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infernouk

Stopping brake squeal?

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Hey guys

I have an issue where as i slow down or move very slowly, my breaks squeal like a train pulling into a station, very embarrassing when parking etc / driving round carparks at 2mph squeeking.

From what im aware this could be down to the pads glazing and not being used heavily enough? but even so, is there a fix for this? As its an absolute nightmare 

Cheers!

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2 minutes ago, Paul said:

Yeah, get aftermarket pads. 

is that all thats required to fix? the car only has 10k miles on it but its on stock (dont know if the aero had different pads or not)

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10 minutes ago, infernouk said:

is that all thats required to fix? the car only has 10k miles on it but its on stock (dont know if the aero had different pads or not)

Yep, that's all that's required. It really is the only way. There Aero had no mechanical differences, just a bodykit and different wheels. 

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Just now, Lauren said:

Yep, that's all that's required. It really is the only way. There Aero had no mechanical differences, just a bodykit and different wheels. 

ok great, is there a 'go to' pad from the aftermarket? i assume i can fit them myself (ive done it before on a corsa if thats similar!) im only looking for road use at the moment but ideally not worse than the standard ones!

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I found the Stoptech pads to be a lot quieter. I'm sure others will have other suggestions. You may find that you still get a little bit of squealing from whatever pad you fit. I'm running DS2500's (albeit on AP 4 pots up front), they do squeal a bit when I'm driving in light traffic and haven't really used the brakes, but it doesn't bother me as such. 

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5 minutes ago, Lauren said:

I found the Stoptech pads to be a lot quieter. I'm sure others will have other suggestions. You may find that you still get a little bit of squealing from whatever pad you fit. I'm running DS2500's (albeit on AP 4 pots up front), they do squeal a bit when I'm driving in light traffic and haven't really used the brakes, but it doesn't bother me as such. 

+1 for Stoptech.

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I personally think it's better to run the same pad front and rear. It's not essential though. Someone will go all internet expert in a minute and say that you need to have the same Mu, which is the friction properties of the pad. 

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Lauren: i'll try to take on that "don't worry mam, i'm from internet" expert role :). In addition to that same Mu might be challenge to reach, as fronts always work much more then rears, so temps will differ alongside Mu, even if of same type pads.

Though i also would advise for same pads front & rear. After all, brake manufacturers (including OE) design in specific brake front-rear bias by choice of pad shape area/pyston diameters, master cylinder area and so on, relying for one to have same pad type. So braking will be safer (less possible lock-up of one end before the other) and often shorter distances and also electronic nannies expect that bias. About the only case i'd consider staggered pad setup is if one has very non standard aero on just one end of car (eg. adding big wing in rear and nothing in front). Then i might consider different pads in rear to change bias.

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1 hour ago, Varelco said:

A few hard stops might sort you out. Did it for me. You need to do it properly though, no half hearted attempts.

Mine used to quiet down after a track day, but it didn't last.

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Rich: by chance daily driving on track pads? Common scenario. Higher temps needed to bring track oriented pads upto temps to transfer pad material onto rotor. Once driving normally on public roads with light braking, that layer is worn off, needing to rebed brakes again to quiten them down.

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Safest would be to bed in special rig, where rotors and pads can be mounted and it performed on it according set pressure/duration and so on. Very few specialised shops have such, so probably this option can be ignored :)

Find some stretch of road where you won't get stopped by police (though if it's about stock brakes and not the most track oriented pads, probably can easily be done within legal speed limits) and where you won't interfere with other traffic (i doubt someone behind you will enjoy you heavy braking on highway :) )& just bed yourself using repetitious heavy braking w/o completely stopping. Watch that youtube vid i linked in.

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3 hours ago, infernouk said:

What’s the safest way to bed in? I’ll give it a go but don’t fancy causing an incident 

Build up with heavier and heavier braking 100-60mph in 4th gear. Repeat until you can smell them. 

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20 hours ago, Church said:

Rich: by chance daily driving on track pads? Common scenario. Higher temps needed to bring track oriented pads upto temps to transfer pad material onto rotor. Once driving normally on public roads with light braking, that layer is worn off, needing to rebed brakes again to quiten them down.

No that was with stock pads.

I currently have an intermittent squeak as my calipers bind a little when hot, really need to get them off and cleaned.

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I’m 99.9% sure that stock pads squeal coz they stick in the calipers!

What I found when cleaning up the calipers is that the rear pads fit very tightly into the shims. It’s takes very little dirt or corrosion on the pad or carrier to make them stick in place and cause the loud squealing.

I cleaned the rust and the hardened copper grease out of both front and rear carriers and shims, and used Cera-Tec brake grease back in December which stopped the squealing. Almost 6 months later and the fronts still don’t make a sound!

d9c3346aaeacd6c9708c1a9d716997b7.jpg

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BUT the rear pads were nearly as loud as before after about 3 months and the squeal was so bad it sounded like it was the fronts as well - but defo only the rears.

A few weeks ago I couldn’t take any more of the squealing so I cleaned the rears again. They were nowhere near as bad as before tho, but I noticed this time that there was corrosion under the coating on the edges of the square tabs at the ends of the pads. This meant I had to use some force to remove the pads from the caliper.

I filed the edges of the tabs down on the pads to clean metal, greased up with Cera-Tec, and the pads were able to slot in and out of the shims on the calipers easily and there was smooth movement. Stopped all squeal. And I didn’t touch the pad or disc surfaces.

Didn’t take any pics but I’ve highlighted the bits I filed

95b92073017d7f000c52a5c81ea5ce30.jpg

The car is my daily driver and the brakes only get a lil workout every couple of weeks.

I think aftermarket pads must have a thinner or better coating on the tabs if they stop the squeal.


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I know where you're coming from there, but all of the aftermarket pads I've fitted have been tighter! (And that's after fastidiously cleaning old brake dust off)

I really wasn't happy with how tight my rear yellowstuffs were and had to hand file them down.

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Well I didn’t expect to hear that! Maybe I should reduce my surety down to 90%

Did you replace the shims when you upgraded? I was a little heavy handed with mine when cleaning so I will be changing them.

Gonna try to kill these stock pads off at Three Sisters on Friday so hopefully won’t be too much longer before I upgrade them haha! Lauren mentioned you’re there on Friday too, so I’ll hopefully catch you then

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My shims were in a right state on the front, the Carbotechs were putting them through their paces! Falling apart.. 

The rears were still ok.

I think pad contact does make the noise, but some pads don't make that noise on light contact. Hence why your fix works.

Tbh I'm not that bothered with some pad noise. I actually used to swap the OEM pads back in for some quietness as my track pads were much much nosier! All things are relative.

 

See you there!

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