Brakes play music

[matt911]

Front brakes squeak so loud I put my head down in embarrassment coming up to traffic...

Had them off used some brake cleaner on the disc and cleaned the pads then greased them up nicely but still they continue.

Here is a pic of the pad surface should new pads do the trick?

There yellow stuff pads btw

 

[matt911]

Bump

 

[George182]

Performance pads squeak under light braking - that's just life I am afraid

 

[matt911]

Performance pads squeak under light braking - that's just life I am afraid

Yeah but louder than a bus/lorry?

 

[Goodj]

you...greased....your brake pads?

In seriousness though. Had similar with box-fresh EBC's on Listerine, no manner of fetling saved them from screeching so binned them off, replaced with Uniparts finest and haven't had a problem since.

 

[matt911]

Not the pad itself you moron the backs of them.
So new pads then f**king money bin

 

[cat171]

Mine do the same, same pads too, they've only been about in two months / 500 miles.

 

[matt911]

Such a shame they are great pads though. A year of hard breaking and they hardly worn

 

[Johnpacey1]

Strange. Had 2 sets on mine and they have been fine. What discs are you using?

 

[matt911]

Strange. Had 2 sets on mine and they have been fine. What discs are you using?

Standard discs. You got yellow stuff?

 

[Johnpacey1]

Yes. Always been silent on mine. Found on an old car that cheap discs made the brakes squeal rather than the pads. But that was on a 1.2 Corsa.

Never had issues with mine.

 

[matt911]

Yes. Always been silent on mine. Found on an old car that cheap discs made the brakes squeal rather than the pads. But that was on a 1.2 Corsa.

Never had issues with mine.

So you don't have std discs? Maybe why then it's impossible to tell really

 

[Johnpacey1]

I have Brembo HC discs.

It was just a thought. Some people will slate EBC, fair enough if they have had issues. Personally mine have been fine. Do they have a black shim on the rear?

 

[matt911]

I have Brembo HC discs.

It was just a thought. Some people will slate EBC, fair enough if they have had issues. Personally mine have been fine. Do they have a black shim on the rear?

I haven't looked properly at the rear but iirc I think there was from a quick glance

 

[Johnpacey1]

It's a strange one then bud. Hope you get them sorted. They are a decent pad for the price.

 

[matt911]

Is sanding them down an option or waste of time?

 

[...]

Clean up all the sliders and everything on the caliper and holder , chamfer the leading edge of the pad .
I dont like grease anywhere near brakes ,seriously its not needed if they are properly clean and moving freely

Also bleed and sort fresh fluid

 

[KevF182]

As above. I have standard brembo discs with ebc yellowstuff, have done 5k miles on the setup (discs and pads at same time) and apart from the first few hundred miles, when they went through a noisey phase, they have been totally silent with nice solid feel. I really rate yellowstuff as an uprated road-pad so I very much doubt its the pads fault, but if cleaning everything up in the caliper doesn't fix it then you're gonna need to get a fresh set of pads IMO.

edit - just remembered the only possible difference with mine is that I bought 306 GTI-6 pads, which are a slightly different shape but fit fine (cheaper option to the clio OE shape). Just thought I'd mention it, but It's not likely to be an issue either way.

 

[matt911]

It's just had fresh fluid in. New pads are last resort because there's loads of pad left.

 

[cat171]

Mine are all new, standard apec discs with yellow stuff pads, they squeal They didn't at first, but do now.

 

[matt911]

So is there no other option? I don't mind noise but the squeal is way too embarrassing. Nobody mentioned if sanding was a good idea or not.

 

[KevF182]

How new are they?

Is the noise from one side or both?

How free are the pads in the carrier? There should be a bit of free play, if not take half a mm off each contact point on the back plate. Or remove the metal carrier shims as I have done. Whichever, you should have some free play so the pad feels a little "loose".

I mentioned mine went through a noisey phase at around a few hundred miles, but that passed quickly. If its both sides and you've done more than 1k on them and they're still noisey there's no harm in trying to rough up the pads with a little (light) sanding but I've only ever had to do this with overheated/glazed cheapo pads on my crappy-er cars. EBC's come with a bevelled leading and trailing edge anyhow, your look they they still have some of this but the pads are clearly worn down a bit. ???

I'd look at how they are fitted and the condition of the caliper/carrier. And as has already been said don't put grease anywhere near pads, even the contact points. Its not common practice anymore.

 

[matt911]

Oh I didn't no that, I just put a little grease of each side or the back where the caliper sits.
I don't no the age of them, they came with the car and never sqealed when I purchased the car.
They are not exactly loose they took a good yank to come out and again to put back in of the metal carriers, is that bad? But the caliper should be tight on them yes?
Yes both sides AFAIK from opening each window to listen.

I might add this:
When I jetwash the wheels previously I have jetted the caliper and the disc/pad briefly and that has prevented the noise for a few days. Just so you know

 

[KevF182]

They should not be tight in the caliper/carriers. If they are tight its probably because theres too much built upo dust/corrosion under where the metal shims sit. Depends if you are happy to remove them or not, ironically they are part of the design meant to eliminate sqeal! But if not renewed with pads they tend to do more harm than good. I would just remove them as you've got non-standard pads. That should give them the room to move freely.

From reading the other day I go the impression they were fairly new pads, but if you've had them for over a year then they might have become passed their best -the surface might possibly be glazed. But I reckon you could get them to be silent by removing the metal shims.

 

[matt911]

Yeah tbf they are really tight in there, calipers took a good push to get them back on aswell.
But what can I do about the calipers because surely if I push the piston back, put them back on it's just gonna retighten?
Not sure what you mean there.

Edit: are the metal carrier able to be reused if removed? (If it makes it worse)

 

[KevF182]

If your careful taking them out then yes, you could refit them. But they are a service item that comes with new genuine/OE pads. However I very much doubt they were replaced at last pad change because you have aftremarket pads which aren't supplied with these metal bits. Certainly if the pads don't slide in and out easily with the caliper rotated out the way then there is an issue.

I'm not on about the tighness of the piston clamping the pad/disc. Like you say, that will do its own thing as is required to brake. Its the up/down movement of the pad that, if too tight, will cause very high frequency vibration (and when hot cause the pad to partially seise, increasing brake fade)

 

[matt911]

I will try removing those carriers then see how that changes things. Thanks

 

[...]

Matt ,kev concurs with what i was saying earlier ,you need to give the carrier a really good clean and make sure everything slides in and out easily.
Looking at the crumbling on the pads they have had a hard time and fit tight ,
The reasons i said no grease earlier and to explain is brakes can run hot , very very hot , hot enough to even melt copper grease , and it can then run where it likes .

Therefore never near brakes.

You can get stick on rubber pad backs , in fact mintex used to come with them to help squeal but dont use grease

 

[KevF182]

This is what I'm on about. (credit to Benny06 for the photo). They are refered to as anti-rattle shims. Problem with them is that dust and corrosion builds up between them and the caliper where they clip into place. This makes evrything a tighter fit than it needs to be - pads get tight in the caliper and can't slide freely. Probelm is that to clean everything properly as harv and i have suggested means you need to remove these metal shims. I, and quite a few others on here, have found that the brakes work better without them alltogether, especially with aftermarket pads which are sometimes a little oversized in the first place. It might not be the reason yours are noisey but worth a try because they shouldn't be tight like you describe. If you can get everything clean and your shims are OK to fit back into place then doing that you might find the pads are much free-er, but its often hard to prise the shims out without bending them, or they are just too corroded to be worth refitting. Like I said, new (good quality) OE pads come with new shims. So unless you get new OE pads, just take the shims out and make sure everything is clean.

 

[matt911]

Yes I've removed those shims they came out quite easy but unfortunately it hasn't changed a thing, if anything it's gotten worse.