Brakes Really Squeaky

[ziddey]

so basically, since ive bought the car, the brakes have squeaked a little. it wasnt too bad and i just let it be for a year (maybe a bad idea)

anyway, i tried goign to directire right when i bought the car, but they wouldnt honor any warranty nor would they check it for free because all my records were from the last owner and apparently all the warranties and stuffs went out the door when she sold it.

thing is... she pretty much had brand new rotors and pads (front and rear) put on not more than 6mths before she sold me the car. they were new.

i have to look at the records again to see what brand they were... but if i recall correctly, the rotors were oem

anyway, fast forward to two weeks ago. summer is here and the brakes are a bit more noisy--heat? on harder than usual braking (still not brutal or anything...), itll make a sound that i can describe as a "winding down" sound. not exactly grinding but something like that.

so i take the car to sears ntb by my work and have them look at it. they said everything was beautiful. perfect wearing. nearly new pads (he said i must be light on the brakes if i had the same pads for two years and they still looked the way they did... i dont ride the brakes when braking so im not overheating them too much i think).

he said that its just that a lot of european cars require special assembly and a bit of anti-seize material to prevent it from squeaking. i didnt buy it. it sounded like crap. but he guaranteed me that for $60, he could make it go away. fine. $60.

it didnt exactly go away... but it was an improvement. then, the next few days were good. it practically didnt squeak. still did but it was almost not there. not bad not bad...

then, after a week, it came back. it was just as bad as before. then, a few days later, it got to be a whole hell of a lot worse than before. i was embarassed to brake.

so today, when i went to work, i took it there again and asked nicely for them to figure it out. the reply i got? "whoever put on the last set of pads used cheap pads. theres too much metal shavings on them so itll squeak. its not detrimental or anything... itll just squeak. for $272, well turn your rotors, give you new pads, and flush the brake line."

i thanked him and talked my way to getting the $60 back as well as not paying the $15 checkup fee. but if he said my rotor was perfect, why would he have them turned? what would a brake line flush do to help?

he recommended "premium" pads... whatever those are?? if i recall correctly, the pads directire put on said they were "premium" too and sure werent cheap for the last owner, who crazily spent $1200 for front and rear brake work. sheesh

anyway, im also brake dusting like CRAZY from the front. its even worse than before. id wipe it clean and if i go for a spin around town and city, itll be pretty much black when im back home.

any ideas??

[volvolove]

I didn't take the time to read your whole thing because it was too long. But in any event, to fix squeaky brakes on a volvo like yours there are three steps 1) make sure you have only volvo pads and rotors (really, not trying to make volvo any money here - I'm for real) 2) make sure the pads are greased with white grease on the backings and edges where they contact the caliper and caliper bracket. 3) install the pad shims on the rear pads.

[ziddey]

I didn't take the time to read your whole thing because it was too long.  But in any event, to fix squeaky brakes on a volvo like yours there are three steps 1) make sure you have only volvo pads and rotors (really, not trying to make volvo any money here - I'm for real) 2) make sure the pads are greased with white grease on the backings and edges where they contact the caliper and caliper bracket. 3) install the pad shims on the rear pads.

wouldnt the grease just rub out after a day or so?

[shurgen]

The squeking noise will not be cured by greasing caliper and back of pads, neither by flushing brake fluid. Rarely people turn rotors because it's not much more expensive to buy new rotors. You don't have to buy genuine volvo rotors, a set of Zimmermans would do, but you don't need rotors if your car doesn't shake when braking. Just buy a new set of genuine volvo brake pads and squeking should be gone. A couple of weeks ago I installed Zimmerman rotors and volvo pads on the front......brakes just fine, no squeks.

fcpgroton.com sells a set of volvo pads for $50 with shipping.

[IOPTURBO]

yeah brakes are easy. you can fix them yourself. Use a good high end pad and a compound on the back of the pad and you should be set.

[Ceenit]

Amen to the Volvo OEM pads and shims....they came with backing grease, however I used CRC anti-squeal compound. It turns into a ruberized coating on the pads and shims to prevent the vibration which causes the squeak.

I have new zimmerman rotors all the way around and Volvo pads. I tried several 'premium' pads prior to going back to the volvo pads. In the end, the Volvo pads were less expensive than some of the premium brands and did not squeek. THe do dust more than other brands, but its a small price to pay if you've been going through the pain of squeaking volvo brakes.

[Guest Guest]

I just installed new rear pads and forgot to grease the backs. When you do this the brakes like to moan at you around 15mph and medium braking. A lot of reason can cause sqeaky brakes our BMW 528i has squeaky brakes everytime the weather is hot and dry nothing we can do. As for your brakes, I agree with everyone else use Volvo OEM parts.

[KLS]

I've had good results with Zimmerman rotors and Mintex pads. The fronts do put out some dust. No squeak so far.

IPD and others sell PBR pads. Very low dust, work well, but the rears tend to squeak. I've tried all the antisqueak remedies from IPD and the local autoparts store, and some worked longer than others, some shorter, and I don't recall if anything worked for the life of the rear pads.

Use Teflon coated rear pad shims for sure to minumize the squeaking, plus some the the silicone grease made for brake pad backing plates. The squeak is from the steel backing plate rubbing at high frequency against the caliper.

Ken

[Rule 308]

Volvolove hit the nail on the head. I have tried just about every combination you can think of out there and the best to date is all factory stuff. Yes, they will dust the wheels faster than most any other brand out there and might not last quite as long but they do have the lowest incedence of squeakage in my experience. I'd love to run a cheaper pad and have no squeaks, being in the business it would mean more money in my pocket at the end of the day but how much money do you think I make if I have to keep re-doing brake jobs and pissing off other wise happy customers because their brakes squeak? As far as compounds and snake oils to slather on the back side of your pads and at contact points? Well, again I have tried most everything that has come down the pike. Back in the day I would use the "pink grease" that Volvo recommended and it worked well. Make a sandwich out of the rear pads, put a glob on the pad back, put on a black shim, put a glob on the shim and put on the silver shim. Stuff this shim, grease, brake pad sandwich into the caliper and all was well. Of late I have been using Sylglide silicone grease and it works well. When I worked for BMW for a couple of years they use to pass out this stuff that was pretty much just like the sylglide and it worked well. The only other thing that I do is when I am changing out rotors too I take the caliper mount bracket and hit it with my wire wheel and clean the area that the pads sit on really really well and then lube it with a little sylglide too. One more thing on rotor replacement, I have not found any overwhelming link between wildcat (aftermarket) rotors and squeaks but I have had too many instances of recently done brake jobs coming back with a shimmy and/or pulsation when braking and then I have to either replace the rotors or cut them and either way it is a freebie. So just do what Volvolove says and run the factory stuff.