Brake squeak

[Canuck]

I have an intermittent brake squeak rolling at low speed (usually cruising the beach). Usually only when the brakes are warm/hot after some driving. If I touch the brakes the squeak goes away but returns when I let off the brake. I pulled a calliper off and I’ve got lots of pad left and appears to be wearing evenly between the 2 pads. These rotors do have a groove in them which I’ve never had on any of my previous Montes. Any thoughts?

[MCfan]

I've never seen a groove that wide in any rotor!  Usually it is just a small V groove that would turn bright when the pads were nearing end of life.  Your pads are wearing almost enough to polish the sides and bottom of that wide groove also.  Seems to me you are giving up a lot (1/4 to 1/3) of your disc surface area that could be used effectively for braking.  Are you sure the squeaking is coming from the front?

[MC1of80]

That's a factory rotor. As far as the squeaking, the pads look glazed, shiny. Try scuffing the pads with some 80 grit sandpaper and reinstalling. 

[jft69z]

I pulled rotors like that off my car, no issues with squeaks at the time.

Make sure the tabs with the arrows are crimped tight to the caliper. A large set of channel-locs work good here. There's a little step on the bottom of the pad for one of the jaws. This helps the pad from vibrating & causing the squeal. Hard to see from the pics if your pads have that tab, looks like standard D52 brakes though.

I usually use some type of spray on 'Disc Brake Quiet' stuff on the back of the pad too. Permatex, NAPA, etc, they all have it. 

[Dtret]

You do a lot of soft braking I’ll bet. A few good 50 mph hard stops will help keep the pads from glazing in the future. I agree with the sandpaper on the pads. Hit the rotors too. 

[cny first gen 71]

Yea probably oe rotor they used to have that groove in them. A squeal is a pad vibration,  like Joe said make sure the pads are tight in the calipers and the clip on inner pad is tight. The ceramic pads I used on mine with the drilled and slotted rotors have shims on them too. Make sure everything is lubbed up good In The proper places.

[Rob Peters]

That is a factory stock rotor.  They are the same as what is on my70 Monte.

rob

[Canuck]

Thanks for all your input. You’ve given me lots of things to try out. I reassembled and had it out today. It was improved but could still hear it once in a while. I’ll pull it apart again and perform the suggestions you have provided.

[Leghome]

I went to the slotted rotors and pad from Power Stop and all of my noises went away plus it stops a whole lot better than it did.

 

[MC1of80]

Aaron, there is also a spray on coating of sorts. You spray it on the metal part of the pads, install the pads, bend the tabs tight as Joe stated. All should be good. It goes by many names but "disc brake quiet" I believe is one of them. 

[bob 71]

hi aaron how is the clip on the back side of the inboard pad? i use a pink brake lube on the metal sides of pads befoer i put pads into calipers. on my car and at my shop

[Canuck]

22 minutes ago, bob 71 said:

hi aaron how is the clip on the back side of the inboard pad?

That clip seemed to hold pretty good on both sides.

[Dtret]

8 hours ago, Canuck said:

That clip seemed to hold pretty good on both sides.

Was it a hard push to hold it to the piston. I’ve had to bend them before to get a hard lock. 

[MC1of80]

With everything installed I pump the brakes, tap a screwdriver between the bottom of the pad and the rotor, where the rim seats. Then with a chisel I "whack" the tabs down till they are snug/tight on the caliper. 

[jft69z]

46 minutes ago, MC1of80 said:

. Then with a chisel I "whack" the tabs down till they are snug/tight on the caliper. 

That'll work too 😁

[Glen]

I was gonna guess a seashell that got stuck between the rotor and pad caused that groove.

Put the caliper to your ear and if you hear a combination of the ocean and the highway, you’ll know you’ve found the culprit. 

Sorry, Aaron … I’m a few bourbons deep. 

[Blackhawk]

Make sure that your caliper slide pins are clean, free of gouges or galling, and well lubed. I use Sil Glyde for caliper pins.

[Canuck]

Yesterday I finally got around to pulling the calipers. I sanded the pads, sanded the rotors, bent the clip for the inner pad slightly so it holds the pad nice and tight, used disc brake quiet, bent the tabs on the outer pad so they are tight to the caliper and lubed up the caliper pins. I still have the squeak. For all the pads Ive changed over the past 25 years on multiple Montes I’ve never had this issue. I believe these pads are 15-20 years old if that makes a difference. The person that put these pads on used RTV where the pad meets the caliper likely to fix this squeak. I scraped all that off to see if that helped but didn’t make a difference. The sound certainly sounds like the front brakes but I’ll pull the drums off to inspect those just in case.

Meanwhile, when I cruise the beach… eeek, eeek, eeek, eeek, eeek…. LOL

My 12-year-old daughter was interested in what I was doing today. She learned how disc brakes work.

[cny first gen 71]

It's probably the rust ridige causing your problems,  I probably would have resurfaced the rotors (if they are thick enough) and put a new set of organic pads on at this time.

[jft69z]

I've used this stuff in the past, but mostly when using all new parts. Supposed to help with the break-in/burnishing of the pads & shoes. NAPA used to have big cans of it, but last time I looked all I could find was smaller ones. May be worth a try, short of doing what Steve suggested.

[Dtret]

Based on the look of the rotor you’re not getting full pad contact. See the dark glazing near the hub. I know the groove is original to the rotor but clean that out really good and put a new set of pads on. Or sand it down. Also the rivits if worn will make the pad move ever so slightly, causing noise. 

[cny first gen 71]

I assume you have it all back together now but another thing you can try is spin the rotor around by hand and use a die grinder and grind the rust ridge off the inside and outside edges and put a non directional pattern on the rotors.

[Scott S.]

How's the grease in the bearings ??

[70MC402]

Is rotor replacement out of the question on this? It seems like it could have been repaired already with new pads/rotors.

[Canuck]

On 6/12/2022 at 5:52 PM, Scott S. said:

How's the grease in the bearings ??

I have not checked but I don’t believe that’s the issue. If I apply the brakes the squeak stops.