horrible grinding/crunching when braking and squeeky suspension?

[takem2war]

First off i purchased my 99 XLT v6 in august of 04 and noticed a few weeks after i got it that occasionally when i was coming to a stop i got a weird crunchy and loss or brake pressure feeling right before the vehicle comes to a stop. i can hear a weird hissing noise coming from the master cylinder (or the area in the engine compartment right in front of the drivers side) it has gotten worse over the months but when ive had the oil changed they have inspected the brakes and said the pads and rotors were fine.

also, it started to pull to the right when it happens as well... the only time it does it is right when the truck is about to come to a stop, other than that the brakes feel fine. if i dont have my hands on the wheel it will turn about 1/4 turn to the right from the pull.

im going to take it to the dealership and get it looked at further but am just curious if others have had a similar problem and what the solution was. it almost feels as if its something to do with the ABS, but no brake lights have ever came on so im not sure if its that.


also, in the past 2-3 weeks the suspension and turning has become really squeeky. at first it sounded like the power steering fluid was low, so i checked it and topped it off, but now whenever i go over any bumps or brake or even turn the wheel theres a horrible squeek coming from the drivers side front suspension area... what could i do to check this?

sorry for the lengthy post, i just hope i put enough details to describe my problems.

 

[captainjack]

similar problem

I had a similar problem with grinding/vibration just before a complete stop. Over the course of about 9,000 miles first it happened occassionally, then frequently on moderately hard stops and then always. Although the pad thickness was OK I took it to the local PepBoys and had new front and rear pads, rotors resurfaced and brake fluid changed--problem solved for about $300