Brake squeak!!

[Timco]

Swapped rear rotors. Man, do the rears squeak now!

Since the pads are plenty thick,(1/2 at worst) has anyone just tried using a palm sander to take the surface slightly off?

Are ceramic any good for your around town DD car? Stay with standard pads?

[thstone]

I use anti-squeal on the back of the pads, this helps quite a bit.

In my experience, ceramic pads are great around town, the biggest benefit is extremely low brake dust. Stock pads work fine too.

[Mark_T]

Give your pads a few days to mate with the rotors and the squeal should go away. If not, then you might try the stick-on anti-squeal pads from Pelican. I used them when I replaced my pads and rotors and I never had any squeal at all.

For reference: Zimmerman coated rotors all round (not drilled or slotted), Brembo (Porsche) pads on the front, Textar pads on the back.

[SC-986]

Just replaced the rear rotors and pads on my 2002 base. Zimmermann zinc coated rotors and Textar pads. No squeaks and greatly improved braking performance.

Zimmermann recommends a "run in" procedure where after the zinc coating is removed you perform 10-15 braking events from 60mph to 30mph with 3 minutes between each braking event to allow the pads and rotors to cool. Then perform another 10-15 braking events from 60mph to 15mph, again with 3 minutes between each braking event.

Takes a little while but well worth the effort.

[Mark_T]

Right, forgot to mention the break-in process. I did something similar to what you describe, though not quite as detailed. Just a series of gentle stops with steady pressure with cooling time in between. did it about 10 times in total.

I suspect the problem is due to not changing the pads at the same time as the rotors, but that's just my gut feeling and certainly not an expert opinion.

[woodsman]

14]Swapped rear rotors. Man, do the rears squeak now!

Since the pads are plenty thick,(1/2 at worst) has anyone just tried using a palm sander to take the surface slightly off?

Are ceramic any good for your around town DD car? Stay with standard pads?[/QUOTE]

I haven't sanded pads before but I have machined a groove into them. It sounds like a good idea if they're severely grooved- making sure you don't breath in the dust of course! Or just be patient and they'll wear- in. I switched from stock to Akebono ceramic and have noticed a loss of initial bite, overall feel and the loss of clouds of dust. With the stock pads I felt I could apply pressure pound by pound and feel them sinking further into the rotors thereby infinitely controlling the braking forces. In comparison, the Akebono's are numb and solid- descent overall though and fine for a DD.

[Timco]

Originally Posted by Mark_T

Right, forgot to mention the break-in process. I did something similar to what you describe, though not quite as detailed. Just a series of gentle stops with steady pressure with cooling time in between. did it about 10 times in total.

I suspect the problem is due to not changing the pads at the same time as the rotors, but that's just my gut feeling and certainly not an expert opinion.

Agreed. I've been driving for a month now on the new rotors and the squeak / squeal has gotten worse.

All pistons have those discs still intact, and the pad backs have some strip on them. I'll look into all new Akebonos (best source?) Do I need any other further anti-squeal component as mentioned above?