I'm done with the break squealing... need suggestions

Ok, long story short -- I took my car in at about 5-6k miles or so because they were squealing since the first few hundred miles. I pretty much just tried to drive it and see if it'd eventually go away and it didn't. Ford replaced the pads and rotors apparently at that time and now I'm at 15k miles. They're squealing REALLY bad.

Here's a video:

[ame]

I get that occasional squeal is normal and all, but this is beyond occasional and much louder than what I've ever heard in the past. The current dealership is about 25 minutes away from my house and I've always had great experiences with them, and many people in the city actually prefer to take their car here instead of the few closer ones.

Thing is, I've never heard "high performance brakes" squealing on other performance cars and I can't imagine that every single one of them are bedding them in (first time hearing about this btw a few days ago -- figured I could just buy the car and drive it). I'm usually the only car rolling in at car shows trying to brake certain ways to avoid embarrassing myself.

So I had a friend suggest G-Loc pads and I'm gonna give them a call and get some options, but just curious to see what others have done as well and if there may be additional suggestions.

Did the sound change after your track day?

honeybadger said:

Did the sound change after your track day?

Click to expand...

Nope. Not immediately at least. It just started this really bad squeal about 2 weeks ago, and my track day was maybe a month and a half ago now.

That's odd, I've NEVER heard any squealing at all from my car, but I just turned 1000 miles.

straightliner1 said:

That's odd, I've NEVER heard any squealing at all from my car, but I just turned 1000 miles.

Click to expand...

Yep. I'm not sure why it's a hit or miss thing with the other owners. I have a friend that has zero issues and he's been through multiple track day sessions, and no squeal. One Auto X and one track day for me and I get squealing. Pretty sure we wash our wheels the exact same way too.

After listening to your video, I've got the exact same problem. My car only has ~1300 miles at this point, and the squealing started a few days after I brought it home. It only happens when the brakes are warmed up after a few minutes of driving, no squealing when cold.

Last week, however, I did the brake bedding that you mentioned. I brought the brakes up to operating temp with some gentle braking from 65-40MPH. Then I made about 5 runs of moderate 65-10 MPH decelerations, and 5 runs of aggressive 65-10 MPH decelerations. Good news is that this did cure my brake squeal - I'm worried that this will only be a temporary fix, so time will tell.

altjx said:

Ok, long story short -- I took my car in at about 5-6k miles or so because they were squealing since the first few hundred miles. I pretty much just tried to drive it and see if it'd eventually go away and it didn't. Ford replaced the pads and rotors apparently at that time and now I'm at 15k miles. They're squealing REALLY bad.

Here's a video:



I get that occasional squeal is normal and all, but this is beyond occasional and much louder than what I've ever heard in the past. The current dealership is about 25 minutes away from my house and I've always had great experiences with them, and many people in the city actually prefer to take their car here instead of the few closer ones.

Thing is, I've never heard "high performance brakes" squealing on other performance cars and I can't imagine that every single one of them are bedding them in (first time hearing about this btw a few days ago -- figured I could just buy the car and drive it). I'm usually the only car rolling in at car shows trying to brake certain ways to avoid embarrassing myself.

So I had a friend suggest G-Loc pads and I'm gonna give them a call and get some options, but just curious to see what others have done as well and if there may be additional suggestions.

Click to expand...

Powerstop Z17

altjx said:

Nope. Not immediately at least. It just started this really bad squeal about 2 weeks ago, and my track day was maybe a month and a half ago now.

Click to expand...

Depending on your driving level, if you managed to get the stock pads warm on the track day you may have glazed them slightly. Depending on the track and ability the GT350 has the grip to fade the stock pads fairly quick.

The OEM pads while very capable are a compromise. You most likely brought them out of the operating range and the pad has left deposits on the rotor. That is most likely what you are hearing.

Our best suggestion is to have a dedicated track pad and a street pad.

We offer the GS-1 from G-LOC. They are a very low noise and very low dust STREET Pad. The great thing about G-LOC's are you can switch between the Street compound and a track compound on the same rotor without the hassle of swapping rotors or bedding them in. The track compounds also will give you much higher temperature range on track and allow for much later braking.

HaleFire said:

After listening to your video, I've got the exact same problem. My car only has ~1300 miles at this point, and the squealing started a few days after I brought it home. It only happens when the brakes are warmed up after a few minutes of driving, no squealing when cold.

Last week, however, I did the brake bedding that you mentioned. I brought the brakes up to operating temp with some gentle braking from 65-40MPH. Then I made about 5 runs of moderate 65-10 MPH decelerations, and 5 runs of aggressive 65-10 MPH decelerations. Good news is that this did cure my brake squeal - I'm worried that this will only be a temporary fix, so time will tell.

Click to expand...

Me too. I thought about trying that as well, but I'm not even sure if it's too late or even a long-term solution (at least a couple thousand miles).

Optimum Performance said:

Depending on your driving level, if you managed to get the stock pads warm on the track day you may have glazed them slightly. Depending on the track and ability the GT350 has the grip to fade the stock pads fairly quick.

The OEM pads while very capable are a compromise. You most likely brought them out of the operating range and the pad has left deposits on the rotor. That is most likely what you are hearing.

Our best suggestion is to have a dedicated track pad and a street pad.

We offer the GS-1 from G-LOC. They are a very low noise and very low dust STREET Pad. The great thing about G-LOC's are you can switch between the Street compound and a track compound on the same rotor without the hassle of swapping rotors or bedding them in. The track compounds also will give you much higher temperature range on track and allow for much later braking.

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot. I was actually recommended to you by Jmeo and will be giving you all a call sometime today after I leave Ford. Switching the compound from street to track compound is something pretty simple I take it? I don't know much about brakes, but I'm quickly learning as I'm having to figure out alternatives for my OEM pads. I really appreciate your input here too!

With 15k and a track day are you sure you aren't out of pad? Have you tried rebedding the pads?

krt22 said:

With 15k and a track day are you sure you aren't out of pad? Have you tried rebedding the pads?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't think so at least. I haven't checked (not sure what I'm looking for yet) but other than that Auto X session and one track day, and then having new pads/rotors about 8k miles ago, I guess I didn't think they'd wear that quickly.

I definitely didn't try rebedding the pads. I thought it'd be too late after this point. May just give it a shot once I leave Ford today and see how it goes.

altjx said:

I wouldn't think so at least. I haven't checked (not sure what I'm looking for yet) but other than that Auto X session and one track day, and then having new pads/rotors about 8k miles ago, I guess I didn't think they'd wear that quickly.

I definitely didn't try rebedding the pads. I thought it'd be too late after this point. May just give it a shot once I leave Ford today and see how it goes.

Click to expand...

Should be first thing to check, look through the wheel and you will see the OEM pads have a metal clip. This metal clip will make contact with the rotor once the pads are low

It mas sound strange but I have had good luck doing this in other platforms.

With the car in reverse apply the brakes while on the throttle. Run the speed up and apply the brakes in a semi-agressive manner. Vary the speeds and get them warm, not hot. Then see how they sound. This works just about every time for a while at least.

High performance brakes will make noise and this can vary from light squeeks to loud squeeling its the nature of them.

That being said certain wheel cleaners will compromise the brake pads. The best thing to do is drive the car and brake a little more aggressively to get heat into the pads and and to also prevent the rotors from glazing. Soft stops do nothing more than create dust and polish the rotors and thus causes the most noise.

You have already had the pads and rotors replaced so there is not much more you can change besides driving style.

Not trying to sound like a ass but its just something you will need to get used too.

Offboost said:

High performance brakes will make noise and this can vary from light squeeks to loud squeeling its the nature of them.

That being said certain wheel cleaners will compromise the brake pads. The best thing to do is drive the car and brake a little more aggressively to get heat into the pads and and to also prevent the rotors from glazing. Soft stops do nothing more than create dust and polish the rotors and thus causes the most noise.

You have already had the pads and rotors replaced so there is not much you can change besides driving style.

Not trying to sound like a ass but its just something you will need to get used too.

Click to expand...

Nope I'm with you 100%. Thanks for the input man! Going to head out in a little bit and try to do some of this and try some other suggestions mentioned here as well.