I'm looking for opinions on brake squeal I'm getting on our JCW Clubman. I changed the rotors and pads back in January and everything was fine, but once the weather started warming up around April, the brakes started squealing when coming to a stop, particularly in the last 10 feet or so before stopping.

I took everything apart, cleaned with brake cleaner, greased up the backs of the pads, and reassembled, but it didn't really make a difference. They typically don't do it when the car is first started, but as the brakes warm up it will start doing it.

I tried some bed in procedures, like hard braking from 60mph to 20mph, letting them cool, and doing it again over the course of a drive. It seemed to help for a bit, but after a couple stops in traffic it was doing it again.

The specific pads I bought are the Brembos at the link below. I've seen some posts on Subaru forums that Brembo pads are known for squealing, but the factory pads never had this problem.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-brembo-p...nt/p06097~brm/

My thoughts for options are:

1) Try bedding in again. I'd have to find somewhere outside of town, and based on previous experience I'm not very enthusiastic about this option.

2) Buy different pads. Are there some that squeal less?
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3) Take the car to a brake shop and see what magic they can do.

Any other options I'm not considering?

 

My JCW brembos pads (aka factory pads but cheaper as it does not say MINI on them) did this on my Gen 2 4 pots and GP2 6 pots with factory brembo brake pads. They are known to sequel when cold. I add brake pad paste to the piston to pad connection and to the places where the pad touches to help reduce the noise.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...122296187~oem/

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-american...cket/bk-1~ags/

https://www.mini2.com/threads/jcw-br...squeal.167073/

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...have-this.html

 

Random thought, you mentioned "greasing" (I presume with whatever they call the anti-squeal compound) the back of the pads, but not the pad ears. Also, don't know if you have metal shims in play, but any contact points on those can cause squeal as well and should be similarly lubricated.

All pretty general brake thoughts, you've probably already covered them, but that's what came to mind. Hope it is useful.

 

You can buy an anti-squeal substance (similar to silicone in a tube) to spread on the back of the pads to stop the noise.

 

What kind of "grease" did you use on the backs of the pads?

 

I used brake anti squeal from AutoZone. Don't worry, I'm not putting chicken grease on them

 

Good point. I did the pad ears the second time around, plus anywhere there was metal to metal contact.
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LOL. I figured, but realized I assumed so thought I'd ask directly. Yeah, that's the product type I was thinking of.

Brake squeal is some kind of metal to metal contact 100% of the time, from what I understand, though figuring out where it is can get tricky when it's stubborn. My chief suspect given hard-to-resolve would be the metal brake shims (if you have those on yours), and in that scenario stubborn squealing nets out to "lube them up."

On a different vehicle I chased intermittent squeal around for maybe a year before (1) replacing the shims and, when that helped but didn't fix it, (2) making sure literally **every** contact surface on them was coated because I was never going to find the exact trouble spot. I didn't go full-crazy, you don't want goop dripping off of the brakes everywhere, but instead of applying only to "the usual spots" I made a point of coating literally *every* contact surface between the shims/pads, shims/pistons, and shims/calipers. No exceptions. Annnd... it worked.

 

Thanks. I feel like I did everywhere logical, but I'll try hitting everything I can and see what happens.

This is basically our second car with our Cooper SE getting most of the miles, so it's only about once a month I get reminded that there's a problem.

 

Chicken grease will make them smell good but you will still get the squeal..

 

Over the years with a number of cars fitted with disc brakes a bit of brake squeal ultimately happens. What I found worked to eliminate this was to wash the wheels/brake hardware -- I use a DIY car wash -- which flushes away the brake dust that accumulates on various things but in the case of squeal on the brake piston dust boots. My theory is the dust weight interferes with the natural tendency of the brake pistons to slightly retract when the brake pedal is released. This retraction arises from the piston seal hysteresis.

If any pad doesn't retract it drags on the rotor. Over time a light glaze develops and the brakes squeal.

I use the DIY car wash wand set to rinse mode and give each wheel a good spraying. With the clear rinse water you'll see it tinted black from brake dust. I don't jam the nozzle in between the pad/caliper. The strong spray might tear the piston dust boot. Then you got bigger problems.

I follow with rinse cycle with a no spot rinse cycle which has the water force reduced.

After the washing I take the car out and from speed slow down to 45mph and do this 3 times in pretty quick succession to get the brakes hot to ensure all the brake hardware, and this includes the parking brake hardware that with at least some cars is buried in the rear brake hubs, is dry dry dry. After the 3rd slow down I then drive the car normally for a while to ensure the brakes are cool.

If one does his own brake jobs he can see if he looks how much dust can accumulate on the boots. For every wheel I'd treat every brake caliper/piston assembly with a good spray of brake cleaner from an aerosol can to remove the dust from not only the boots but from the pad nest notches, and any brake hardware that was reused. Might add for some cars pads, rotors, and all the brake hardware was renewed, this as per the factory. The only things that were not replaced were the calipers. But the caliper bolts were replaced.

With the old pads removed and the pistons exposed I'd give them another brake clean treatment to ensure the dust boots were free of dust.

 

You would likely attack some local trash bandits or other varmints as well...

 

I replaced the brembo pads this weekend with the ECS JCW daily driver pads and the brake squeal is gone! I saw enough posts on other forums saying "yep that's the noise that high performance pads make, get used to it" that I gave up on the ceramic brembo pads.

The ECS pads don't bite quite as sharply, but they stop the car just fine and are thankfully silent. The wife is very happy, as it's her car that's been squealing for over a year.

 

Just wanted to chime in - I just took ownership of a used 2017 JCW Clubman with 55k miles on it. On the third day I was driving and got a slight squeal in the last few feet of braking, then it was a little louder the next day.

I had just bought some winter rims for snow tires so I wanted to take the front wheel off anyway to check the brake clearance, so I checked the pads right away.
When I looked I had plenty of pad left - probably 1/3 of the pad. The rotors were looking worn but not in a way that would squeal. I have a sense this is just a thing for certain brake compounds, but iI suppose it could be glazing that's built up on the pad from not being broken in correctly, or maybe this no-longer-perfect rotor was also allowing brake dust to build up and glazing it somehow. But it seems this is a thing for the JCW.

I don't mind doing the brakes ASAP, I think I'm going to try new rotors and those DD2 "daily driver" pads from ECS myself. I hope "enthusiast developed" isn't just marketing.

 

You can buy an anti-squeal substance (similar to silicone in a tube) to spread on the back of the pads to stop the noise