The title pretty much says it all. My husband replaced the brakes on my 2005 suburban and they are squealing constantly now. He says it’s normal and will go away as I drive it, I’ve only done about 3 miles so far but no better. So keep driving or something isn’t right? For what it’s worth he grew up in his dad’s auto shop and has restored some cars so not a pro but definitely competent and he swears they are installed correctly.
It’s normal if hubby doesn’t want to do anything to change it.
LOL, great answer Dag!
Ask him if he used a dab of antisqueal grease under the pads.
Were the rotors resurfaced/replaced when the brake job was done?
Tester
Brakes vibrate. There are various things involved in brake jobs that are meant to dampen the vibration so the brakes don’t squeal. One of those is the antisqueal grease mentioned by mountainbike. Some of them involve little bits of springy hardware. Brake squeal is annoying. You might want to twist his arm to look into what kinds of hardware kits are sold for this vehicle - some will contain new antivibration stuff. Short of that, or actually in addition to that, some brake grease on the back of the pads - where ever they make contact - is a fine idea.
Rotors were replaced and he says there is lube under the pads. I’ll have him look into the hardware, though who knows how long that will take haha. So if nothing is done will it eventually stop when it wears down enough or is this going to be ongoing for awhile? He said 100 miles though no clue where he pulled that number from. I’m hoping it’s wrong cause the constant squealing is nails on a chalkboard screechy!
It’s not likely to diminish with time. In fact, it’s more often the reverse. You might also ask him if he looked up the break-in procedure for the pads and followed it. I suppose that could help.
The brake pads may just need to be embedded into the rotors.
Find a road where you can the get the vehicle up to 40MPH and then apply the brakes very firmly but not enough to lock up the brakes. Then drive the vehicle for a minute to allow the brakes to cool down. Repeat this about a half dozen times to see if that gets rid of the screeching.
Tester
There are many causes for squealing from disc brakes.If the rotors were replaced and the coating washed off the new rotors the problem may be the material used in the new pads. After market pads are often more noisy than the originals. Certainly I can’t hear your brakes squeal to judge how loud they are but very often customers seem to be looking and listening closely for possible problems after any repair and front brake repair vey often brings on customer complaints despite the use of first quality parts and close attention to every detail in the repair. Is the noise troubling? Annoying? Maybe you think people are watching you because of the noise.
Anyway, I suggest you ask your husband to ‘seat’ the brakes as mentioned above by @Tester. Then continue to drive normally as long as the brakes perform properly and hopefully the noise will decline while you learn to ignore it. Better to be safe and squeaking than shimmying and jerking in silence. I have faced your husband’s situation from across the counter at my shop as well as across the breakfast table. Some days it seems like you just can’t win.
It’s entirely possible this will go away by itself. The least expensive method is just to live with it for a while, see if it goes away. If I had this problem on my Corolla and I couldn’t stand the noise any longer, I’d remove the pads, thoroughly clean the pads and rotor, then radially (and lightly) score the rotor with some 160 grit sandpaper. Likewise with the pads. Then I’d dab some brake grease between all the metal-to-metal interfaces, put everything back together – making sure the anti-squeal shims are installed properly – and drive it for a week or two, see if that eventually solves it. If all that didn’t work, I’d go to a dealership and ask them for the best pads and rotors they have that meet the car’s OEM specs, and try those. If that didn’t work, I’d either sell the car, or take it to a good mechanic.
It’s also possible that he went to a different pad material, perhaps “metallic” pads, that tend to be noisier. Perhaps he pads just aren’t an optimum material for this application. Metallic pads do last longer, but they can be noisy.
Perhaps if you tell him that you’ll squeal until the brakes stop… squeal with anger, not delight… oops… did I write that?
Got some more info. He installed new EBC pads and rotors which he’s used before without issue. As to the level of sound, this isn’t something you can miss. He took the truck out to try and embed them as suggested and I could hear him coming down the street on his way back while I was in our basement. This is a get the neighbors angry type loud. And at least so far it seems like trying to embed them didn’t do much if anything noticeable.
Could it be a call the manufacturer type issue or take it to be seen?
And btw, thanks for all the help and suggestions!
I know it’s a little late now . . .
But for my own personal cars, I ALWAYS use factory brake pads and rotors. I’ve not had any noise problems.
I haven’t had such good luck with aftermarket brakes . . .
When it comes to brakes, never try to out engineer what originally came on the vehicle.
Causes more problems than benefits.
Tester
When it comes to brakes, never try to out engineer what originally came on the vehicle.
Since when do auto manufacturers design and make brake systems?
They are made for them by one of the leading brake companies. Wagner is one of the OEM manufacturers. Those are the ones I use…and NEVER had a problem with their brakes. Been using them for the past 40 years. If the part store is out of stock for the Wagner brakes…I’ll wait or go else where.
EBC is the name of the company rather than the type of pad.
Since he’s a fellow motorhead, as the English say, I’ll assume he cleaned the new rotors.
Are the brake pad boxes still hanging around? Perhaps the box will have the pad material identified, or at least a part number. At least knowing the pad material might help explain the squeal, although the truth is that unless he’s willing to change to another pad it probably won’t do any good anyway.
There’s also the aforementioned antisqueal clips, which if they were omitted could be the cause, but as with everything else knowledge alone won’t stop the squeal. Perhaps if you got him, to post and we chewed him out… 