Well, I put new Autozone Duralast Gold calipers and rotors with Powerstop ceramic brake pads on the front wheels. Now I have a squeal on both sides.

The squeal happens after a few minutes of driving, at low speed when the brakes are NOT applied. Just driving slow. If I speed up to around over 25mph it goes away. If I tap the brakes, it goes away. Everything else seems fine with the brakes. They stop good. At highway speeds I don't feel or hear anything.

I put CRC brake grease on the back of the pads and the bolts. The caliper studs came lubed already.

It's been a week and I was hoping they would quiet down by now.

Question is, should I take out the Powerstop ceramic pads and put in AZ Duralast brake pads to keep it all from the same manufacturer?

Can I swap pads at this point without having rotor issues?

Or keep driving and hope it quiets down?

I attached a sound file of the noise.

Thanks for any input

 

Did you put some of the grease on the caliper mounts? The "ears" of the pads ride in the groves. The pads will float some & it could cause the noise. Apply the grease to any suface that comes in contact with metal.

 

Can't remember if I did. I will take apart later and check. Thanks.

 

Chances are you have indentions on the slides that that pads rest on. If the pad is locked into the indention your pad cannot 'relax' or release or float, thus the pad always has contact with the rotor.

You'll need to inspect, fill with weld, grind smooth.

 

Here is a picture to go along with Jeep Driver's post..

 

Yeah, I saw some indentations, but not that big or deep. I was hoping it would another issue. I don't have a welder.

I will try the cheap/simple fixes first like more lube on the pad ears. If that doesn't do it, then I'll find a shop that can do the weld. Hopefully its not that much.

 

Mine weren't super deep indentations so I just used a hand file and filed it down a hair. Buffed it smooth, made sure the pads were still going to be retained by the pad ear, and drove on. That was 5000 miles ago

 

Never put any kind of grease on the pads


Plus you can always scuff up the rotor surface in a non-directional pattern with some 60 grit.

 

Correct. By grease, I mean the brake pad paste/ anti squeak crap. Anything designed to quite the noise your brakes make.

 

Thanks Turbo, I will take the pads off, wipe off the CRC brake caliper grease and try this.

What will scuffing the rotors do?

 

Update.

I took it to my mechanic as the squeal was getting worse and the place where I work on my Jeep (parents house) is 60 miles away.

It was the right dust shield that had a bent corner touching the rotor!!!! Bent it back and no more squeal.

However, the brakes now sound like they are catching on something when I step hard on them. It is a rotational click when the Jeep has speed and I step hard on the brakes. I can feel small vibrations on the floor board too. Does not happen when I lightly tap on them.

I rebuilt the front with new everything so they checked for loose bolts on the CAs and track bar. Nothing.

Any ideas?

 

Update 2.

Had the dips in the knuckle sliders welded and filed down, both sides. Brakes still rotationally clicked/vibrated when I stepped hard on them.

So yesterday I got back to my working spot and took apart the front brakes. The new rotors from AZ and PowerStop pads felt tight so I was thinking this was the issue. So I put on the old rotors which are a little thinner to test it out. And the vibration/click went away.

Not sure what the issue really was but I am thinking that with less than 250 miles on the new rotors and pads, the new AZ rotors must have had a big lateral runout right out of the box. I don't have a dial to measure it, but I did take off the wheel, put a wire to the face of the rotor and looked for daylight. Sure enough, it dipped on one end. Oh well. I also notice that one of the brake calipers they gave me was 68.22 mm long while the other 3 are 65mm. FSM specifies no longer than 67mm. Not sure if this contributed to the issue but it shows bad quality control.

Hate doing jobs over.