Squeaking sound while driving

2-3 things come to mind. Does the sound change when making a sweeping turn? Which direction is better or worse? Sometimes a bad wheel bearing will be indicated by the additional 'load' vectored onto when taking a curve at speed.

Try to see if one wheel is hotter than the other after a coupla miles of driving. If the brakes are 'stuck', it will heat the wheel up.

When was the last time the brakes were replaced? There is a squealer (sound indicator) buitl onto the pads.

Carl

Well, if you live where i live and it's been RAINING FOR 45 DAYS! the shoes can swell on the rear drum brakes and stick until they heat up a bit.

I was afraid of that...

Actually, as late as 1999 they have both, and I am fairly sure that even through 2004 they have both. I know on my 95 and 98 Inside the rear rotor there are drum brakes. This is the emergency brakes. Most cars use the rear calipers for both the hydraulically actuated brakes, and the cable actuated emergency brakes, but not Subaru. It's that much safer to have a separate brake mechanism for the emergency brake. So the emergency brakes are actually drum type brakes and the drum and rotor are the same piece.

There is a small drum inside the disc for the E brake.

Dave

Driveshaft U joint would be a prime suspect, especially if the squeaking cadence is faster than the rate the wheels turn.

One squeek per wheel revolution - brakes or Cv joint, etc

Multiple squeeks per wheel revolution =3D driveshaft.

Dave

Toyota does this on a lot of their all wheel disc models, too...

As did Alfa in the mid 1960's (105 series cars - I have 2)

I had all kinds of weird noises coming from my '97 Outback. Replaced the brakes and rotors and all is well.

That said, if you have plenty of brake pad left, it could be just a vibration in the pads. An easy fix is to pull the pads and apply a little antisqueak lube to the "backs" of the pads and replace. I've done this on numerous British cars to resolve similar noises. Certainly can't hurt anything.