Brake squeal

[andrewg29]

02 z71 tahoe. About 3 weeks ago I noticed my brakes squealing like a bus so that weekend I went to Napa and bought front and rear rotors and pads. Today I noticed they are starting to squeal again. Is there any lubricant I can put on them without having to take each rotor back off?

 

[OR VietVet]

Cleanliness is important with the new parts. Use a good quality pad and rotor combination. Make sure all areas where the pads move is cleaned off with a wire brush and apply the correct high temp lube. Make sure the calipers also are cleaned where they move and lubed. Take some sand paper and scuff the pad surfaces and use brake clean to clean off. do the same to the rotors surfaces and again clean with brake clean and clean rag. Make sure you do a few straight stops while applying the brakes harder than normal but not like a panic stop. This will seat in the pads and rotors. Now depending on your cleanliness and attention to detail you have a better chance but again, quality of pad and rotor will make a difference. Hopefully all four of your calipers are working evenly and properly.

 

[andrewg29]

Cleanliness is important with the new parts. Use a good quality pad and rotor combination. Make sure all areas where the pads move is cleaned off with a wire brush and apply the correct high temp lube. Make sure the calipers also are cleaned where they move and lubed. Take some sand paper and scuff the pad surfaces and use brake clean to clean off. do the same to the rotors surfaces and again clean with brake clean and clean rag. Make sure you do a few straight stops while applying the brakes harder than normal but not like a panic stop. This will seat in the pads and rotors. Now depending on your cleanliness and attention to detail you have a better chance but again, quality of pad and rotor will make a difference. Hopefully all four of your calipers are working evenly and properly.

I put some of the high temp lube on but apparently it only helped for a couple of weeks. It almost looks like the passenger side rotor is getting warped.. Any idea what that could be from?

 

[OR VietVet]

Without cleaning the surfaces before putting the lube on doesn't help much and you may have a caliper hanging up that is overheating those pads and hence the squeal.

 

[andrewg29]

Without cleaning the surfaces before putting the lube on doesn't help much and you may have a caliper hanging up that is overheating those pads and hence the squeal.

I'll have to check that out.. Thanks for the help!

 

[OR VietVet]

If I was you I would just start over and reuse the parts you have and clean them up like my long post says and have both front rotors machined to address the warp. You don't want to just machine one of them.

 

[andrewg29]

If I was you I would just start over and reuse the parts you have and clean them up like my long post says and have both front rotors machined to address the warp. You don't want to just machine one of them.

I might do it this weekend. I read somewhere that nbs came factory with ceramic brakes. I'm not sure if the ones I got were ceramic which might have something to do with it.

 

[OR VietVet]

Agreed, make sure you check. The parts guy or girl at NAPA should have asked you which pads you wanted. Their books or files should say what is OE parts.

 

[andrewg29]

Agreed, make sure you check. The parts guy or girl at NAPA should have asked you which pads you wanted. Their books or files should say what is OE parts.

Got it. I'll double check this time. Thanks!