spot some subtle scrape marks in the plastic if that’s what was rubbing. If everything checks out and feels fine driving, don’t worry about it too much.

I don’t know what the issue is. Was the original shop able to replicate the problem when you went back in?

You could always take it to a different shop and see what they say. The issue could be the wheel bearings or axles, not the brakes.

Take the wheel off, inspect each braking component. If the pads are worn, replace them. Inspect the rotors. Any surface damage, replace them. You might want to check that the caliper piston moves freely as well. You can use a brake piston compression tool for this.

Spin the wheel and see if the bearing makes the scraping noise. If it does, replace the wheel bearing. This check is just to be safe; the issue is probably in the brakes themselves because you only hear the scraping under braking.

It is probably going to be somewhat obvious what the issue is when you inspect the brakes on that side. It could be as simple as a rock stuck in the caliper, but you’ll want to check all of the braking components on that corner so you know for sure.