Hi

I have owned my 2002 S2K since early February. I am really pleased with the car except for the fact my brakes squeek everytime I use them. It's not very loud, but obviously I want to get it sorted. My car has 11,500 miles on the clock, and the previous owner was a lady who thought it was slow because she had never took it over 4,000rpm...... so it's not been abused.

Can I expect the brakes to have gone already? I'm no mechanic but it seems a bit early.

PS
I've tried the emergency stop routine to see if that cures the problem, but it hasn't.

Many thanks

John

 

Some pads squeek when they are on the wear limit! Apparantly they are designed to do this!

Have you done a visual check on the pads?

 

There are two possible things - either the wear indicators are hitting the discs (which will make an absolutely horrible noise) and which will mean new brake pads, or the pads need to be taken out, cleaned and de-glazed and the pads and backing shims lubricated (with something like "copper grease").

Either will cost you a lot at a dealer and its easy work so why not have a go yourself (sounds like you only need buy some emery paper, de-greaser and "copper grease")?

EDIT: If you look at the brake pads through the wheels (use a torch) and can see more than about 5mm pad material between the disc and the metal backing of the pad its not the wear indicators causing the problem).

 

Coppergrease

Try a search on "Squeaky Brakes"

 

You should get over 20k miles out of a set of pads .......... even if you drive it hard

 

My brakes were squeeking, but after my Don Palmer day, squeek has gone!

So that's one option

 

There looks to be about 7mm of pad left so I guess the question is, how do I grease them up?!!!

Thanks

 

Go to an autofactors and buy a tube of "copper grease", a sheet of emery cloth (medium grit), and some brake cleaner spray.

Then, it depends what equipment you have - if you don't have a trolley jack and stands the scissor jack that came with the car will be OK to use but be careful not to "rock the car" or get any part of your body under the car when you are working on it. For safety, put the wheel under the door sill behind the jack whilst you are working on it.

Again, you could use the car's wheel brace if you don't have anything else to get the wheels nuts off. Loosen these before you jack the car up (tip!). Take off the wheel on one side.

All you then need is a ring spanner to undo the bottom caliper retaining bolt (12 mm hex). Remove the bolt and "swing" the caliper up to enable the pads to be withdrawn. Take out one pad at a time and note how the "shims" fit on the back of them.

When a pad is out remove the "shim" off the back and spray pad and shim with the degreaser and wipe all contaminants off with a rag (be careful not to wipe any material onto the "friction face" of the pads when you are doing this).

Once the pad is clean, put the emery cloth on flat surface and rub the "friction face" against this to "de-glaze" the surface.

Then, refit the pad and lubricate (with the "copper grease") where the "lugs" on the pad fit in the caliper, between the pad and the shim, and between the shim and the caliper. Don't get any grease on the friction surfaces and don't use too much (it only needs to go where all the metal parts touch).

When both pads have been "done", "swing" and bolt the caliper back up and refit the wheel and lube the wheel studs with the "copper grease" also, let the jack down and then tighten the nuts as much as you can with the car's wheel brace (or about 80 lbs/ft if you have a t-wrench).

Then, before you do the other side, push the brake pedal down hard a couple of times (do this again when you have finished side two). DO NOT drive the car until you have done this!

Also, don't let any weight hang on the flexible brake hose when the caliper is loose - support it with an axle-stand (or cardboard box!)

Easy!

 

wow - thanks mikdys! i'll give it a go ASAP
those instructions should be documented on here somewhere for future use (rather than just searching old threads)

many thanks

 

Neil................