Tried and tested fix for brembo squeel

[Davezj]

Agree with above, if I drive at low speed in town my breaks will start to squeak, but I found the cure, go on 'private track' and break very heavy from 120 to near 0 and squeak is cured for few hundreds miles, this bring me to conclusion, may guys complaining about squeaky brakes not break hard enough on daily basis to wear them properly.


btw @Davezj you really like to take your chances do you? go on track with cracks in discs???

very light surface cracks, i have seen much much worse with drilled disks. they are terrible for cracking out from the drilled holes.

[Davezj]

so many people, some many opinions, and most of the them conflicting, but i am sure they are all correct, this is the problem with proving a point. The proof is in the squeal, grease them up, quiet.
do a before greasing and after greasing without doing a bedding in process, to make it as hard as possible to shut them up.
you have to prove they squeal before you can claim to shut them up, by what ever method you choose to use.

[chris_dono]

I've tried greasing my pads and bedding them in. Carbotech front and rear, they squeal all the time still

[giblet]

Has anyone with squeaking pads tried Mintex Ceratec paste instead of the traditional grease? I used it on my last car which had Ferodo DS2500 pads and it worked for me. Still have a few tubes sat about if anyone wants to give it a try? Happy to post them out

[Davezj]

from what people are say there seems to be a bit of a trend to this brake squeal issue.

it seems that the harder the pad friction material the more they squeal. does this sound plausible.

Carbotech XP8 being what seems to be one of the hardest pads on the market, which will wear out the disk reather than wear out the pad, so i am lead to believe.
so what are the hardness rankings for pads.

[Louis]

I have used both xp8 pads in the past and for the last 4 years have used performance friction padssll round front and rear.
With performance friction floating discs on the front( on my second set of discs).
Before that I used Evo 8 discs, front and rear.
I have only had a squeal once at the very start when I hadn't followed the bedding in procedure. Once I followed the bedding in process I have never had any noise at all.

[Davezj]

Hi louis, i would just like to point out my intention with this thread, i don't want to take anything away from your input to this thread and as far as i am concerned the more input the better.
but i would imagine you are not the avaerage brembo brake upgrade user. i very much appreciate you input, and i know you and nick mann are advocates of performance friction products and i am sure if everybody could afford to use all ther product they would, as i have heard nothing but very goood reviews of both the pads and disks.

however you have to be realistic with the intent of this thread and that is to sort out the brembo squeal on vented solid steel disk not floating disk with separate bells, although i have not stated this.
and with due respect to all the people that spend loads of money on there cars and money is no option, this is not meant to offend your views, but it is not really directed at you. It is meant to make brembo brakes affordable and usable without squeal.
yes £100 is affordable for a set of front pads but i believe the avaerage person would spend about £50 on a set of front pads for road only use and as long as this can be achieved without squeal then this is what i think people want. you can say i am completely wrong about this, and the only thing people should really want is the ultimate braking experience and i don't care how much it cost. but unfortunately that is not me.


i do not mean any disrespect by this i am just trying to be realistic with expectation of doing the brembo upgrade.

[Louis]

Hi, no worries at all.
Initially I changed the hub carriers, fitted second hand Evo 8 discs and bought Evo 8 brembo pads, I ok it for a spin and I had a squeal at low speed braking and in reverse braking.
I used copper grease and discovered the bedding in procedure and the squeal died down. After a few weeks it came back. The copper grease had helped, and then burned off.
I went through lots of searching and suggestions varying from :
File the edged off the pads.
rubber backing the pads.
Use washers on the pad locators to stop harmonic frequencies building up!.
Warped discs!.
Lots of suggestions.

I got changed for carbotech pads, with everything else standard, followed the bedding on instructions and never had a squeal.
I personally think the cheap pad material is a problem.
Pagid are good but attack the discs. Carob tech are good and not do hard on the brakes.
But I do believe going through the bedding in process is the cure.
If you don't do it, or do it wrong there el be issues.
Also I found if the brakes were cleaned with brake cleaner they were prone to squeal.
Briefly:
A
New pad has more resinous the surface and top 1 millimetre of the pad. When you bed them in you transfer the resin to the disc the resin on the disc and in the pad and material are important to how the bakes grip.
If you bed them in wrong or. Or cook them. The resin is burned off and the pads glaze over (and squeal). If you do it wrong a few times the resin is cooked out of the pads and they remain dry and do not operate as well.
They tell you not to come to a complete stop with you foot on the brake when bedding in, this is because it would leave a patch of resin on the one spot on the disc and this will be audible when braking ( like a swooshing sound like something rubbing.
I changed to PF as I got a deal from a second hand rally car.
And yes they are expensive, but I would say to anyone getting a standard vr4. The engine is good don't go straight to upgrading or tweeking it.
Fit better brakes and better suspension, and you will get more use of the power provided by the standard engine. Cornering faster and braking later. Combined with 4wd, gives much more use of the power available.

No offence taken, I pass on info when I can. Always seem to be busy at the mo!.

Don't get dragged down the strange solution suggestion paths!, most solutions are quite simple and tried and tested.

Apologies for typos.

[Davezj]

thanks louis, that is great information, and thanks for taking the time to share it with us.
there are some people on here that would not bother and effectively say "your wrong and this is how it is" and effectively just put you down and call you stupid.
everyone is entitled to there own opinion and respect your opinion.

thanks again louis have some rep.

[bungle]

Hi been reading through this thread to see if it is the way if greased my pads up that has caused my brakes to shudder at high speed. But from what I've read it not done anything untoward. I greased the back and edges of my pads the back of the full shim and a light greasing on the back of the half shim so this seems correct from what iv read. I did notice though @Davezj that you mentioned to pay attention to the arrow on the half shim, which way should this point? I'm sure I can't have got this wrong though as they were all put back in the same place they came from and if this is the case surely this can't be the problem as they only go one way to line up with the slide pins.

[bungle]

Hi been reading through this thread to see if it is the way if greased my pads up that has caused my brakes to shudder at high speed. But from what I've read it not done anything untoward. I greased the back and edges of my pads the back of the full shim and a light greasing on the back of the half shim so this seems correct from what iv read. I did notice though @Davezj that you mentioned to pay attention to the arrow on the half shim, which way should this point? I'm sure I can't have got this wrong though as they were all put back in the same place they came from and if this is the case surely this can't be the problem as they only go one way to line up with the slide pins.

[Davezj]

You can put the front pad half shim on the back and the back on the front, so the half covered piston is the small piston in stead of the large or vice versa not sure which off the top of my head is correct.

[bungle]

Cheers is there any chance this could cause the vibration? I've got a feeling it could be rod ends. But it's just strange how it only started after the pad change. And does anyone know the correct way for the half shim to fit?

[Davezj]

Sorry no I am holiday at the moment so can't check.

[bungle]

No problem enjoy fella

[Davezj]

i have never experienced brake judder after changing the pads but i have felt it while doing the bedding in process as got the disks very hot i am talking glowing hot, but after cooling them down without touch the brake or coming to a stop all was good again judder gone.

could this judder have been caused by your loose wheel studs?

[bungle]

Could well be. I really hope so, could also be the bedding in as I didn't hold back first drive as it was the first time in a while my AYC and abs were both working so could well be that. But I have tried the gentle braking from 80+ to zero a few times since and no real change, but like I say it does only happen after a hard drive so maybe. I'll report back once the studs are sorted.

[Davezj]

On the bedding in you should not come to a stop but slow down to about 30-40mph from 70-80
This get the disks reall hot and the pads never stays on one point on the disk which is what causes the hotspot and the excess pad burning on a single point on the disk. Coming to a stop from 80 is the worst thing you can do when bedding in.

You can recover the situation by doing the 70- 30 slow down but it will now take longer to do as you have to effectively remove the hotspot material from the surface of the disk before the proper bedding in can occur.