My 97 ITR's rear brakes squeal like nothing I've ever heard before. I think I have Cobalt GTs back there. Plenty of pad. Reasonably new rotors. The car gets driven very little these days.

I raised the rear end off the ground and spun each rear wheel. The brakes hum like a tuning fork when I spin them. Kind of like wetting your finger and running it around the rim of a wine glass.

At low speed stops, the entire car has a high vibration to go along with a squeal that makes people around me jump. One guy thought I was honking at him. That's how loud the squeal is.

Thoughts?

My thought is to swap the pads out for something different.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pcorad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My 97 ITR's rear brakes squeal like nothing I've ever heard before. I think I have Cobalt GTs back there. Plenty of pad. Reasonably new rotors. The car gets driven very little these days.

I raised the rear end off the ground and spun each rear wheel. The brakes hum like a tuning fork when I spin them. Kind of like wetting your finger and running it around the rim of a wine glass.

At low speed stops, the entire car has a high vibration to go along with a squeal that makes people around me jump. One guy thought I was honking at him. That's how loud the squeal is.

Thoughts?

My thought is to swap the pads out for something different. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I had a stuck rear caliper that made all kinds of loud noises, until I lubed up the bolts. Though, it also felt like the e-brake was continually partially applied until I un-stuck it.

 

The caliper pistons and the sliders on the mounting braket all seem to be moving freely. I can spin the rear tires freely w/o the E brake on. One of the rotors is slightly warped as it catches slightly during a rotation.

 

How do your rotors look? grooved at all? any kind of discoloration?

 

need some more anti-squeal on the backs of the pads?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Justin3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How do your rotors look? grooved at all? any kind of discoloration?</TD></TR></TABLE> With GT-Sports, my rotors are grooved to high heaven!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Justin3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How do your rotors look? grooved at all? any kind of discoloration?</TD></TR></TABLE>

No grooves. The car doesn't get driven a lot so plenty of rust builds up. I'll check on discoloration (i don't think there's any). And I'll measure their thickness.

I don't have any anti-squeal applied.

 

i would go to the local auto parts store, spend 4 bux on some anti-squeal, and apply that to the back of your pads and try again.

 

you can also pick up a shim kit. those do help dissapate noise/vibration rather well also.

 

Or change pad compound. One set of of track-oriented pads squealed so loud I swear it made my teeth bleed. I tried the squeal compound, beveling the edges, nope. Only changing pad compound fixed it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kb58 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Or change pad compound. One set of of track-oriented pads squealed so loud I swear it made my teeth bleed. I tried the squeal compound, beveling the edges, nope. Only changing pad compound fixed it.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yep.

Race. True race pads are not designed with anti-squealing in mind. If its a street driven car you also take to the track, the best solution is to have two sets of pads.

 

Two things I'd try:

1) Bed the rear pads aggressively, with the e-brake. Lay on it in 3rd gear and hold up the ebrake for 15 seconds (enough to counteract the motor's torque). If there's no burning smell, you did it wrong.

2) Go back to OEM. You don't need more than OEM pads in the rear. I have cheap NAPA pads in the rear of my Prelude because I couldn't get my GT Sports to bias properly with Hawk Blues in front. I haven't cooked the rear pads racing yet.

Honestly, I believe matching pad material front/rear is a bad idea on a track ITR with stock brakes. You need less friction in the rear in a track environment, just keep the (low dust, long lasting) stock pads in back. I used to use XP8's in the back of my ITR with XP12's or whatever in the front, but I might have been able to get away with even less agressive pads in the rear.

-Chris

 

I think you're right about non-aggressive rears. I've used R4s porterfields for 10 years on the ITR (front and rear) with no complaints. Both on the street and track. Watkins Glen, LRP, NHIS, Pocono, Road Atlanta. No fade. They do dust alot for the street.

I had these current pads (I think they're Cobalt GT) lying around forever and finally put them in. Never been tracked. Just annoyed all around town.

If I ever had shims, they're long gone. Never kept them in any of my Hondas/Acuras. Never caused an issue before. I see R4s on porterfield's site for $85.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chris F &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Two things I'd try:

1) Bed the rear pads aggressively, with the e-brake. Lay on it in 3rd gear and hold up the ebrake for 15 seconds (enough to counteract the motor's torque). If there's no burning smell, you did it wrong.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I had really bad squeal when I put in XR3's and bedding solved most of the noise problems - I'll get an occasional peep if I apply the brake lightly while just rolling really slow. Problem is though, the whole thing gradually unbeds itself if I baby drive it too much on the street.

 

I aggressively used the ebrake this weekend. I didn't get enough satisfcation, so I went to my secret "brake bedding" site in Brighton MA! and did a full bedding in session.

On the way home I was still getting some squeal, but not as much. We'll see what happens the next time I take the ITR out with cold brakes.

 

Does it only occur for a while and eventually dissapate?? When its cold and you have older rotors or pads they get hard and will create noise, also when they rust it squels until the pads rub all the rust off, I had this exact same issue so I just bought some pads from the local Meineke (awesome business if I can say so, definately check them out) and my problem went away, still happens if it snows and my car sits overnight or if I leave it sitting for a few days

 

pull the rotors and run over them with a die grinder and a brown scotchbrite pad enough to scuff up the entire surface. That should give the pads a nice surface to wear in to.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xci_ed6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">pull the rotors and run over them with a die grinder and a brown scotchbrite pad enough to scuff up the entire surface. That should give the pads a nice surface to wear in to.</TD></TR></TABLE>

What's a die grinder? I just checked my toolbox and didn't see one...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pcorad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I aggressively used the ebrake this weekend. I didn't get enough satisfcation, so I went to my secret "brake bedding" site in Brighton MA! and did a full bedding in session.

On the way home I was still getting some squeal, but not as much. We'll see what happens the next time I take the ITR out with cold brakes. </TD></TR></TABLE>

This seems to have done trick. I took the car out for a spin on Saturday and is squeal free. How nice!