Brakes - advice please

[JulieMc]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice.

I put my 6 year old Suzuki swift in to the garage to get my breaks looked at. They DIDNT squeal at the time, I put the car in because when I was doing high speed (motorway driving) and I had to slow down I got a vibration from the break pedal when I pushed in.

They changed my front break pads and discs, all seemed well for 1 month. Then my breaks started to squeak (for the first time) took the car back and they said the pads must have been faulty as they had worn right down, so they changed the pads again. Another 2 weeks down the line squeaking again, took the car back. They said front breaks were fine so they changed the back break shoes?? (I must add they didn’t charge me for the last 2 repairs only the original pads and discs)

It’s now been sweaking for about a month anytime I press the pedal. It’s very loud. The car stops fine and breaks without a problem it’s just the noise is driving me insane.

I am taking it to another garage at the weekend was just wondering if anyone knows what it could be?

It’s a high pitch squeak, this could also be unrelated but when in first gear and driving slow I can sometimes hear a sound when my tyre does a full rotation. It’s not a squealing sound it’s more a squeak and can only be heard every time the wheel full rotates.

Any help would be greatly appreciated I am at my wits end.

[GreenV8S]

Brake squeal is a very common problem and there's no magic bullet to get rid of it. Different brands / types of pad may squeal more or less under different conditions. Sometimes people chamfer the edges of the pad and find that helps. Sometimes anti-squeal shims or paste behind the pad helps - sometimes removing them helps. Dirty guide rails or sliders can cause it or cure it. Basically, anything that affects the way brakes vibrate and resonate can affect brake squeal and solving this is likely to be a matter of trial and error. If your garage are treating you well then I suggest you be patient with them and give them time to figure it out.

[colin_p]

Have a break, have a kit-kat.

[Scrump]

Some good advice from GreenV8s. I would persevere with the original garage a bit longer, they sound very fair.

[Oscar011]

GreenV8S said:

Brake squeal is a very common problem and there's no magic bullet to get rid of it. Different brands / types of pad may squeal more or less under different conditions. Sometimes people chamfer the edges of the pad and find that helps. Sometimes anti-squeal shims or paste behind the pad helps - sometimes removing them helps. Dirty guide rails or sliders can cause it or cure it. Basically, anything that affects the way brakes vibrate and resonate can affect brake squeal and solving this is likely to be a matter of trial and error. If your garage are treating you well then I suggest you be patient with them and give them time to figure it out.

This ^^

Also you say there’s a slight squeaking/rubbing noise when going slow in 1st. I had something similar which turned out to be the the star wheel adjuster too tight on each rear drum and needed backing off a tad.