Why do my Stoptech brakes squeel so loudly? Fix or replace?

[eikond]

Last spring I got sick of the stock pads and the complete lack of initial bite. So, I went with a basic set of stoptech pads.

I was very happy with them at first.. they are certainly not racing pads, but were a nice and notable improvement over the stock pads, especially in initial bite.

I thought I bedded them in properly and I used them for daily driving and I did two autocross events early in the summer.

By late summer to early fall they began to squeal.. very annoying! This is not just a little squeak as you come to a complete halt.. this is a long pronounced squeal with every breaking episode. What's interesting is that they don't squeal with a very minor touch of the pads.. say 5% effort. They squeal like crazy from 5% to 75%. Then they stop squealing again at 75% effort plus.. Obviously these numbers are not scientific.. just an attempt to describe the squealing based on pedal pressure.

Any ideas what is causing this? My thought is that perhaps it's the rear pads.. they probably don't do anything with 5% effort.. then they squeak a lot with more pressure?

I just did an autocross again a few weeks ago (which should have acted as another bedding in for them). But that hasn't changed anything.


They might have 8k miles on them at most.


Any ideas?
lube or grease behind the pads help?
replace them with some winmax W-2's? Another set of Stoptechs?

I don't really want to drop $200 on new pads when these have adequate bite for my needs and should have plenty of life left in them. I just don't want to live with the squeal.. it's annoying to me. I could handle a little chirp when coming to a stop, but these things are awful!


Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Racecomp Engineering]

They shouldn't squeal. Rebed them properly and see what happens.


- andy

[jvincent]

Did you use the shims with grease when you put them in?

I just put some Winmax onto my car this weekend in advance of a track day and did not use the shims. Squeal city.

Took everything off and put the shims on with some grease and they are quiet now.

[eikond]

thanks for the quick replies guys! I don't remember if I used the grease with them shims when I installed them. I'll try both things this weekend.. I'll take them out and check the shims and add some of the grease. Then I'll re-bed them and report back.

Hopefully that will take care of the issue.

thanks

[wparsons]

If you've really overheated they might squeal too, but I would try the easy things first.