Severely Squeaking Brakes

[red barron]

My GTI has only started to squeal when breaking on occasions in the last couple of weeks. I just thought it might be some dust from when I drove it on a dirt road. I haven't had a chance to clean it since.

[PaulM]

No squealing here just yet

[livingthedream]

Got my car back today as it has been in shop having the sunroof blind fixed.

Whilst it was there they had another quick look at the brakes since they fixed them last. They gave them another quick clean and said they are glazing over a little and to brake harder for awhile and not ride them so much.

No worries i said

[ch1533n]

Hi guys !!

i know its been a while for this old thread. im curious, did you guys still had that squeaky noise issue resolved yet?

[rayray]

urg!!! at least its not just me.

i have had my car, its a 2002 for 4 months.
and yes the brakes squeak, and often very loudly and irregularly.
i took it in before my used car warranty was over and behold i was told as well its normal......
i cannot believe a car that is this well made, engineered just has extremely loudly brakes as a normal thing. i used to have a 40 year old escort and i didn't have to endure( or inflict on people on the street) this crazy squeaking
but i spend 15,000 on a spiffy classy great car and its just normal?

there must be a way to stop this happening.....

[POW]

my fsi don't squeak but got grinding noise braking at low speed. visit dealer few times and said normal. they clean and de glaze but same no different.
would change the disc and pad fix squeak and grinding noise?

[flat04]

there must be a way to stop this happening.....

Absolutely Ray, of course there is.

There are a few 'normal' causes of the squealing:
- Imperfections in the rotor traping air in between the pad and rotor.
- Imperfection in the pad traping air in between the pad and rotor.
- Glazed pad.
- Bent pad backing plate / shim (or dirt/grime stuck causing it to be offset). Not sure if the VW pads have these though.
- Brake backing plate / dust shield bent vibrating/grazing the brake rotor.

All of these are fairly easily fixed if it causing you that much grief.
The most expensive option here is replacing the rotors which, if you can do them yourself, is realy cheap to do but not that expensive to get a brake place to do anyway.

Just a case of going through the possible causes and getting it sorted.

If I was doing it myself I would work my way through my list (bottom to top is the cheapest way) to work out what is happening.

Firstly would check the brake backing plateisn't close to the disk and is tight.
Would then check the pad backing plates/shims and make sure they are clean and straight and put some anti-squeal paste on them.
Would also give the pads a quick rub on some smooth cement to deglaze them and make sure there aren't any holes in the friction material.
Failing all of that stopping the squealing I would replace the rotors unless they are really new I would possibly just get them faced.

It really isn't rocket science and it certainly isn't normal. Having said that though most dealers wont look at it as it really is just a normal wear and tear type situation.

Andrew

[livingthedream]

Yep...change the pads.

Thats what im doing. Was just waiting for the current ones to wear out