Hi all, being driven slowly mad  by an irritating noise I can only describing as sounding like a rotor. Last time I heard anything like it, it was due to a warped disc on my old Alfa - but all four discs on the 500 were new barely a year ago and the fronts must be nigh-on impossible to warp, given the ventilated construction. Rear wheel bearings were replaced in the past 18 months but I know these are boggo FIAT parts, so perhaps the lateral forces of higher cornering speeds  cause them to wear rapidly? The sound is most obvious between 20 and 40mph and above 60 but disappears at, ahem, "motorway" speeds  . Any thoughts? Is there a more robust wheel bearing available? Gonna be sideways through a hedge soon if one of those babies suddenly lets go, so I'm getting desperate!

Went for MoT last Friday and came back with six advisories! Three of them related to slight brake binding, which the mechanic thought could quite well be the source of the deeply annoying rotor sound. To his great credit, he said there was no point in stripping and regreasing the calipers just yet, as the road salt and grit would undo the good work in about a week.

I'm left wondering why my original boggo Fiat 500 never suffered this affliction; and how many more weeks of cr*p weather will I have to put up with before I can get the brakes serviced? Sigh...

Im with 695C on this one, the gliders or caliper slides will be sticking, if rubber boots burst, easy for dirt ingress.
Try not to use any oil based lubricant to get them moving, theres a rubber bush around the slide pin., oil would make it swell. use proper brake grease once pin is out of carrier. Also you'll probably find the rear pads are stuck in carrier, what happens is dirt and rust builds up under the shiny steel anti rattle shims, clean them and remove from carrier to clean below where they sit on carrier.
Not difficult unless badly seized, but dont leave it too long or your wheelbearings will heat up and wear prematurely