I just had a set of street pads installed last week. I bedded them per the instructions, but had a terrible squeek at low pressure, low speeds.

I did the bedding procedure again, and it seemed to help a little, but it still squeeks pretty bad. It doesn't happen first thing, so the brakes need to be a little warm, and it only happens at low pedal pressure and at fairly low speeds. Worst is coming to a stop. I have had performance street pads before (on my Z32), and they didn't squeek at all.

Any suggestions as to how to resolve this?

 

Alang- what kind of pads did you install?

 

Carbotech Bobcats

 

Did you use any anti-squeel grease between the shims and pads? That should reduce a lot of the noise. I also get some squeeling when the brakes get hot, but I don't think it's as bad as yours.

 

Put a little bearing grease on your rotors. Just Kidding!!!

Did you try any cleaning fluid such as brakleen(sp?)

 

Actually, I had the dealer put them in since it was in for some warrentee work. I'm not sure what they did as far as lubing the pads. The squeel is mostly from the rear pads now. I am guessing that I didn't get them hot enough during the bedding process. I'm going to try bedding again, but being more agressive to insure the rears heat up.

If that doesn't work, I'll try the anti-squeel grease.

 

What sort of bedding in process did you follow? It has been my experience that most people are not agressive enough. If you continue to do 60 mph to 10 mph slowdowns at the limit of engaging ABS, and then get right back up to speed and do it again, you should start to feel brake fade onset after about 6 to 8 runs, depending on the pad type. When the fade is obvious, you should get back up to speed and cruise around for about 10 minutes until your brakes cool off.

A more detailed set of instructions may be found here: http://www.zeckhausen.com/bedding_in_brakes.htm

 

Using my wife as a listener, I tracked the squeel down to the rear pads. I swapped them out and put the OEM pads in and no more squeel. I had a couple of phone conversations with Larry at carbotech. This guy has got to be the most accomodating businessman I have ever worked with. Turns out they had some incorrect specs regarding pad size, and the rears were .05 too thick. While its a longshot, he wants me to ship the pads back to him so they can be resurfaced and set to the proper thickness. He'll send them back to me for reinstall and we will see what happens. Mind you he is footing all the shipping costs for this and if it doesn't work he will still reimburse me for the pads if I choose. Thats customer service!

As far as bedding, I followed the mfrs instructions. Brake from 60-30 using moderate pressure 6-8 times until they are hot, then let them cool down for 30 minutes. These are street pads, not race pads, so maybe the more agressive bedding may be for more agressive materials.

Anyway, I'm happy for now since my brakes are quiet again.

 

If the rear pads were too thick, when installed, to operate properly, they would have applied constant pressure to the rotors and quickly overheated. The symptoms would have included a strong burning smell, heat radiating from the rear wheels, and the rotors would have taken on a blue tint from the overheating. The surface of the pads would glaze as a result of being taken way past their designed maximum operating temperature (MOT). This could conceivably cause squeal upon brake applicaiton. However, I would think that all the other effects of too thick pads would be quite noticable.

It's a darned good thing you are capable of doing your own work because swapping out pads and then putting the replacements back in when they arrived in the mail a week or two later would get expensive if a shop was doing it.

 

Here's the scoop:

The rear pad for the Brembo is actually the same pad (shape) that fits the front of an older BMW. Since the 350Z is a 2003 model, it's not in our 2002 book (the 2003 books don't come out until June). So we've been making rear pads to the specification listed in the book for the older BMW because, well, that's all we had. Sounds like to me they are too thick. From now on, we will be making them .050" thinner.

If anyone else we've sold pads to is having fitment problems on the rear, we'll gladly fix them for you and get them back to you ASAP.

Matt

 

The brakes were not hot and I never smelled them (except after the bedding process). When I took them out a few days after installation, they slid out no problem. I know the extra .05 wasn't causing the pad to drag since the wheels spun pretty freely. Like I said, this .05 extra is a longshot as to the cause of the squeeling, but Larry was willing to give it a shot.

As far as swaping out pads, the brembo caliper design makes it super easy to do this. Two cotter pins, remove the retaining pins and out the pads come. It literally takes longer to jack up the car and take off the wheel than it takes to change the pads.

 

Alang. You're not the first 350Z owner to comment about noise/fitment of our rear Brembo pads.

.050" may be a longshot, but I'm fairly confident that's the issue despite the fact they slid out easily.

Out of the several hundred sets of Bobcat pads we've sold since Feb, I can count on 1 hand the number of noise complaints we've recieved. The fact that your front pads are completely quiet tells me something is not right in the rear.

Larry and I appreciate everyone's patience, especially yours Alang.

Matt

 

I just picked up my new Z track and i also noticed a high frequency squeak when slowing the car down to a stop. If i am braking from above 10mph, my brakes are fine and silent. But once i get below 10mph and coming to a stop..the squeak happens. Any advice?

 

Yes! Bed in the pads per the following instructions: http://www.zeckhausen.com/bedding_in_brakes.htm The squeaking should go away.

 

Thank for the info dude...


BTW... i am starting to notice scoring on the rotor surface. Any concerns? The scoring are not circular(circumferencial about the center). They are linear and seems to go in different directions.

my old car had circumferencial scoring and i thought i might be attributted to a foreign matter getting stuck between the pad and the rotor surface.