Serious Brake Squealing!

[finest1]

hi all,

my brakes are squealing so bad its unreal!! last bank holiday, i took the pads off, and re-greased them with copper grease. within a few days, it went back to squealing again, almost like i never done anything in the first place. the pads still have life in them, so i'm wondering what can be causing it.

any help will be appreciated

finest1 :D

[Steviewevie]

Are you sure the pads aren't getting low ? They're designed to start making noise when they are close to wearing out.

[finest1]

Are you sure the pads aren't getting low ? They're designed to start making noise when they are close to wearing out.

yeah, i checked them. when the pads are low it makes a squealing, scraping noise when i drive. the brakes squeal when i apply the brakes

[Steviewevie]

I'm not quite clear what you're saying. When you drive with very low pads there shouldn't be a noise all the time, just when you brake, they'll be more noisy than usual.

[Saraj]

my astra squeals like hell,soo annoying,stops when im heavy braking, cant seem to work it out

[rtjc83]

I assume you have checked the basics first, like wear indicators on the pads touching the discs etc? Seems so if you have copper greased the backs of the pads. Small stones & grit stuck in the pads can cause this.... was there any sign of anything when you cleaned them all up? Are the discs worn with a deep lip maybe? Either way, grab a can of spray brake cleaner, comma or similar, and give the discs a good ol' soaking. The stuff dries quickly and can be very good at getting rid of brake squeel.

Rough mechanics method: is to brake quite hard from a high speed... building up some heat thus making the disc & pad surfaces new and fresh. Granny driving is no use lol

P.S the sqeeling will go away when braking hard due to the calipers holding the pads to the discs tightly vastly reducing any chance of them vibrating. Which is the cause of the noise. Make sure the pads are held in nice and tight. All clips are there etc

[Rob]

chamfer the leading and trailing edges of the pad - the noise will go away.

[finest1]

thanks for the replies people.

the scraping i was trying to describe is the wear indicator, which happened last year. when i checked the pads this time round, they look ok.

i do have brake disc cleaner in storage, are you saying to clean the actual silver brake disc with it?

:)