Brake Squeal from He77

[cruiser100]

I replaced all rotors and pads on my 2005 LC about 9 months ago with Toyota factory parts. Everything was going well up until about February of this year.

The brakes started squealing like a stuck pig. It would go on for a few days then go away only to come back a few days later. There is no rhyme or reason to the squeal except that it does go away when driving in the rain. They seem to squeal more often than not these days.

I have removed and cleaned the pads, calipers and rotors (didn't remove the rotors) twice, nothing. I also checked to make sure a wear indicator wasn't hitting the rotor, they weren't. And, I lightly sanded the pad faces during the last 'remove-and-clean'.

The squeal occurs under moderate, what I would call "normal", braking conditions when coming to a stop or slowing down. Light pressure or heavy pressure and there is no squeal.

The pads appear to be semi-metallic as they have copper colored bits in them. I did put the "grease" on the backing plates during installation and confirmed it was still there during the cleaning sessions.

Anyone else experience this? Do I need more grease? Switch to organic pads?

 

[SmoothLC]

My LC had a similar problem shortly after replacing the pads (OEM). The shop I used forgot to put the shims in. When they were put in, the squeaking stopped. No problems since.

 

[cruiser100]

More grease. I went back in and re-greased everything in the front: back of pad, shims, any part of the pad that may come in contact with metal, and the parts of the pins that contact the pads and caliper. There is no way the amount of grease supplied by Toyota could cover this much. So far, the front has been quiet. Now to do the back.