Terrible screeching from brakes - did I mess up?

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brettcp

Member
Location
SD
The pads on my recently acquired 07 FX35 were shot, so I decided to replace the pads and rotors all around.. I used Akebono pads and stoptech rotors.. The new brakes stop just fine, but there is a terrible screeching sound when I brake at low speeds from all of the wheels.. I used the anti-squeal compound that came with the new pads, greased the caliper pins, and bled each caliper.

I'm looking around for something I could have done wrong, as the screeching is very bad - sounds like a grinding sound almost.. I noticed that lots of people seem to install a brake hardware kit as well which consists of new clips and backplates for the pads.. could this be what I'm missing and what is causing this terrible noise? There weren't backplates on the old pads. I've done dozens of brake jobs over the years but have never run into a problem like this.

Thanks in advance!
 
Did you bed the pads and rotors as outlined by the manufacturer? I know my pads say they can make noise for up to 500 miles after install even when everything is done correctly.

Edit: just completed my install and bedding. There was a bit of noise when I first started driving but not too bad, and seems like no noise after bedding. I did a crap job because I couldn't find anywhere to actually do 4 30-10 and 4 50-10 back to back so kinda split it up. Did end up getting smoke to come out of the fronts so I guess I did it right. Braking feels good, pedal travel still seems long. It was like that before, but at least now I get bite much earlier in the travel and the brakes aren't like an on-off switch.
 
Last edited:
Just an update - I ordered a "brake hardware kit" (for both front and rear - $50 each online) - it turns out my existing clip assemblies that hold the brake pad in place were all bent and not holding a secure grip on the pads - I pulled everything out (pads, clips, etc) and replaced the old clips with the new clips, and replaced the shims on the brake pads with the new shims included in the hardware kit (which consist of two pieces - a plastic shim AND a metal shim).. put everything back together and the brakes are now dead quiet - perfection.

I hope this helps somebody else somehow!
 
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