Hi everyone apologies if this has already been covered elsewhere.
Over the last few days I've noticed a fairly light pitched scraping sound on the driver's side of my l320. It sounded like one of the pad clips touching the disc, that's probably the best way I can describe the sound.
I have taken it for a short run this morning whilst on a day off to try and pinpoint the sound properly, and on the first part of the journey it sounded the same. However, on the way back home there was a clanking sound like dropping a piece of metal and it is now making a much louder scraping sound. I have checked everywhere and can't see anything hanging loose or anything in the road following that sound. I am wondering if it is the handbrake shoes within the drum on the rear wheel, however I have no fault showing. Not sure if it would flag up a fault for such an issue if it's just that the pads have disintegrated inside the drum. The parking brake still engages with no weird or wonderful sounds etc and the same when disengaging. Going to get it apart this afternoon to have a better look but wondered if anybody had any pointers to what we should be looking at or common issues we should be aware of.
Appreciate the help from you all, fingers crossed it's nothing too extreme

Sounds like a small stone stuck in around the brake pad area. If you can get an air line in there try blasting some area around the brakes. The metal noise will be the backing plate and stone coming into contact.

A fairly common thing but quite scary when you hear it the first time !

That’s my 2p worth and I’m 98% sure it’s your issue.

Having said that, apologies if it isn’t !

Thanks for that, fingers crossed it is something fairly trivial like that rather than something more sinister!
I haven't noticed any changes in terms of the way it runs or the parking brake failing or anything regarding transmission etc so I am hoping it is something quirky like a stuck stone rather than anything else.
Will have a good look and keep you posted

Had it all apart this afternoon, cant see any signs of scoring on the disc or pads etc, only thing I could see is a scored area around the edge of the backplate which had gone shiny and almost cut through in places, so that looks like the obvious issue.
New plate ordered so will see if that sorts the issue, fingers crossed!
Thanks for the help