# Brake Squealing



## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

No, not common. How many miles on the car?

You can visually see how much pad's left on at least the front side of the caliper with a quick look in the wheel.


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## ProDigit (Aug 31, 2015)

I had the same issue on mine, around 60k miles.
Turns out the organic brake pads, just ended up glazed.
If you don't want to spend any money, and can take them out yourself, scrub em with sandpaper, and apply a light sandpaper scrub on the rotors, and mount them again, and they should be good.

However, for $35 you can get ceramic brake pads, that will grip a lot better than the OEM ones.

If someone else does the brake job on your car, it makes sense to get new brake pads, as the cost would be almost the same as when he would charge for reconditioning the pads and rotors.

Rotors not showing any grooves?


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## mmaks1m (Jan 10, 2018)

So you have drums in the back, have you re-greased them yet? I had an issue like that when my cruze only had 10000 mil, changed pads, rotated the routers, took it to the dealeship multiple times with no result... but a little grease on the moving parts, springs and such took care of that, well untill just now 45k ish gotta do it again.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

It's a common problem with all front brakes. Doesn't always happen on all front brakes but it does happen. Specially now that's it summer time. 

Front brakes work harder then rear brakes. Rotors and pads get glazed. Pad vibrates inside caliper mounts. 

Could also be the brake wear indicator. Whoever checked your brakes. Did they check both sides to make sure both are at 7????


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## Jondaytona (Apr 26, 2018)

IMO, sounds like you just got a lower quality pad. If you want to fix the squeal, you'll have to spend the money on better pads and either have the rotors resurfaced or replaced. OEM brakes are typically organic for less dust on the wheels and less noise during braking in order to keep a lower customer complaint.

"Typically", a squeal while stopping is going to be the brake pad quality, but a squeal while driving WITHOUT applying the pedal will be your wear indicators giving you a sign to check your pad life as they will usually be low at that point.

Another thing to note, while looking through the wheels at the outboard pad gives you a good idea on how worn the pads are, the inner pad (piston side) that you can't see could be worn down to nothing if your caliper isn't sliding properly. This is pretty common for people that just do "pad slaps" and don't actually take the time to do a "full service" where you clean up and grease up the areas that are needed.


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## PenguinEMT (Feb 20, 2018)

So I have almost 100,000. But I believe my current brakes have roughly 20,000 on them, maybe less. I had an issue with a previous set that after 8 months I had to get new ones and my rotors resurfaced because the brakes were grinding into my rotors. I will have to check tomorrow, if the rain holds off.


jblackburn said:


> No, not common. How many miles on the car?
> 
> You can visually see how much pad's left on at least the front side of the caliper with a quick look in the wheel.


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## PenguinEMT (Feb 20, 2018)

Okay. I will have to ask my friend if he would feel comfortable, he used to work for a dealership, to do that with my brakes. I haven't looked well enough at my rotors to see if there are any grooves. I know its NOT grinding, I remember what it felt like when they were.


ProDigit said:


> I had the same issue on mine, around 60k miles.
> Turns out the organic brake pads, just ended up glazed.
> If you don't want to spend any money, and can take them out yourself, scrub em with sandpaper, and apply a light sandpaper scrub on the rotors, and mount them again, and they should be good.
> 
> ...


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## PenguinEMT (Feb 20, 2018)

Not unless the dealership did when I had issues with my brakes before because they checked everything. I'll talk with a friend and see if he can do that.


mmaks1m said:


> So you have drums in the back, have you re-greased them yet? I had an issue like that when my cruze only had 10000 mil, changed pads, rotated the routers, took it to the dealeship multiple times with no result... but a little grease on the moving parts, springs and such took care of that, well untill just now 45k ish gotta do it again.


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## PenguinEMT (Feb 20, 2018)

He did check both sides to make sure they were even.


snowwy66 said:


> It's a common problem with all front brakes. Doesn't always happen on all front brakes but it does happen. Specially now that's it summer time.
> 
> Front brakes work harder then rear brakes. Rotors and pads get glazed. Pad vibrates inside caliper mounts.
> 
> Could also be the brake wear indicator. Whoever checked your brakes. Did they check both sides to make sure both are at 7????


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## PenguinEMT (Feb 20, 2018)

If my dealership charged me $300 some (I don't remember the exact cost) for brakes and to resurface my rotors, I hope that they weren't lower quality. It's only while stopping and I have to really baby my car when braking for it to not squeal. And by baby it I mean braking even more gently than I do now and I do NOT slam on my brakes...I hate when people do that.


Jondaytona said:


> IMO, sounds like you just got a lower quality pad. If you want to fix the squeal, you'll have to spend the money on better pads and either have the rotors resurfaced or replaced. OEM brakes are typically organic for less dust on the wheels and less noise during braking in order to keep a lower customer complaint.
> 
> "Typically", a squeal while stopping is going to be the brake pad quality, but a squeal while driving WITHOUT applying the pedal will be your wear indicators giving you a sign to check your pad life as they will usually be low at that point.
> 
> Another thing to note, while looking through the wheels at the outboard pad gives you a good idea on how worn the pads are, the inner pad (piston side) that you can't see could be worn down to nothing if your caliper isn't sliding properly. This is pretty common for people that just do "pad slaps" and don't actually take the time to do a "full service" where you clean up and grease up the areas that are needed.


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## Jondaytona (Apr 26, 2018)

I do believe dealerships offer at least two, if not three options for brake pads. $300 for a dealership brake job doesn't sound too bad for today's rates. I have no idea what they charge the public for parts, but I'm always shocked to see "our" prices when I'm ordering parts for new cars through my work. I believe dealer labor rates are at or above $100/hr though.


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## PenguinEMT (Feb 20, 2018)

Yes. I do remember when they were telling me about the issue, they mentioned that the brakes were "After market" I believe is what the guy said and he was going to have them put on GM brakes. The issue before apparently was that the brakes were digging into my rotors. It's finally starting to get nice here in PA so I might have a friend of mine who knows how to change brakes and stuff, take my car down to his place and check them out. It get's really bad when it rains or first thing after the car has been sitting for a while but then doesn't squeal too bad. I just don't want to pay the dealership because I have yet to find one who won't try to take advantage of me and I don't have the energy to go rounds with them because I'm a female and they don't think I should know about cars. I can change my own oil if I had the space to do so.


Jondaytona said:


> I do believe dealerships offer at least two, if not three options for brake pads. $300 for a dealership brake job doesn't sound too bad for today's rates. I have no idea what they charge the public for parts, but I'm always shocked to see "our" prices when I'm ordering parts for new cars through my work. I believe dealer labor rates are at or above $100/hr though.


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## Jondaytona (Apr 26, 2018)

First, let me say yes, please have your brakes inspected to see exactly what's going on in order to be sure they're ok. With that said, it really sounds to me like you just have low quality pad material. One time I bought a used Escalade that someone apparently slapped a set of the cheapest brake pads on it just to sell it. So they were new and full of life, but I could not stand the noise. It was pretty much exactly as you are describing it. Even though the pads were still like new and worked just fine, I ended up replacing them with a better pad from the local parts store and problem was solved.

FYI: Here's a pic of the rear brakes on my Cruze by looking through the wheel. Depending on your wheels, you should be able to at least see what you have. On mine, you can see the "GM" on the pad indicating OEM brakes that were made by "NAC" (the company I work for). We (OEM) put our brakes through extensive testing to meet customer standards in order to have no noise with the least amount of dust. This is why they are the most recommended, but the higher grade aftermarket products have similar quality at a lower cost from your local parts store as well.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

$300 is pretty steep price. 

I remember when the going rate was $69.95. New pads and surface rotors. Offered by midas and meineke.


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## PenguinEMT (Feb 20, 2018)

Sorry that I've not responded, life has gotten crazy on my end. I just had my car at the dealer for an oil change and brought up the squealing. They said they would take a look at them for me to make sure the person who inspected my car just didn't care. They came back with everything looking good. I have drums on the back but the squealing is definitely coming from my front. I will have to look next time I go out and see if I can see what the brakes are. But when they were replaced by my dealer, a Chevy dealer, they said they used GM ones.


Jondaytona said:


> First, let me say yes, please have your brakes inspected to see exactly what's going on in order to be sure they're ok. With that said, it really sounds to me like you just have low quality pad material. One time I bought a used Escalade that someone apparently slapped a set of the cheapest brake pads on it just to sell it. So they were new and full of life, but I could not stand the noise. It was pretty much exactly as you are describing it. Even though the pads were still like new and worked just fine, I ended up replacing them with a better pad from the local parts store and problem was solved.
> 
> FYI: Here's a pic of the rear brakes on my Cruze by looking through the wheel. Depending on your wheels, you should be able to at least see what you have. On mine, you can see the "GM" on the pad indicating OEM brakes that were made by "NAC" (the company I work for). We (OEM) put our brakes through extensive testing to meet customer standards in order to have no noise with the least amount of dust. This is why they are the most recommended, but the higher grade aftermarket products have similar quality at a lower cost from your local parts store as well.
> 
> View attachment 262985


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## PenguinEMT (Feb 20, 2018)

Well this was at my dealership, so I would expect it to be steep. I will NOT take my car to Midas or Meineke in my area or any other place like it, the ones in my area are not the best.


snowwy66 said:


> $300 is pretty steep price.
> 
> I remember when the going rate was $69.95. New pads and surface rotors. Offered by midas and meineke.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

PenguinEMT said:


> Well this was at my dealership, so I would expect it to be steep. I will NOT take my car to Midas or Meineke in my area or any other place like it, the ones in my area are not the best.


I believe the dealership was $99.95 at that time.


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## jmlo96 (May 2, 2015)

PenguinEMT said:


> Sorry that I've not responded, life has gotten crazy on my end. I just had my car at the dealer for an oil change and brought up the squealing. They said they would take a look at them for me to make sure the person who inspected my car just didn't care. They came back with everything looking good. I have drums on the back but the squealing is definitely coming from my front. I will have to look next time I go out and see if I can see what the brakes are. But when they were replaced by my dealer, a Chevy dealer, they said they used GM ones.


Perhaps the dealer used ACDelco Professional Durastop pads. These pads could be considered OEM because they are ACDelco, but they squeal like crazy. They are nicknamed Durasqueals.


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