Hey guys so lately I've been having this squeaking noise at low speeds. It happens in time with wheel rotation and occurs both while braking and accelerating. It becomes a lot more shrill if a lightly press on the brake pedal but goes away if I press harder. I jacked the car up and found that both front wheels squeak each rotation if I spin them by hand.

Thoughts? I checked my brake pads and they have plenty left and I tried using some brake noise removal grease on all critical components.

 

Check the wheel bearings. --Spike

 

Pull the front pads, and look at the friction material. I bought my car used, and they had plenty of pad-life remaining, but made an annoying squeal. I figured id just live with it until the pads wore down, and do a full 4 wheel brake job.

Well, the squealing got considerably worse, embarrassingly so, so I grabbed some raybestos ceramic front pads, and swapped em out.

The pads I removed were actually CRACKED, one side in multiple places, in the meat of the friction material, and most definitely capable of causing the noise.

Check to see if your pads have any splits or cracks, ill post up some pictures when I get home, so you can see what im talking about.

 

Make sure the dust shield isn't bent and hitting the rotor. I had that problem.

 

Cracked front brake pads, 2005 Roadster, Brembo package

 

What are those brand name pads? Please let us know so we won't buy it!!!

 

Heh, just pulled the shim plates, since there was no name or any identifying marks on them....

Nothing under their either, so im guessing they are cheap chinese crap, you know, the ones they throw in for "free" with the 40$ rotors

They are def not ceramics though, so sticking to ceramics should lower your chances of getting whatever brand these things were.

 

Thanks for the responses guys! I'll check the pads again this weekend and I'll look into the wheel bearing issue. If I can't figure it out, I'll try to get a video of it on stands to show the sound better.

 

Seriously sounds like either the thin sheet metal cover around the rotor is bent down and rubbing on the rotor itself. Or like said above the wheel bearings, which are no fun Just had to replace both on the rear of my Z. Is the car over or near 100k miles? And did it randomly just start doing it? Also is it a grinding noise or a squeaking? A Good way to check the Wheel bearings is to jack the car up and grab the top and bottom of the wheel and try to push/pull it and if it does have play then it's definitely your wheel bearing.

 

I had the same issue recently. Bearings were good. My front calipers actually weren't retracting all the way and I had to rebuild them. Factory Brembos. Let us know what you find out.