Brakes

This past summer as my truck approached 60k I replaced the brakes and all of the rotors. I have far better pedal now and all seems fine except they can squeak/squeal quite a bit, should I have put some kind of lube on the back of the pads perhaps similar to what is used on drum brakes between the backing plate and the shoes?

the lube may help but you may have glazed them over by not breaking them in properly after the install.. you need to take it easy on a fresh set of pads for the first 100 miles or so.. make gradual stops... not abupt slam on the brakes stops.

Well the squeak/squeal only occurs at walking speeds around the house etc. The new rotors come with a protective coating on them, I did clean them off with brake clean and let them dry before installing them. It doesn't help that the original rotors and the new ones are made in China and use some real poor grade cast, the originals had plenty of material left but were so deterioated I went with new ones.

What condition where the old brakes in? 60K is not a lot of miles for the brakes on a GM HD. Mine are factory original with 99K on them. When I did the front bearings a few months back I check the pads and they where still above 50%. I've also heard from a lot of other HD owners that go over 100K on a set of brakes.

The brakes still had a lot of materaial left on the pads and rotors, however, the rotors had atrophied - there was perhaps 1" making contact with the pads (in the center of the rotor) - this 1" area was badly glazed, both the front portion and rear portion where rotted.

It would seem these Chinese rotors seem to be more porus and absorb moisture more easily causing them to rot. Upon going into the auto parts store they told me this was common among the big three and they have seen Ford rotors come in there with as little as 18000 mi. They told me there was a situation called "dealer rot" that is when a vehicle sits to long on the lot and has to have the rotors turned - whether that is true or not I do not know.

Truckster wrote:

The brakes still had a lot of materaial left on the pads and rotors, however, the rotors had atrophied - there was perhaps 1" making contact with the pads (in the center of the rotor) - this 1" area was badly glazed, both the front portion and rear portion where rotted.

It would seem these Chinese rotors seem to be more porus and absorb moisture more easily causing them to rot. Upon going into the auto parts store they told me this was common among the big three and they have seen Ford rotors come in there with as little as 18000 mi. They told me there was a situation called "dealer rot" that is when a vehicle sits to long on the lot and has to have the rotors turned - whether that is true or not I do not know.

Interesting. I had heard the term before but didnt know what it meant.

It's true. Sometimes the tires are even starting to crack.

1993GMCSierra wrote:

It's true. Sometimes the tires are even starting to crack.

I wonder if those are the Chinese tires that they had so much trouble with recently in the news?

I couldn't tell you, I didn't look at the brand. It was a Pontiac or Saturn dealership, IIRC.

Soo did ya try any lube or anything to help with the squeak?

Not as of yet, I'm just to busy, I'll let it go until spring when the weather is nicer.

Did you put the shims back in?

I don't know what shims your refering to, but it was reassembled exactly the way it was before, and no I don't have any additional parts left over.

See #1:
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/listarticle.aspx?cp-documentid=1092779

1. Forgetting the Shims
Click to enlarge picture



It isn't normal for brakes to be noisy just after they've been worked on. Take your car back to the shop and ask the mechanic to inspect the two tiny pieces of metal, or shims, that adhere to the back of the brake pads. They are the likely culprit.

Have you had your vehicle in a shop recently for brake work and then noticed a little more squeaking than you're used to after driving off? Odds are your mechanic forgot to include two tiny pieces of metal that adhere to the back of your brake pads. While not essential to making your vehicle stop safely, these shims do cut down on the amount of noise generated by minute vibrations in the brake pad. If you think your brakes are louder than they should be, check with the shop. Most garages will take care of the problem at no extra charge and get you back on the road squeak-free in no time.

I dont beleive all vehicles, mainly trucks, use shims.