brake squealing

[philw349]

Uh oh. I installed my own brakes with help from a mechanically inclined friend and they went great. So far so good, they have been on for a week. Then today as I was pulling in I heard them squeak when I presed them. Except it wasn't a squeak it sounded more of a squeal, and it isn't going away. Hope I didn't mess anything up. I doubt it, but then I looked at one of the calipers and one of the teeth (?) things on it that make it latch in (2 on each end) looked to be not lined up all the way. I mean squeaking is one thing but this doesn't sound right at all. I am wondering if I should attempt a quick fix or cave in and go to a real mechanic.

[This message has been edited by philw349 (edited 11-11-2001).]

 

[sdpatt]

Take the wheel off and take a better look at the calipers and pads. Make sure the pads are installed correctly and that the slider pins are torqued to 20 lb-ft. Don't cave. Learn from experience.

New pads can cause a lot of different noises. What brand pads did you install? I have had excellent wear and performance from Performance Friction Carbon Metallic pads and they were less than $30 the first set 8 years ago. Three sets later under warranty, the price is now down to about $7 a set.



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Scott

1991, 252K miles, glass hood, police grill, SVO shifter, Catz fogs,
K&N, 73mm MAF, Superchip, PP Y-pipe, Borla cat-back, 190 lph pump
Eibach/Tokico/polyurethane, SHO Shop front & rear strut braces,
16x7.5" Moda R1, 225/55ZR16 Bridgestone RE730, -1 deg camber x 4,
Class II hitch, Silver award at the SHOklahoma Car Show

 

[philw349]

Thanks. I used the performance friction. They never made a single noise until now. Must've been something we did.

 

[sdpatt]

There is another possibility. One pad of a set of PF pads that I installed had some metal chunks in the pad material that were hard enough and large enough to actually create small grooves in the rotor. It sounded like the pad backing plate was grinding against the rotor. You can only determine if this is the case by removing an examining the pads and rotors.

I'll bet you did the brake job correctly. There just aren't a whole bunch of things that you can do wrong.

Scott

 

[ShoGuy93]

I had the same Question I just put some PF pads(about a few weeks ago)and they are really squeling now. So should i take off the wheel and check the pads and re torque the slider pins?

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Brad
93 Sliver ATX
SS cold air snorkel with k&n fliter, superchip, flowmasters 40 series, pp y-pipe, Performance Friction Carbon Metallic Brake pads, Pilot fog lights, Intake Painted sliver, Kenwood excelon cd player and 10 dics changer. 5% tint all around! Ford Motorsports decal on windsheild, and Blue sho reflective lettering on the body.Blue, Yamaha inside stickers. Blue, SHOForum.com sticker on back window. Ford emblems on my back triangle window with racing decal under it. So it says Ford Racing!! Indy Tags: SHODU

Looking for a Sliver or Black MTX with low miles!!!

 

[sdpatt]

I had to remove the pads and pick the metal chunks out of the pads to stop the grinding noises and the grooving in the rotors. The chunks were about 1/8" long and maybe 1/16" wide. Once removed, the problem didn't return.

Scott

 

[philw349]

That must've been it, because we took them off and they were torqued to spec. We didn't use a torque wrench when we did them but they were right on 20lbs. There wasn't any real grooving, and the sound hasn't returned so that must be that.