brakes squealing loud but pads are almost new..help?

[hellrot droptop]

my brakes have been sqealing for the past 3 weeks coming to a stop and got louder the past 2 days..finally jacked the car up right now and the pads look dam near brand new with lots of life left on front and back...whats up? any help? this sound is annoying!!

[Cuahtemoc1]

The type of pads could be the reason.. i just put high performance ceramic brake pads and its loud!!! If you have hawk pad plus they are loud

[hellrot droptop]

no kind of cleaner i could spray in there? no fix? its almost like nails on a chalkboard lol!

[Cuahtemoc1]

Yes i know! Of course you can buy anti squeek stuff are autozone or Kragen..What pads do you have?

[cmy_bimmer]

Your rotors might be low. Do the pads bite nicely? Do you have to push on the brake pedal real far to stop? Im thinking your rotors are rugged and need to be resurfaced. You could spray on some brake clean but im not sure it would do much :dunno:.

[hellrot droptop]

brake pedal doesnt have to go down far, bite is good....dont know what kind of pads they are, they were changed right before i got the car...hmmm, never though about the rotors though, thats a good question

[Cuahtemoc1]

rotors could be a possibility

[hellrot droptop]

they look fine...but i wouldnt know what to look for anyway

[cmy_bimmer]

Check out the rotors, and also check your pads again for wear on one side. Maybe its wearing out on one side only, allowing the stopper (or notifier) to make contact to the rotor making it squeek like that. It coult be anything tho

[hellrot droptop]

and ive noticed it only does it after ive driven for a little while..like after 5or10 minutes or something

[cmy_bimmer]

When you check rotors, you look for uneven sides and you look at thickness. There is supposed to be a specific measurement for the rotors.

[hellrot droptop]

took all the wheels off and all 8 pads have about the same wear which is little

[hellrot droptop]

ok, i will try to look up what measurement it should be, that way i could check them...if you find out let me know

[cmy_bimmer]

hmm, (damn you work fast)... There may be some debris that was caught in there while driving. Well, I think we might need some more info about the problem. Is there any conditions that you have to undergo for it to squeek (other than the 5-10 minute timeline)?

[cmy_bimmer]

This is what I got so far. Ill look for the fronts real quick...

The minimum thickness for E36 rear rotors are as follows:

Solid: 8.4mm
Vented: 17.4mm
M3 Vented: 18.4mm

I think they are different for different models :dunno:, all I know is I need new rotors/pads as well.

[hellrot droptop]

you might be right, something may have got caught in there...the car didnt do it when i first got it but after a week, it started sqeeking...no condition that i have to undergo for it to sqeek...it just gets loud when im coming to a stop especially in the drive thru lol!!

[ahull]

hmm, (damn you work fast)... There may be some debris that was caught in there while driving. Well, I think we might need some more info about the problem. Is there any conditions that you have to undergo for it to squeek (other than the 5-10 minute timeline)?


+1

And you need a special tool to measure rotor thickness - a measuring caliper or thickness tool.... actual name may have escaped me in my insomnia. You can't just slap a ruler up against it. You could look at the lip of the rotor (created by the pad wearing down the rotor except at the very outer edge, thus the lip) and get a rough idea as to whether or not they're worn out. New rotors have no lip, worn ones have a lip that would appear shiny at outer edge. If it looks like anything near 1 mm of lip, you probably need new rotors.

You said "pads changed right before I got the car..." Could be prior owner went cheap and just put new pads on to say "brake job just done." May also have not realized that the rotors should have been changed too. I'd venture to say if they have more than 50k on them they'll be near worn out, at least on the fronts. My fronts lasted 50k with stock pads - I may be harder on them than avg. driver. Rears seem to have gotten some crap in them before I bought the car at 20k and they were scored but got them replaced under free maint. program. Didn't squeak though.

Also, most likely you can't get them resurfaced unless they're farly new b/c if they're worn at all you'll end up grinding off enough to make them essentially very worn and performance will suffer as well as remaining life. Some will swear against resurfacing altogether.

If you put new rotors on, make sure to "bed" the pads to them. Look up bedding procedure - maybe even in wiki. I just did my pads and rotors a few weeks ago - hurdle was getting used rotor off - whack it from behind with a sledgehammer works.

[N:CR41G]

There are thin metal pieces that sit in the brake shoes under your pads...

They will stop them from squeeling!

[98bimmer318]

did you just wash your car...:p

[hellrot droptop]

havent washed it in about a month lol

[hellrot droptop]

i will spray some brake cleaner in there when i get off work...my guess is maybe the previous owner put some cheapy pads on there

[BMWredneck]

could be a tiny rock or something. Ive had the rock thing before and it ate my rotor to pieces.

[Black Isis]

What kind of pads are they? I had green stuffs on there and they squeeled like hell for almost a month.

[cmy_bimmer]

^ BTW, how do you like Green Stuff pads? I was planning on getting either Green or Yellow

[hellrot droptop]

they look like regular old pads, not performance or anything

[Black Isis]

The greens are nice, noticeably less brake dust than others I've used. Sounds like a cheap rotor to me then if you have done all this work it might be worth it to just swap out the rotors and pads with some quality ones if the squeeling really gets to ya.

[hellrot droptop]

thanks guys, i will take them off tomorrow and give them a good clean and see it that helps, if not ill just get some drilled and slotted rotors and pads

[Cuahtemoc1]

drilled and slotted crack easliy! go just slotted! well i race my car so its just personal preference

[Landshark 328]

Yeah I have personally had the same problem since I bought my car last summer and I periodically check the pads and rotors. I have ceramic pads and good rotors. there is not too much you can do about this unfortunately they just squeak. Every once in a while I just lock em up and the squeak goes away for a couple days