Weird metallic scraping noise - Nissan Qashqai

[Fanwheel]

3 weeks ago whilst moving in slow traffic in my daily driver (a petrol Nissan Qashqai) a metallic scraping noise suddenly developed. It sounded horrendous, like the exhaust had fallen off, so naturally I pulled over and had a look. But I could see nothing obviously wrong. On starting off again the noise returned - I noticed it was from the front and consistent with the wheels turning, with or without brakes applied.

After a fruitless 2nd inspection I turned the car around to limp home, but at that point the noise stopped abruptly, and I have had no further noise or issue of any kind in the 3 weeks since. There were no dash warning lights and all brakes are fine - pads have plenty of life left in them.

The only thing I can think is perhaps a stone got caught between one of the pads and disks, possibly freeing itself when I reversed to turn around? Weird - in 22 years of driving i've experienced things like binding brakes and wheel bearings going, but nothing like this.

Interested to hear what others think, and if anything like this has happened to you?

 

[yippeekiay]

This at first sounded similar to what happened on an old Rover 600 I used to own. It was the breakpad low "indicator" which in fact was basically a strip of metal on the pads. Once the pads were low enough the metal scrapes against the disc giving you a very obvious indication that they are low.

Not sure how many manufacturers still do it this way as I would think most have sensors now but it did sound like what you could be hearing. Until you said you checked the pads & said they were ok. At that point was likely a foreign object as you suspected. Keep checking on those brakes though k:

 

[Fanwheel]

Thanks for that! Yes all seems fine with the braking system. But Ill keep my eye (and ear) open for any further issues