PanheadPete

I don't know if this thread is posted,.... My new brakes (pads & rotors) are squealing. I pulled and cleaned them and it stopped for a short while, but it's getting pretty embarrassing around town Any ideas? '85 Euro

Ducman82

what pads are you using? rotors new or turned?

blown 87

Clean the guides, use the right pads, rotors and dampners, everything has to be clean.
I also use Wurth CU-1100 on the metal contact points that move and on the backs if the pads and BG Stop Squeal on the face of the pads.
If they are pads from a discount parts house, you may never get them to stop squealing.

Bill Ball

I put some antiseize (yep, antiseize - seems to work, not wash off, and with the copper stuff I use it's easy to see where you have put it) on the pad backing plate where it contacts the pistons and on the small metal tabs that the lower edge pad backing plate rest on, and have had no problem with squealing. I stopped using the factory antisqueal disks 10 years ago. There are a variety of anti-squeal goops you could try.

I generally just use stock pads, although I have Axxes Metalmasters on at the moment. Some other pad compounds may squeal no matter what.

I usually don't do the more severe pad bedding procedure the factory recommends (see below), but I do some bedding. That may be an issue. You don't mention how you bedded the new pads and rotors.

blown 87

The Wurth CU-1100 is a high adhesive high temp anti seize and it does work.

Stromius

Cheap pads leave dust and produce sqeal...well mine do anyway. I spray them off at the coin op car wash and usually have quiet for a few miles.

@Greg : What pads would you recommend?

Bill Ball

I use Lubri Moly LM-508, also high temp. Matches the stuff the factory put on the front lower A-arm bolts that seems to always still be there when I remove those bolts no matter how many miles are on the arms.

WallyP

I had a brake engineer give an interesting analogy on pads several years ago.

Your pads could be compared to rice pudding. The rice grains are the friction material, and the pudding is the binder. If you use the brakes gently, the friction material wears down below the binder surface. The binder is firm enough to hold the friction material, but is very slightly rubbery, just rubbery enough to cause what the engineers call "stick/slip". When the frequency of the stick/slip gets within the audible range, you get squeal or growling.

If you "burnish" the brakes, you will melt the binder surface below the friction grains, and the squeal will go away. His suggestion for burnishing was slightly different from Porsche's, but either will probably work. He suggested accelerating to 50 mph and stopping as quickly as you can without lock-up. Accelerate to 50, repeat the stop. Repeat five to ten times. Drive for fifteen minutes with minimal brake use to allow the rotors to cool.

The high-pressure wash usually removes enough dust to keep the squeal away for a couple of weeks of normal driving for most pads.

Bilal928S4

The first time I did my front brakes, I used Porsche pads and rotors but reused factory squeal discs and did not have a problem. This time I used Mintex with new rotors, and tried to reuse the factory squeal discs again and put some of the anti squeal stuff in between the pads and the discs to get them to adhere. The brakes sqealed like crazy. Just got the factory anti squeal discs from Roger will have to go back and clean all the gook out and put the new anti squeal discs in. If anybody thinks of anything else that needs to be done while I am in there, I would be very interested.
Bilal

blown 87

Makes sense, I have fixed more than a few by doing a couple of high speed stops back to back.

WARNING do not try this in a Nisan Z car, the first stop is not very good, and the second attempt, well, it is a attempt anyway.
What awful brakes they have.

Dave928S

I've used that method with success for initial bedding. Every time I wash my cars I always pressure wash the brakes and then go for a drive to dry them off ... which seems to keep squeal at bay.

Mrmerlin

just a note about washing the brakes,
and that is every time the calipers get wet water finds its way into the caliper,
even though it has dust seals on the pistons some water will wet the pistons,
keep the calipers dry or dont use hi pressure water to spray them down.
a soapy rag will clean the external portion.
change out your brake fluid every 2 years more if you track the car

blown 87

I spray direct high pressure (car wash) water at my brake calipers at least once a week.

They look great, but I guess they will be changed before their time.

Oh well, I will flush the fluid at least twice a year and do the calipers when the time comes up again.

Cosmo Kramer

I have Pagid blues and they squeal bad with light pressure/slow speed but once I start braking a bit harder/going faster it goes away. I think the more performance oriented the pads are, the worse they squeal in everyday driving.

Randy V

Great analogy, Wally - thanks.

The brakes on my GTS (Pagid) have begun to squeal at low speed. I do tend to use them gently so your fix may be the ticket.

Will give it a try and report back.