Intermittent brake squeal AFTER changing discs and pads

As ever, I'm looking for a bit of inspiration around this problem.

A few weeks back, I changed the pads and discs on the front of the Freelander. All was good with the world (the fact it went from "are we going to stop?" to "stopped").

Then I got a call from SWMBO saying that there was a terrible smell of burning from the drivers front wheel, and it seemed to be very hot - when I had a look the slider was solid. So I changed the carrier, and all was good again...

..for about a week. Driving from our place, and had gotten about 13 miles from home, and the brakes squealed as I braked. Got to our destination (still squealing on use, and a total of 15 miles from home). Parked up for an hour, no squeal, got to the top of our road, and it was back.

And that's the way its been, setting off, no squeal, after a while (cant work out whether its the type/number of applications of brakes) this squeal is back. If its wet it tends not to come.

I changed the pads over and whilst slightly better, its basically the same. Any ideas?

Did you put any copper slip on the back of them when you put the pads in?

Hello,

My front brakes have always squealed a little.. I've tried the copper grease trick and also the anti-squeal pads (behind the brakepads).. Both work for a short time, but the squeal returns eventually.

If the carrier has got **really** hot, it's possible that the anti-rattle/squeal plastic part on the caliper lower slider pin has melted/distorted.. Might be worth a check.

Also, are the caliper pistons free "enough".. I cleared a squeal problem on a mates 1.8 by just pushing the offside piston back into the bore a little. It appeared that there might have been a little corrosion there. I'm still waiting for him to ask me to overhaul his calipers...

Bodge99.

tetsu0san - nope, never have in the past

bodge99 - thats why I changed the carrier - all slidey bits are brand new. only the caliper and piston is original.


The thing that I can't get my head around is, if its a problem with something touching, being sticky etc, then surely they should squeal all the time.

Also, it isn't a brake squeal, its more like metal on metal squeal - I check the mounting shim things that clip over the ends of the carrier, but they looked ok.

Copper grease stopped my squeal. But you could have distorted the disc if it got hot enough.My nearside front seized on for a couple of miles, burning and smoke. Had to scrap the disc in the end as there was a very slight, and I mean slight, distortion that caused noise every time I braked.Bummer as I'd only changed the discs/pads days before.

Hello,

Ahhh... I'm with you now...

It's not just the disk shield touching slightly is it??

I had exactly the same thing the first time I overhauled my calipers. It's easy to distort the shield slightly whilst working on the calipers.. just bend it away from the disk slightly.

Marginal corrosion at or close to the caliper piston dust seals can restrict the piston movement slightly (especially on piston retraction).. How much effect a given amount has depends on the temperature of the caliper at the particular time of braking..

It seems to be down to how much a particular substance expands as it heats up (linear coefficient of expansion).

RealBeale could be correct as well.. You could try clamping something to the caliper that is just touching the (non rusty) part of the disk...rotate the disk..A crude runout gauge if you like... Anything significant should show up easily..
You could always compare any runout with the other side to see if it markedly different.

Bodge99

My money is on the anti-rattle shims touching the disc where the tab inserts into the carrier.

Good luck!

All the above tbh, but I'd be copper slipping the back of the pads, my dust covers were shot and rubbing bad so I just removed them, did you grease/copper up the sliders on the new/bother calipers?..

Ah, sorry all, I forgot to update this one.

I sorted the problem!!!

And the culprit was....

...the pads! I changed them for a completely different brand from EuroCarParts, and the squeal went away.

The moral of the story - well buying cheap saved the day (thanks EuroCarPars) so it certainly isn't avoid cheapo stuff.

Si

Not essentially the cheap stuff, the'll all squak if there isn't a good shanfer on them... As do the rear shoes..