08 jeep brake squeal-- really bad

[meep]

36,000 miles. driven pretty gently. brakes look like they could easily go another 50k.

except they squeak horribly!!!

It's gotten worse after heavy rains and other means of getting wet.

I don't panic stop, it's not a sports car, and I drive with mpg in mind, which may be part of the problem.

I "rebedded" the pads by some heavy, extended braking with the engine pushing. They got good and hot-- not hot enough to fade or smell, but apparently hot enough to decide to let some grease eek out of the sealed bearings up front. (ugh). The squeaks were gone for... a few days. now they are starting to return. these are oem pads.

There is no pulsing/rotor warp and the rotors are smooooth.

suggestions? Swap pads? remove pads and apply grease?

I've never had a vehicle squeal this bad. it sounds like a dump truck. seriously. i put up with squeaks and rattles all day long in this thing. THIS is loud.

M

 

[Lead Shoes]

You bought the wrong vehicle if your going for mpg

But I would change the pads out to anything better than that.. my friends 07 Silverado sounded like that too, we just swapped the pads to NAPA premiums and no more squeaking.

 

[rshaw125]

The OEM pads should not squeal. I have seen many instances of after market pads squealing.
I would remove them and reinstall with grease on the pins and anti-squeal on the backs.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Take the jeep to dealer to see if they will replace the pad under warranty ?

 

[meep]

just past the warranty, and my dealer has not done very good work in the past, so I'm sort of on my own.

I don't mind regreasing everything, I guess I'm thinking if I'm going to disassemble it all, should I install new pads while I'm in there?

Agree, it ain't a mpg machine, and I bought it for specific needs. but I just try to do my part and be responsible. waste not...

Any recommendations on the grease? There's a specific kind for the backs of the pads, right?

 

[Jimmy9190]

The dealer will not warranty brake pads at 36,000 miles unless you have some kind of really good extended warranty or maintenance plan. They will tell you that after you hit 12,000 miles brake pads are a wear and tear maintenance item, and so are brake rotors. If this were my Jeep I would just replace the pads with good quality aftermarket pads and new rotors too if the original rotors are very close to the minimum thickness specs. If the pads and/or rotors only have 15K of service left on them now, it makes more sense to me to just replace them all at once now and be done with it rather than have to do parts of the job again in a short time.

Brake squeal is caused by the pads vibrating and moving in the calipers. Use brake caliper grease on the caliper pins and slide surfaces and spray the back sides of the pads with anti-squeal compound and there should be no more noise after that. I like the red CRC brake anti-squeal spray in a can. It works great, lasts a long time and is very easy to apply.

There are a lot of choices for brake pads and rotors. Personally I like the Autozone Duralast brake parts, I have them on my truck and my girlfriend's Honda and they are doing fine. Both vehicles stop great, have no brake noise at all and both have a very minimal amount of brake dust.

Others here will probably disagree with me, and that's OK. This is just what I think. Regardless, the brake caliper grease and anti-squeal spray should eliminate the brake noise.

 

[mechtech2]

Put anti squeal sauce on the back of the pads.
Do one side at a time, and step on the brake to seat them before it cures/dries.
I can almost guaranty this will work, if you do it right.

 

[meep]

Thank you!!!

I've done brakes for years but never had anything act up like this. Prolly some dumb luck since squeals are not uncommon-- I've just never had to fix it personally before.

The Jeep has seen some water and mud, so I guess the oem goop wore off.

Since there is so little wear, am I going to run into problems with set-in if I don't turn the rotors?

M

 

[tomcat27]

you should not have a problem if you dont turn the rotors. In the future, I would not purposely heat up that brakes to that degree in an attempt to condition them.

try the blue goo on the back of the pads. if that does not work, get some Wagner thermo quiet pads.

Brake squeel is a huge problem that affects even OEM's like Honda. The problem is that the byproducts of braking are heat and vibration. If the resonant frequency of the pads matches that of the rotors to the point where the vibration is in our audible hearing range - you have brake squeel. sometimes it takes a new combination of pads, rotors, and proper installation to get rid of the problem.

 

[meep]

bought thermoquiets, lube and a red goo that the parts guys insisted I didn't need.

this is, by far, the best caliper design I've seen. 2 14mm bolts lock the piston assy to the caliper body. the body takes all the rotational force, so the little 14mm bolts don't have to be grr'd on (older Nissans could have learned from this!). Beautifully designed, and it put far less stress on pins than other makes I've worked on (subaru!).

anyway, the stock pads STILL had MORE material on them than the new thermoquiets (!!). I just couldn't put the wagners on - so I did complete disassembly, clean, lube, applied red goo, reassembled with stock pads, and the squeal was gone this morning. slightly firmer pedal, which I don't quite understand.

If it doesn't squeal this afternoon, I'll take the wagners back.

anyway, compared to my older vehicles, this caliper design was beautiful....

 

[mechtech2]

If you put the red goo on right, it won't squeal.
This is not necessary every time - new pads often have shims and coatings. But when you need it, it works well and consistently.

 

[The Critic]

Either the pad or rotor surface is very glazed or the pads are in poor shape. If it took 36k to squeal, then something is wrong with the pads.