my brakes squeek when i'm at low speeds (parking or coming to a stop)....my car is only about 6 months old, is this normal...? do i need new rotors or pads? it doesn't happen all the time so i don't wanna look stupid/waste my time trying at replicate it to the dealer

p.s. i wish i could keep my Z in my garage but it doesn't clear the driveway...it's been out there in the rain and snow

 

I had this problem with the brakes on my Track model for the first few months that I had the car. The problem was a bit irritating, but it didn't cause any braking difficulties. I never returned the car to the dealership. The squealing disappeared as quickly as it started. No problems since then. My guess is the new parts had to get to 'know' each other (break in). I'm now at 10K miles.

 

Yes.... when I'm on a slope and stopped. If I rollback and brake abit while waiting for the lights to turn, it squeeks. It started a long time ago and still like that. I took the car into a shop one time and had them looked at it. It was just the "dust", they say. The pads or rotors are still fine. They just squeek at low speed.

 

will it eventually go away? i didn't notice it in the warm weather

 

Funny, I'm noticing it too. Maybe from driving on our salty roads there's salt in there or something a little bigger than the typical dust particles?

 

Guys, my guess is that those of you who haven't bed-in your pads are experiencing the squeeking. Pads need to be broken in using a specific procedure. The idea is to transfer an even deposit of pad material to the rotor. When you hit your brakes, the stopping mechanism is not designed to be pad on rotor. The mechanism is the brake pad clamping on pad material that has been deposited on rotor...two like surfaces that bond well together. Make sense? To properly bed your pads, you need to do about 10 consecutive stops from 60. Find a nice deserted stretch of highway late at night. Take the car up to 60...jump on the brakes and declerate the car down to about 5mph...DO NOT STOP COMPLETELY...take the car up to 60 again immediately, and slow to 5mph again...by the 4th or 5th time, you're going to start smelling some pad as it heats up. By the 6th or 7th stop, you'll probably start seeing some smoke...this is normal. Keep going until the 10th stop, or discontinue the procedure if the brakes start to significantly fade. If the start to fade significantly, this is normal...just cruise for a bit to cool things down, and don't come to a full stop. Then you need to keep driving for 5-10 minutes or so without coming to a full stop...you're just cooling everything down. If done properly, this should probably clear up your squeaking problem, and put a nice even deposit on the rotor. When you look at the rotor in daylight, it should have a nice uniform blueish tint all over the surface where the pad makes contact with the rotor. My bet is that your squeeks will be gone, and your car will finally be stopping at its full potential. This break-in procedure should be done EVERY time you change your pads...that means if you go to the track and swap in race pads, you need to bed in the rotors with the new material...and when you put your street pads again, you need to rebed them. Get it? The reason that I'm harping on the 'don't stop completely' thing is that you could put a nasty pad deposit on the rotors if you let them sit on the rotors in one spot while they're hot (the pads and rotors will be toasty). The pad material fuses to that one spot...then what happens is every time you hit your brakes you get a thumpety thump thump vibration when the rotor spins past that deposit point and it makes contact with your pad. Then you'll be saying

As for the squeal, high performance pads do have a much greater tendency to squeal. That's just the price you pay sometimes for performance. No matter what pad you use, you will ALWAYS have some sort of tradeoff. A street pad is generally less noisy and dusty, but it can't handle extreme heat and will fade when pushed. On the other hand, a race pad doesn't work well cold, and will chew the ___ out of your rotors. You can buy a 'granny' pad that has no dust and doesn't let out a peep, but then it won't bite as hard, and you'll be complaining that the car doesn't stop fast enough! Brake pads are all about tradeoffs...there is no magic formula that works under all conditions.

Good luck, and happy braking.

 

i've had my car about 6 months/10k miles....my pads aren't broken in? i just wanna confirm before i go do this...

thanks for all the info

 

My pads squeek once when its cold outside. But thats it, just that one time every time i start driving when its cold.

 

MY OEM brakes squeaked a little also. I changed the fronts with HAWKS and they still squeak at low speeds; 10 m.p.h. and lower.

However, I'll take squeaking over brake dust anyday.