2006 525xi Brake Issue

[Bruin10]

I've searched the forums and saw a past message on the issue of brake squealling. However, the tip on "bedding in" the brakes only worked for me for a day and it went back to squealling VERY loudly whenever coming to a slow stop, especially at a red light or when pulling into my garage. It is so loud that it actually wakes my wife if she's sleeping and the bed is on the other side of the house.

I've had the car in multiple times since purchasing it Certified Pre-Owned in November. I've had it escalated to BMW and they came back with an offer of either trading it in at no depreciation and getting another car from the same dealer OR keeping the car and dealing with the squeal for which they will give me $5K for my aggravation. When temperatures are above 40F it does not make a noise, however, I live in PA and I have about 5 months with these temps so its very annoying almost half the year.

My questions to you all are:
1. Has anyone had this problem and found a solution for it, either with an aftermarket brake pad and if you have and can share it I'd appreciate it?
2. Has anyone had an issue where it was elevated to BMW and am I getting a fair offer of $5K for this very annoying problem?

Any other tips or solutions to this problem would be appreciated. I love this car except the brakes and would like to keep it if I can find a fix. Thanks for your time!

[dwlink]

I live in PA also and I've had a similar problem with braking noise at low speeds, but the squeal was fairly quiet. It only happened last year when it was cold out and went away over the summer.

I took it to the dealer in the winter to have them check it but they could not reproduce the problem and attributed the issue to dirt on the pad surface.

This year it returned, but thanks to that nice 60 degree day in early february I had a chance to wash the car. Anyways, I used the jet spray nozzle and really went at it around the brake calipers and the noise has not returned. If that doesn't work, you might want to try taking the wheels off, pulling the calipers back and re-greasing the backs of the pads.

Also, the squealing I described above seemed to be coming from the left rear wheel only.
Since your squealing is loud, I'd first make sure your pads aren't worn out, the wear sensor will make noise to alert you of an issue incase it doesn't register in iDrive for any reason.