tiberio (01/14/83)
There are two possible reasons for disc brake squeal that I know of. The first is your pads are worn out and you've got the metal backing of the now gone composition pad squealing on the cast iron rotor. Some cars have very soft pads (good for wet weather, also don't contribute to cause two below) that can wear out in 10,000 miles. The squealing sound should be accompanied by a grinding sound which help you distinguish it from the squeal caused by high frequency chatter of the hard brake pad. I have heard of a number of cures for squeal due to hard pads. The one that I have used and trust is to introduce some rubber damping in the pad/caliper connection. My yamaha motorcycle had nasty squeal until I installed a part sold by yamaha to fix it. It was a new rubber lined pad holder. Really did the trick. For less specific applications I believe chrysler makes a liquid rubber product that you apply to the back of the pad (where the caliper piston touches) and once it cures no more squeal (I'm told). Other temporary cures include deglazing the rotor and pads and/or chamfering the edges of the pad that contact the rotor. I assume most cars have cast iron rotors, so do most european motorcycles. My moto guzzi had some fine brembo brakes with very soft pads and cast iron rotors. It never squealed and gave great wet weather braking. My yamaha has stainless steel rotors (actually called mehanite). They will never rust in the rain and they sure don't stop you either. So much for looks. In cars the rotors are not visible so manufactures probably use cast iron, so my advice to you is chuch the stock pads and put on some nice soft (probably made in europe) aftermarket pads and live with replacing them every 10,000 miles.
tbm (01/21/83)
~s Re Pad Squealing
As a Volvo owner for '63 '65 '68 and the current '72 models I have found
there is a very simple solution. Just take out the pads, clean them,
file the sharp edges and re-install. It always works and sometimes last
s for many 10K miles.
Tom Merrick
BTL
~p
,p