Bedding isn't required. However, it's just considered a "best practice". Our cars are not identical. Some will experience a lot of squeaking. Some will experience none.
Others will experience it at different levels in between.

So, consider yourself one of the fortunate ones.

Now, if people believe that their 911 has a brake squeak problem, they should have heard my 2014 BMW M6. THAT had seriously loud brakes.

 

Perhaps it's the brake squeal lottery.

Similar to the stumble lottery.

 

I recently started spraying my rotors with Hyde's Serum Rust-stopper immediately after washing my wheels. It prevents the rusting and really helps with the brake squeal. Available at Autogeek and I'm sure other places as well.

 

I assure you I am not imagining it. I have one wheel on my 2012 Cayman S with PCCB that squeals and has done so since new. It's temp sensitive and only during the last few feet of a stop . I have chosen not to chase it. To me it's a very minor issue.
As additional input, my 2009 c2s and 2013 c4s w/o with steel brakes have never made a peep.

 

BTW, although I mentioned rotors and pad bedding earlier with regards to squealing, squealing is more ofter caused by metal-to-metal contact such as the metal backing plate on the pad vibrating on the piston. Mis-bedding more typically results in pulsating/grabbing when there is uneven pad material on the rotor surface. Bedding has become less critical with some newer pads since some pads now come with a bedding coating applied to them that makes this happen without diligently following a bedding procedure. The new pads I just put on my truck had a distinct line of bedding material on the surface of them (but I bedded them anyway).

Using high-temperature brake grease at the metal-to-metal contact points (like the backing plate/piston contact) can stop the squealing but it's a lot of work to pull out the pads to do this. (I also did this on my truck's pad installs just recently). That why most sets of pads come with a packet of grease.

 

 

Meanwhile a half-dozen other manufacturers in Germany and other parts of Europe have no problem delivering high-performance brakes that don't squeal. Porsche's solution? Fire the engineers and hire video producers.

 

Seems more likely they kept the engineers and hired the video producers to put out propaganda to try to make people feel good about the squeal.

 

MB has just gone thru a multi-year brake squeal problem on the 300 series. My wife drives a GLC 300 and after about 15000 miles the squeal on reverse started. It was way worse than anything I have experienced with Porsche. I have no way to prove it, but my opinion is this started with MB trying to reduce brake dust. This GLC is the first MB I have owned in 40+ years with very little to no brake dust.

 

The new nano-coated steel brake option on the 992 for $3k will eliminate these complaints. But I'm told it uses 10 piston front calipers, so they are not retrofitable to 991 models. When your rotors are shot, Girodiscs will solve the noise problem.
Alternatively, a couple of really hard slow downs from 100 to 20 on an empty highway will also stop the noise. For a while. These brakes have to occasionally be used hard to keep them bedded in and quiet.

 

This is not a problem that is unique to Porsche.

 

No, but the "solution" (meaning, releasing a patronizing video) certainly is.

What I don't understand is why this isn't treated as an engineering problem like any other. Plenty of other NVH problems have received similar engineering time and effort over the last 100 years, and we've all enjoyed the benefits. Engine vibration? Add some balance shafts. Excessive road noise? Optimize the tire compounds and add some damping material. Squeaks and rattles? Learn what causes them and address them at the design stage, consistent with the goal of not adding excessive weight. Crappy-sounding radio? Install better speakers.

The fact of the matter is that not all performance cars have brakes that squeal frequently and obnoxiously. In many cases, the brakes on another example of the same make and model work just as well as the ones that squeal, except they don't squeal. Take one of those apart and figure out what's different, then fix it.

Clearly they don't "all do that," as Porsche's video says. They are lying to us, and you guys are just lapping it up, and that's annoying. Whatever happened to expecting excellence? And what other aspects of NVH are you personally willing to trade off in the next six-figure Porsche you purchase?

 

I finally got my brakes to stop squeaking. I just kept braking really hard for 12000 miles.

 

This is not a Porsche "engineering problem". I have owned Audis, Porsches, and BMWs. This is a problem for every manufacturer. The BMW M6 sounded like a pig farm, there was so much squealing. The Audi R8 did the very same thing, until I took it upon myself to go 80mph+ and slam on the brakes (REALLY HARD) several times (without coming to a complete stop). Once I started to get significant brake fade, I stopped and drove normally to allow the brakes to cool off.

The solution is not difficult. You can either choose to properly bed the brakes or you can choose to accept the brake squeal and blame it on the Porsche engineers.

The bedding process will not 100% eliminate any squeal, but it will greatly limit it.....if done properly. You cannot drive your car on a highway to work every day and then expect the car to be properly broken-in. It's just not going to happen like that.

These cars are designed to do far more than what most use them for. Because of this, many problems with Porsches come from the fact that they are not pushed hard enough. Don't take my word for it, talk to a mechanic at a dealership.

My 2018 Carrera 4 GTS works correctly. After 1000 miles, I put the hammer down and treated it like it needed to be treated.

Also, when I say "brake hard", I'm talking about hitting the brakes so hard that you practically go through the windshield. Yes, extremely hard. The car can and will handle it. It's what you need to do.

I have tracked many cars over the years (991.1 GT3, 991.2 Turbo and Formula 3 most recently). I can honestly tell you that Porsche has a vastly superior braking system to almost every other manufacturer out there. I can brake much harder and much later in a Porsche than just about any other car on a track.

So, to blame Porsche for an "engineering problem" is very much misguided at best. Go through the process of bedding the brakes (properly) and then come back to us.

Is Porsche perfect? No. However, you cannot just complain in an internet forum and then accuse those of us that actually know what we are talking about of "lapping up" everything that Porsche says.

Don't get hung up on their video. It doesn't matter.....although I take no issue with the video. Nothing about it is incorrect.

They are Germans, so don't expect a warm and fuzzy video. It's very matter of fact, but they know what they are talking about.

Just put in the work and make it right. It's not difficult and actually quite fun to do (at least, in my opinion).

 

So can your neighbor a few blocks over who has the same Porsche you do. Except his brakes don't squeal while yours do, or vice-versa.

Oh, I agree, it doesn't bother me in the slightest, because I know how to bed in my brakes and I don't feel the least bit squeamish about doing it, once I've convinced myself there are no cops (or anyone else) around. Until they came out with that ridiculously-insulting video, I never gave the matter much thought at all, except to answer the occasional question about brake squeal from new owners on various forums including this one.

That's why the excuses in this thread annoy me more than most people would consider reasonable. Because they don't "all do that."

Why is that, exactly?

Why don't they "all do that?"

It must have something to do with crickets, because that's all I hear whenever I ask that question at the dealership, the indy shop, or in a car forum.