The brake wear indicator, small metal thingie that sticks out when the pads reaches a certain thickness, in the brake pads is telling you it's time to change your pads. It sticks out hitting the disk rotor while driving, that's why you hear a scratching sound. The sound disappears when you step on the brakes because the whole of the pad is in contact with the disk. HTH.
Last edited by afrasay; March 12th, 2005 at 08:04 PM.