Okay, so recently I've been experiencing an odd problem. Occasionally while braking I will hear a strange noise. It only happens just before the car is about to make a full stop. It sounds like a low thud/grind noise. Its intermidant, however, when this happens occasionally I will notice more difficulty in depressing the pedal. Again, it only happens during th last 2-3 seconds before it comes to a full stop. And the noise is defnintly coming from the front-end. Any ideas? Thanks.

Check your rotors for grooves and pitting and your pads to see if maybe you're almost down to the backing plate. Not a whole lot of reasons for this to happen besides metal on metal contact.

Sorry, forgot to mention I already looked at the brake components. The rotors, though not perfect, aren't obviously in need of replacement. The pads seem to have a lot of life left to them. I just got the half axel on the driver side replaced about 5 months ago, but I doubt that has anything to do with it. There seems to be plenty of brake fluid, but I've never done any maint. to the brake fluid system. Could that be the problem maybe?

My wife'* GA does something very similar. I'm pretty certain it'* because I didn't put any brake snot on the back of the pads. I followed the manufacture'* directions to the letter. But I've inspected them pretty well and found nothing. When I've got some time, I'm gonna pull the pads and snot 'em to see if it worked.

Have you pulled the pads and rotors? Check the face of the pads for cracking and THROUGHLY check the rotors, front and back for roughness, pitting, scoring, etc. Sometimes the front looks fine and the rear is just nasty.

Well the rear is fine, just had new rotors/pads installed 6-8 months ago. And I still don't understand why I would only experience a problem just before the car stops and not immediately when I hit the pedal. When I have some time tomorrow I'm going to do a very detailed inspection.

Because when its sliding over it at high speeds it doesn't have the chance to penetrate the surface as well. My rear brakes are doing this too, and they grind really badly at low speeds but barely noticeable otherwise.

Well, I've looked at everything and I can't see anything wrong. The rotors, pads, lines, everything seems fine. And, it didn't do it at all today. But thanks for all the suggestions. I'll keep ya'll updated.

You feel sure about once the noise occurs that you need more braking force to maintain the same stopping ability?

Yes. But its more than that, there is also a strange sorta vibration through the pedal. Its hard to describe since its so breif. But there is defninitly a difference in the amount of force need to complete the stop.