# Freakin squealing brakes!



## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

Ok I need some help here, I've done everything I can think of to do and I'm so peed off right now I'm about to sell a perfectly good car for a hundred bucks.

2005 Chevy Malibu, did the front brakes, turned rotors, and replaced pads with Wearever Gold Crematic pads....no problem

Did the back brakes last week, turned the rotors, replaced the pads with Wearever Gold Crematics. they squeal like a dam pig at slow stopping, at a hard stop they make no noise, but since we stop normally like most people do the sound is making me want to sell a perfectly good car with under 80k on it and no mechanical problems.
Anybody got any idea why this pos is squealing? I have NEVER had this problem out of Wearever Golds before.


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## octaneman (May 13, 2009)

The squeeling could be coming from the metal tensioner on the caliper ,or the knuckle. Another possibility is the disk is rubbing against the back of the backing plate ( if applicable). Look also to see if the caliper is sliding properly, check the sliders that could be sticking make sure the caliper piston moves freely. If there are handbrake shoes that clamp on the inside of the rotor look for any rust particles, broken spring, or linkage arm. Do a thorough cleaning of the disks and pads with brake cleaner, grease from your hands may have got on the disk when installing the pads.


Question: Are you using metallic pads ?


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

when you say tensioner your talking about the piece on the back of the pad that connects to the caliper piston right? Cause I replaced the clips that hold the pads, looked at the backers, they are a good inch away at all times, slide are like brand new, so I cleaned and replaced the grease there too, both in the housing and the rubber boot, and the whole thing is as clean as an operating room, and today I noticed that all 4 are squeaking now, unless I take them off and put them back on then the quiet down for about a mile, then its right back to the little pig squealing all th way home. I wish I'd known this BEFORE I bought this pos car, we'd have 2 Jeeps instead.


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## kjms1 (Jun 4, 2010)

Wolf take the car and smack a wall and tell chevy the steering system locked up LOL

some rotors are made to not be turned it removes a harden coat off them .... and ceramic brake pads may be to hard a material


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## Midnight Tech (Dec 31, 2001)

Ceramics are OE on your car, wolfen - did you lubricate all the metal to metal contact points with a high temp lube?


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## octaneman (May 13, 2009)

Do the disks have a bluish glaze on them ? If they do they are overheating.


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## shotgn (Aug 10, 2008)

Wolfen, Must be common on the Malibu's. I have an '06 (Maxx actually)that does the exact same thing.

The pads still had very good life on them, except the rear. I turned the rotors and replaced all the pad.

Still had the squeezing. I am going to try Midnight's suggestion on lubricating the contact points this weekend


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Got cash where do I pick it up? 


Is it coming from 1 side or both?

Make sure the outer pad is tight to the caliper and lubed, most issues I've seen have to do with the outer pad not seated correctly.


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## Midnight Tech (Dec 31, 2001)

Here ya go guys - Brake Job Checklist!
http://www.theperfectbrakejob.com/


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## shotgn (Aug 10, 2008)

Thanks for that...Bookmarked


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

shotgn said:


> Wolfen, Must be common on the Malibu's. I have an '06 (Maxx actually)that does the exact same thing.
> 
> The pads still had very good life on them, except the rear. I turned the rotors and replaced all the pad.
> 
> Still had the squeezing. I am going to try Midnight's suggestion on lubricating the contact points this weekend


If it works let me know and if it works on mine I'll let you know



wrench97 said:


> Got cash where do I pick it up?
> 
> 
> Is it coming from 1 side or both?
> ...


Pads are seated, which piece of the car ya want first, cause if this keeps up I'm gonna invest in a stick on tnt

Oh and all 4 of them squeak



Midnight Tech said:


> Here ya go guys - Brake Job Checklist!
> http://www.theperfectbrakejob.com/


Thanks, read it read it again, been there don that, been there again done that again


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

kjms1 said:


> Wolf take the car and smack a wall and tell chevy the steering system locked up LOL
> 
> some rotors are made to not be turned it removes a harden coat off them .... and ceramic brake pads may be to hard a material


Checked that too, mine can be turned until they reach the min thickness according to GM, who also has no clue why they squeak (go figure )



Midnight Tech said:


> Ceramics are OE on your car, wolfen - did you lubricate all the metal to metal contact points with a high temp lube?


Yep


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

octaneman said:


> Do the disks have a bluish glaze on them ? If they do they are overheating.


Nope just the raw ground surfae from being turned


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

I would've put all the quotes in one guys, but my eyes and hands hurt from work (just got home) and I can't see straight, gopt a tig welding flash today


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## shotgn (Aug 10, 2008)

wolfen1086 said:


> I would've put all the quotes in one guys, but my eyes and hands hurt from work (just got home) and I can't see straight, gopt a tig welding flash today


wow prone to accidents are we? BTW how is the burn doing?


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

You mean the burn on my arm from the fence over at Kempsville High? That one is totally healed up and the burn area is in the pink skin stage, its gonna leave a scar about the size of a small pox vaccine scar.from back in the 60's


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

wolfen1086 said:


> Pads are seated, which piece of the car ya want first, cause if this keeps up I'm gonna invest in a stick on tnt



If you use enough let me know when I might be able to find a piece on it's way down


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

Believe me I'd love to, but my wife won;t let me blow it up, something about she needs a car and we still owe on this one, so I told her if she wants to keep that pos with the squeaking brakes, then she can drive, I ain't getting i it until the dam squeak goes away. the part that really pees me off is I spent $65 per wheel so far in clips brakes, grease anti squeak, brake clean turned the rotors and it STILL makes noise, 
turn around on my Jeep, I swapped the front pads cause they were worn down, no rotor turn no brake clean, I just blew the dust off slapped the pads on and so far it makes no noise at all, I guess thats the difference between Chevy and Jeep in quality huh?
I used to swear by Chevy, after this car I might start opening the door when mer opportunity knocks on tv


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## kjms1 (Jun 4, 2010)

something we use to do when we turned rotors was take a air grinder with a course pad to them, to give them a non-directional cut 

the bad thing with Ceramic pads besides being so hard is the remove (release) heat real fast ... but they do grab the rotors good


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## octaneman (May 13, 2009)

Might as well leave the brakes as is and wait until the pads have broken in to the contours of the disk. I've never installed wearever brakes on vehicles because I'm not a fan of ceramic brakes. I only stick with Raybestos or Bendix they've been around for a long time, their quality and service are top notch and I can trust with them with any brake issue that arises.
Wolfen , on the chevy's next brake job, ditch the ceramic pads and try using semi-metallic and see how it goes.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Ah good old PGP lining haven't found a reasonable source in years for them


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

kjms1 said:


> something we use to do when we turned rotors was take a air grinder with a course pad to them, to give them a non-directional cut
> 
> the bad thing with Ceramic pads besides being so hard is the remove (release) heat real fast ... but they do grab the rotors good


The counter grinding was done at the shop that turned the rotors, if they hadn't done it I'd have taken the grinder to em with a coarse 40 grit sanding disk



octaneman said:


> Might as well leave the brakes as is and wait until the pads have broken in to the contours of the disk. I've never installed wearever brakes on vehicles because I'm not a fan of ceramic brakes. I only stick with Raybestos or Bendix they've been around for a long time, their quality and service are top notch and I can trust with them with any brake issue that arises.
> Wolfen , on the chevy's next brake job, ditch the ceramic pads and try using semi-metallic and see how it goes.


Yea I'm thinking about doing that now, My wife called this morning and said she didn't hear anything after last night, I took all 8 pads off and placed them one by one on a sander, with a 40 grit belt and sanded them until they were perfectly flat, I looked under one of then and the center wasn't touching the sander at all, so I think that might have helped, but from now on I'll be damed if I buy crematic brakes for anything, all I have ever heard from the "experts" is how good and quiet crematic brakes are, from what I've seen they are no better than the old semi-metallic and the semi's don't squeal at all if installed right, I know they sell Raybestos around here, thats what I put on the front of the Jeep, didn't even blow the dust off the Jeep or turn the rotors, just slapped a set of semi-metalic pad on and no noise yet.


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## kjms1 (Jun 4, 2010)

wolf 
something i just thought of ... when ever we had some bring back the car for brake squeak we would take them off sand them and apply this anti-squeak liquid right to the pad ... sorry but i dont remember the name of it 

like octaneman said i am also a Raybestos man


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

I did that so far it seems to have worked some, last night I riped everything off (again), made sure the clips were still tight, and coated each brake pad with Disk Brake Quiet, when I worked at Tread Quarters as their brake mech/tire tech thats what I used on every car that came in, so far today she says its quiet, when she came home today I only heard the engine, not the brakes  so for now I claim victory, but new or not those are getting replaced with Raybestos semimetalic pads as soon as I have the money to replace the brakes again


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## Fred Garvin (Sep 4, 2010)

Wolf, before you run off and buy semi-met pads - they have a tendency to squeal more than ceramics and create more brake dust. I don't think GM even uses semi-mets anymore. The disc brake quiet that you applied to the back of the pads (or the lack of it) is the cause of 80% of brake squeals - it dampens brake pad vibration which causes the squeal.


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## wolfen1086 (Oct 4, 2007)

Yea but I never had any problem with Semi's before as long as the rotors are flat and not glazed. But so far since I have swapped the brakes from inside to outside the noise has mostly gone away, tightening the clips made even more go away, and greasing the clips made more go away, not 99% of the noise is gone, so I guess I'll leave those on until they wear out or I get my income tax back, which ever come s first.
The brakes on the front of my Jeep are Semi Metallic, and I didn't even have the rotors turned and they haven't made a peep yet. I've done brakes since I was ten and semi's have never let me down.


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