A week ago I had to stop completely from 70 about as hard as you can without the ABS going off in my Brembo car.

Since then, my brakes (front I believe) are squeaking at all times, when being used and not when being used. I've put a couple hundred miles on the car since then and it hasn't improved. I've also intentionally done a couple very hard stops from 60-70 on empty roads and that hasn't helped.

Car has 32k miles, pads are original but front rotors were replaced at 6k miles when my wheels were stolen. Did an oil change at 30k and Ford said brakes looked great.

Any ideas? Don't want to do a brake job at just 30k miles.

 

You can try some CRC de-squeak I bought a can but haven't gotten around to trying it yet

https://www.amazon.com/CRC-05080-Squ.../dp/B000M8H5M6

 

Are you gonna tell the boys you want to trade your 5.0 for a fiesta sedan?

 

Make a couple more hard stops and see if it helps.

 

Yup. Re-bed the brakes. Should've better and you'll have better braking as a result too

 

Went out and tried three near stops from 60-70, hard enough to activate ABS. No change. The squeaking is driving me ****ing nuts.

But of course, my right front wheel is a lot blacker than my left front, so pretty telltale sign of needing a brake job. Car still stays straight when braking and feels fine, but I'm sure I'll get taken for a pair of calipers, pads, and other bull**** for like $1200.

 

Or, DIY for under $400. Not sure your situation but it's not an overly difficult job.

 

If i remember right, he parks in a parking garage. To bad, changing the brake pads is so easy

 

Re-reading your original post, I'd take it in to get diagnosed - gotta be something besides just worn out pads. There's no way your stock pads/rotors should be worn out or squealing after a couple hard stops. My stock pads lasted 80K miles and that included a couple track days. No way should yours be worn at less than half that.

 

How about a warped rotor intermittently contacting the wear sensor as the wheel turns when the brake is applied?

 

have you jacked up the car and check to see if each wheel spins freely? If one wheel is getting a lot of brake dust, it would seem that one caliper piston may not be retracting properly and dragging a pad

 

Unfortunately my jack and jackstands have found a seemingly permanent home underneath my brother in law's old truck at my sister's house.

I've had sticking calipers on other cars before, but usually the car pulls hard when it does, or you can feel the drag/pull. Car goes perfectly straight down the road, and still stays straight under braking, which is odd if I have a caliper problem. I swear I can never own a car where I don't get stuck doing a caliper replacement (and always has to be a pair, hur hurrr). I'll see if they'll cover it under warranty, but I doubt it. Pads and rotors no, but the caliper should be under warranty IMO, should that be a problem.

I should note there were just a couple days a couple months back where I could feel a tiny vibration in the steering wheel under braking, but it cleared up pretty quick and hasn't returned.

In any case, I made an appt. with Ford for Thursday night, so I guess I'll see what they say. New Brembos at 32k on a car that isn't tracked and really is just used for daily puttering around town/commuting seems kind of asinine IMO.

 

2 questions -

1) Is the little metal tab on the left caliper (sorry no pic but it's pretty obvious if you look at the caliper, only the left one has it) the wear indicator for the brake pads?
2) I'm still suspicious of how I could have more brake dust on one front wheel than the other if the car isn't pulling either when driving or braking - could a slightly warped rotor cause more dust on one wheel without any pull? I'm thinking maybe a slightly warped rotor is rubbing the pad as it spins, but then again that's almost effectively the same thing as a stuck caliper and I guess I'd expect some pull, probably at all times.

 

The tab you're talking about if I'm thinking of the same thing indicates wear. You should be able to see the pad itself if you get the right angle.

 

What you said does make sense about the uneven dust; but I guess the dragging could be very light, so you can't feel it but it does increase the wear on one side.

You don't need to replace the entire brakes and it shouldn't be that expensive.

Easiest and most common is just the pads -- a good set of street performance pads can be had for under $100, and they are super easy to change. The Brembo calipers are designed for quick and easy pad change; you just punch-out the pins, slide out the pads, compress the pistons, swap over the backing plates if you have them, slide in the new pads, tap the pins back in, done. There are videos on youtube.

If the rotors are badly worn -- you can tell if they have a big ridge around the outer diameter -- you can replace those for about $50-100/each depending on what you buy. But they are probably fine with your mileage. That's pretty easy too; you just have to unbolt the calipers (two bolts) to remove and replace the rotors.

 

Took the car in last night, and the guy came over to check me in and see what was going on with the car, etc. In the past 2 days the squeaking had reduced about 75-80%. So I told the guy I think I just glazed them but not really sure since bedding them in didn't help, but the squeaking has gotten a lot better, brakes work fine and car isn't pulling whatsoever.

So we bent down and looked closely at the rotors through the wheel, there are some SUPER super faint dark spots on the rotors (literally you can barely see them even when looking) so he said these look like hot spots. He said I could maybe turn them out but the tech is almost guaranteed to tell me to get new rotors. He basically said if it were his car he'd just keep driving it and see how it goes; it's possible the hot spots might just drive out naturally through normal use and then I'll be fine and the squeaking will probably go away with more driving, or worst case the brakes get bad and I come back and do a brake job at that time.

I did ask about the difference in brake dust, it's definitely noticeable but not like one wheel is super black while the other isn't and he said if it's not pulling whatsoever it's possibly just different manufacturing tolerances in the pad compositions between sides, so don't worry about that either. From what I can see of the outer pads through the wheel at the right angle, they look about even, side to side.

Basically he said just keep driving it, as long as the brakes work fine and don't pull and the squeaking is going down, it'll likely be fine and if it gets worse bring it back, so that's what I am doing. I'll be back at QuickLane in a couple thousand for an oil change so I'll see if they say anything then. No charge.

 

Just an update - after another 3k miles and no change in the squeaking, but with a periodic small shake in the steering wheel under braking, I brought the car in to the Quick Lane for an oil change at 35k miles. They said the pads and rotors needed to be replaced, and that the right front pads (the side with more brake dust) was more worn down than the left front pads. I decided I better get it in for a proper inspection with a driveline tech just in case there is something wrong with the car other than the caliper that is causing the uneven wear that could be warranty-able, since I am at 35,700 miles now. Was just told that it's looking like just pads and rotors, everything else looks good, calipers are fine, etc. I didn't mention anything about the uneven wear (would be obvious to the tech), but they didn't say anything about it, just said everything looks good other than the pads and rotors, so I should be on my way shortly...hopefully I get more than 30k-35k miles out of this set. Looking forward to quiet braking again.