OK, I took pictures of the unidentified component, and here they are:
In 1.jpg you can see the component located at the rear right wheel, pointed out by the red arrow. 2.jpg is a close-up of the same. This item somehow got disconnected from the balljoint to which it was attached, which in the two pictures is hidden by the rotor.
In 3.jpg you can see the same item at the rear left wheel site, indicated by the two red arrows, which in this case is attached at both points, though the connection is visibly damaged at the lower joint.
What the heck is this (brake) component, which doesn't show in any auto-part catalog that I have come across (and I've looked at many...)?
The horrible noise that started two days ago comes from the right wheel, where this component is disconnected (I have no idea how long it has been disconnected). In my car's rear brake setup there are two sets of hydraulic hoses (and no electric sensor wires), one going to the caliper on each side, and the other connected to the rotor on each side through this unidentified connecting link. This item doe not have a hole going through it, so it is not meant to convey any fluid to the lower juncture... At first I thought that perhaps it had to do with the parking brake.
So, to test, I put the parking brake on with the rear wheels up in the air and the transmission gears in neutral, and BOTH rear wheels were blocked (by the parking brake action). Upon releasing the parking brake, both wheels were relatively freed (something on both rear sides is impeding their spinning freely, like if the brakes - either the disc pads or the parking brake - are dragging). Therefore, it seems to me that this thing is not part of the parking brake, am I correct in assuming this? By the way, it takes five clicks for the parking brake pedal to travel all the way down, so I would exclude that the adjusting mechanism is too tight...
Please let me know what you think about it and how I should be proceeding to fix this mess....
Thank you so much,
Rino