I just changed my pads myself about 4 months ago, and they squeal like there's no tomarrow! It has been getting worse in the past few weeks.

when I changed the pads, I didnt replace the rotors or bleed the brakelines, just used a C clamp to hold the pistions back. somebody told me I might have glazed rotors, but they look fine and dont have any noticable or unusual wear on them. But when I come to a red light or a stop sign, they SCREAM! also i'm pretty sure they don't do it untill they warm up. Why do they do this??? and what does it take to fix? new rotors

thanks
Nick

 

It may just be the pad material and nothing expect a different pad will help.

You can try this and see if it takes care of the problem: Use a 240 grit emory cloth and rough up the rotors.

Use a circular motion on both sides of the rotors until they are evenly matted.

Then rough up the face of the pads a little. Don't go overboard on the pads, just enough to break the glaze. Can use the same piece of emory as used on a rotor as it is now a finer texture.

Put it all back together and bed the pads in. From about 35-40 MPH firmly apply the brakes until at about 5 MPH. Then release the brakes and drive a minute or two for them to cool.

Repeat 4 more times, allowing enough time in between for the brakes to cool off. See what happens over the next couple of drives.

RBob.

 

I took my wheels off today and was shocked to find this..., the fingers that hold my pad in place where bent away from the caliper. the pads are relativly new and they definatly were not bent like that when i put them on. I hammered them back to where they should be, took a 10 min test drive and to my releif, didnt hear any more squeaks. WHY would they ever bend like that?

they're not high performance pads but they are not the cheapy set either. And even if i drive like a total A-hole they still shouldn't bend. so why are they doing this???

THANKS
Nick

 

I've never seen that happen before. Typically, you do have to bend those tabs in slightly to ensure a good snug fit in the caliper. This helps prevents squeaks and squeals. Out of the box they are never tight enough.

With the tabs bent open like that, they must be vibrating like crazy and that's the cause of your brake squeal. It could be too that they were a little loose at first install, and due to vibration the tabs opened up even more under use.

I'd also recommend using some CRC brand anti-squeal adhesive on the backs of the pads. If your pads came with anti-squeal shims, don't use them. The shims are worthless. The CRC adhesive does a much better job.

Also, did you have the rotors turned when you replaced the pads? As a rule I always turn my rotors when installing new pads. This ensures a good clean surface for the pads as they break in. With carbon metallic pads this is an absolute must so they break-in properly.

 

thanks for the info

I didnt adjust them at all during install, I didnt know I had to, they seemed pretty snug.
also I didnt flip my rotors either, hope it's not to late, that pads have 3-4 thousand miles on them by now, and the guy that sold me the pads said they DO have metallic flakes in them. I'm definatly going to get some of that anti-squeal adhesive, and slap it on, when I take these things off and really tighten them up. Should I still flip my rotors?

-Nick

 

Although the pads will fit snug out of the box, you can usually feel a slight amount of play in them. If they pads pop-in easily by hand, then they definitely need to be adjusted. By bending the tabs just a tad, they should need a slight amount of effort (maybe even some minor coaxing with pliers) to pop them in and fit with zero play in them. Some brake pads even include this information in the instructions.

You shouldn't have to "flip" the rotors. By "turning" I mean taking them into a machine shop where they put them on a lathe and clean up the surface. This removes any groves or scores and makes for a nice flat clean surface for the new pads. Cost is usually only $6 to $8 for each rotor. It's not always "required", but I have found it's best to just go ahead and do it at each pad change. It ensures you don't get any unusal pad wear, brakes pulling to one side...etc.

At this point, with 3 to 4 thousand miles on the new pads I probably wouldn't worry about it. The big thing is get the tabs corrected and apply the anti-squeal adhesive. That should quiet the brakes down.

 

thanks a million for this information, I wasn't sure what you meant by "turning the rotors", so thanks for clearing that up.
I'm definatly going to take your advice and hopefully put a stop this squeaking insanity.
-nick