going crazy from squeeky brakes

water-baby · Post by **water-baby** » 05 Feb 2012, 14:21

I went back to the Volvo dealership (twice) that installed new brakes/rotors, telling them I can't stand the squeeking every single time my foot touches the brake pedal. The service writer says "You still have 60% left on your pads. It's the way Volvo pads are. Have a nice day lady". Last week, exasperated from the annoying screech, I went to an independent Volvo mechanic. He said, "Oh, it's dirt. Just slam on your brakes a lot to get rid of the dust." Yeah, sure. Then I went to another indy guy, who was "factory trained". He said he could try some aftermarket pads, but the noise could be the same or worse, and he too told me to live with it. I have 106K miles on this car, recently got a new transmission and struts, and never had brake noise before. After a carwash, the screech is quiet for a few hours, and in a good rainstorm, they're quiet. I'd love some advice from all you experts out there. Is this something I should call Volvo America and complain about? Oh, Volvo also says it's no big deal that when I turn my wheel to the left, it sounds like the brake is stuck to the left front wheel. Is this all connected to the brake pad issue??

huzzsaba · Post by **huzzsaba** » 14 Feb 2012, 16:13

I would take it to independent shop and ask them to take the brakes off and clean and grease all moving parts as well as the back of the pads. A lot of times the greasing part is neglected and that can cause squealing. Good luck!

kaneelschep · Post by **kaneelschep** » 13 Jan 2017, 09:23

I used to love to annoy people in my car with the squeek

Do it on purpose all the time.
But recenty I rebuild the brakes and when changing the pads I greased their backs a bit.
Now theres no more squeek.

That you hear the brakes when you turn is not a good thing.

Post by **oragex** » 13 Jan 2017, 09:59

Old topic, but I have never greased the pads and had no noise with one exception. When that happened I simply switched the front rotors so they now turn the other way.

As for squeaky new brakes it must be a 'mismatch' between the rotor quality and the pads composition. Either the rotors are cheap, either the pads are made of some kind of hard ceramic.

Post by **cuhfs** » 17 Jan 2017, 06:18

I have had that with a warped rotor. Also agree grease may help if it is not warped. I have had warped rotor from tire shops overtightening lugs.

Post by **oragex** » 17 Jan 2017, 08:27

cuhfs wrote:I have had that with a warped rotor. Also agree grease may help if it is not warped. I have had warped rotor from tire shops overtightening lugs.

I also had this issue of warped rotors because I have cheap rotors which are more 'flexible' under lugs. The issue with warped rotors is related with the 5 lugs not having the same torque which is hard to achieve. Good news is a rotor can run for longtime this way before it really gets 'warped'. I had the brake pedal vibrating for long time, once I got the lugs properly torqued, the vibration disappeared entirely.

The following is a total heresy but worked for me. My rotors were 'warped' because I was tightening the lugs in a criss-cross pattern. To get rid of the brake pedal vibration, I rather tightened the lugs clockwise (or counterclockwise) in 3-4 steps of torque.

Post by **cuhfs** » 17 Jan 2017, 21:25

I now always redo my lugsnuts to 110 lbs with torque wrench after I have tires done at tire shop. They are often so tight I need a breaker bar extension. Not good.

kaneelschep · Post by **kaneelschep** » 22 Jan 2017, 07:00

Sorry for dragging the post back from the dead