Hello all. Thanks again for all the help with getting my rear brakes back together last night- that was a relief. I have the MINI back on the road now. During my 75+ mile drive home today, I noticed that the rear brakes seem to squeal when I hit around 74 MPH, it is a high pitched squeal that wasn’t present with the factory rotors. The squeal seems to stop when I tap the brakes but comes right back if I let off. I replaced the factory versions with drilled/slotted Brembo’s and Zimmerman’s- they were lightly used for around 500-1000 miles and the factory pads have around 24K miles on them with LOTS of life in them. I think that I also heard the same sound when I started from a rolling stop, but it could have been something else. I only have around 80 miles on the rotors since I installed them last night, and 95% of that was highway driving (no braking, light traffic). Any suggestions on what the noise could be? We didn’t apply any anti-squeal to the pads when we did the rotor swap- not sure if it could be that? Is it possible that since the pads/rotors are both used that they have to “mate” to each other? As usual any suggestions are appreciated, except of course the obvious suggestion to stay below 75 mph!

 

Anyone have any ideas???

 

yep, mating the rotors and pads are the answer.. you will need to break them in just like if they were new... might take a little longer for them to set because they are used.. also, it has been my experience for the cross drilled rotors to be a little noisy worn pads..

try some hard braking from freeway speeds wth out coming to a complete stop 3 or 4 times.. see if that makes them quiet.. (like 70mph to 5mph then back up to 70mph and so forth).. good luck

 

I had a chance to drive a little more "city" type driving this morning. The rotors squealed a bit on the highway but I didn't have much oppurtunity to get it to the same speeds that I did yesterday. I did notice that the rear brakes squeal from a stop to around 10 mph or so. Again, any suggestions or ideas what may be causing this? BMDoubleU- I'll give that a try

 

also, the anti-squeal is there for a reason with the upgraded brake system you now have there is going to be a breaking in period, but you should have put the anti-squeal on. sorry...

 

OK- I'll give the anti-squeal a try next weekend. Since I used used rotors and the pads were already used, I didn't think to use any anti-squeal, there I go thinking again! Since I have to take the calipers off to get to the pads I guess now is as good a time as any to replace the pads...any suggestions? The car is driven daily, I don't autocross or race, looking for something as quiet as the factory pads with a bit less dust. Suggestions???

 

You really need to bed in the brakes. Do at least 6, 60 - 10 mph hard brakes. You will smell the brakes doing this. Let them cool down, and don't apply your e-brake while they are cooling. I usually do this twice.

Good luck

EBC greens are nice low dusting pads. I am going to put on some Hawk hps pads today.