I recently put a set of hawk street pads on my 350. Was just wondering if anyone else has noticed a sound increase while braking. Its a strange noise kinda. Kinda goes vrrrrrrrr when you are coming to a stop. My car made no noises at all before the pad install.

My car has also (I think) feather free for 16k.

 

Mine goes vroom, JK!

Not sure, my Hawks squeal at low speeds, however since my long road trip, they haven't squealed yet. Fingers crossed.

One question for ya, did you bed them in? You got the HPS pads for the front only, right?

 

I had the dealer install the pads for me, so I 'm assuming they bedded them. The dealer also turned the rotors. No squeling at all. Just the vrrrrrrrrrr.

 

Not a good assumption. It's the rare mechanic that properly beds the pads. They will often take it around the block and apply the brakes a few times to make sure there aren't any loud clunks, indicating they forgot to tighten a critical bolt or two and also to seat the pads to the rotors a bit so the customer has at least SOME brake force when he hits the pedal the first time.

The bedding process is much more extreme than that. See: http://www.zeckhausen.com/bedding_in_brakes.htm

Which Hawk pads did you have installed? Were they the HPS or were they the HP Plus? The latter tend to be very noisy, even when bedded.

The vrrrrrr sound isn't something I would expect with properly installed pads and freshly turned rotors. I sometimes hear this on drilled rotors and can also hear a rhythmic knocking sound on brand new slotted rotors where the edge of the slot is slightly raised from the friction surface by the action of the milling machine. But this goes away soon.

Why did the mechanic turn your rotors? Did you have a vibration issue? Or is he one of those guys that turns rotors whenever swapping pads? I think that type of mechanic is sort of like the dentist who always manages to find a cavity to drill even when they aren't really there. Turning rotors is usually unnecessary.

 

I ordered the Hawk street pads, now if I got those I don't know, because I was in such a rush after work to drop the car off, I didn't even look at the box. But I know I ordered the Hawk HPS.

As far as turning the rotors goes, the nissan service manager said they do it everytime they install new pads. In my case he said it wasn't extreme, but just putting a fresh surface on the rotor to mate w/ the pad. Wether this is correct or not, I personally don't know. I thought I was doing the right thing by giving the job to a proffessional.

For all I know it could be fine, its not a bad noise I should say. Its not an overbearing vrrrr that you hear everytime you apply the brake. Its only when slowing down to about 2-3 mph down to 0. Its a difficult sound to describe. I should have looked at the brake pad box more closely I guess. Just was in such a rush.

Thanks for the suggestions though.