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Hi guys,

A few months back I started hearing the squeak of my break pad indicator. Alas, time for new pads. Although after a couple days of hearing it, I started to hear a squeel from my front driver side caliper when I wasn't on the brake.

I bought new pads and thought hell I'll buy new rotors, I was feeling generous. I got down there and when I took my pads out, I noticed that the inner pad was worn more than the outer pad. I really didn't know why, but I replaced my pads & rotors anyway and the noise went away.

About three months later I'm hearing the squeak again so I know now that something is causing the inner pad to wear much much faster and I obviously should've addressed it when I initially changed my pads.

But my question is, what's causing it? Do I need new calipers? Something else? Again the squeak is only on the front driver side.

 
Rep Power: 517

Have you checked the pads in question to SEE if there is excessive wear?
There are more things than just worn pads that can cause noise.


Uneven pad wear isn't unusual to find.
But if you have only one pad or only one side that is just ate up, you need to figure out the problem.

 
Rep Power: 233

Pull the caliper off, then remove the slide pins and grease them. If you can't get a slide pin out you need a new caliper bracket. The bracket is held on by 2 number 19's.

Slide pins are numbers 13 and 18:

 
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Okay I'll give that a shot. So it could just be a bad bracket?

 
Rep Power: 233

I'm thinking the slide pins are seized up in the bracket. If you can't pound them out of the bracket you have to replace the bracket and pins and even then if they don't go back in smooth you need new bracket, slide pins, and slide pin boots.

Honda wants to sell the whole brake assembly as one part ($126 @ Majestic). Thru research I found the bracket is $40 salvage or $40 at Oreillys, one set of pins (2) were $8, and a set of boots (4) was $8. Only reason I know the specifics is I just had to replace the right front bracket on mine because of a seized slide bolt.

 
Rep Power: 252

Btw its part of a routine brake job to grease the slide pins. At least thats what I hope people do. At the very least you should check them EVERY time you do your brakes.

 
Rep Power: 517

You would THINK, but sadly, it is not the norm.
When a less knowledgeable tech (or a HACK) does a brake job, Anything goes. In general, it is expected that a mechanic will machine the rotors where applicable, and slap pads in it. That's all. Any more work can't possibly be necessary. Ever.
At other places (chain stores can be bad about this) you need every last part of the brake system, no matter what. Calipers, rotors, master cyl.,, whatever they touch needs replaced. Suddenly that $200 quote turns into $1200, your car is torn apart, and they are holding it hostage.

(Remember here, many of us techs get paid on commission, so for the less ethical ones it makes sense to either do as little work as possible or jack up the labor.)

I can't turn out work like that.
I do grease the pins, and more. I swear I am the only one in the shop that will take the time to do all of this, and it DOES eat up time.

If the pins are stuck, I will go so far as to use a torch to get them out, as long as I am not going to harm the rubber parts in the process. Then wire brush, grease, whatever it takes to get them to slide freely.

Another thing I do is remove the clips (#14 in the above pic), and grind the rust out of the bracket and wire wheel those clips. Then grease the bare steel so it hopefully will last until the next brake job. (I have seen "techs" GRIND OFF the edge of the steel backing plate of the pad so they will fit! That's HACK WORK!)

The reason I do this is the rust buildup squeezes the pads so they jam up and aren't free to move as they wear, and it causes badly uneven pad wear, and can even cause a low pedal and lack of braking action if the pads jam tight enough. I'm in the rust belt, it DOES happen!



OP: Those clips #14 could be touching the rotor, or the backing plate #17 could be touching the rotor, or gravel could be caught and making noise. Or you could have just got cheapo pads that are noisy.

 
Rep Power: 252

I do grease the pins, and more. I swear I am the only one in the shop that will take the time to do all of this, and it DOES eat up time.

Even though my car never sees the dealer, Thank you for that. Not many good techs around anymore.

I pull them out and run them in the wire wheel, and the grease them. And I also run the shims in the wire wheel as well, and grease those too.
However I am not a mechanic and just do personal/friend/family cars it makes a big difference in the long run.