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i jacked up my car yesterday to find out what was making the hideous noise i was hearing from my back wheels... jacked up the one side, and the wheel spun freely... i'm no mechanic or anything, but to my recollection, wheels should budge maybe an inch when you tug on 'em, but shouldn't spin freely... the other back wheel did the same thing... does this mean my calipers need to be replaced, or my pad/rotors?... or maybe my problem is something that you need to see to diagnose... any comments?

was your parking brake on?

that's a negative

if you parking brake was not on then your wheels should spin

driving a car would become a stenuous task if they didnt spin freely lol.

Well, the bearing should be tight enough that when you spin the wheel by hand it should come to a stop after one full rotation. It's not an exact science but if it keep spinning it's too loose. Try wiggling the wheel to see if theres excessive play. If so then your bearings are probably making that horrible sound.

my back wheels spin and spin and spin and never come to a stop at all...

There should be some friction between the brake pads and discs. Have you pulled the wheels off and had a look at the pads? They may have worn down to metal on metal which is a pretty hideous noise... Would explain the freespinning too.

i have no pads left at all... i'm grinding on my rotor... funny thing is there was no "brake squealing" before this... now when i said they spun freely, i meant that their was absolutely no friction at all, i mean i could just take my hand and spin it, and watch my wheel twirl around 5 or 6 times w/o touching it... so anyway, i guess that's that

funny thing is there was no "brake squealing" before this

Depends on what pads your using. Its up to the manufacturer to build in a "warning" so they squeal before they completely wear out.

Hopefully the rotors will still be ok, if they're a bit scored they won't work as well with the new pads but will be ok when they bed in.