EBC Green Brake Squeek

[SUN RA KAT]

The right side brake squeeks at a moderate brake pedal pressure and less or more pressure does not produce a squeek. The car stops straight and does not want to pull to the side. It just started doing this a few hundred miles ago when I had 2,600 miles on the brakes (& my Viper). I've tried cleaning the brake dust out but that doesn't work. The squeek starts after the brakes have been used a few times and are not cold. All my stops are fairly gentle, so overheating wouldn't be the cause.

Any ideas on what is causing this?

 

[Qualitywires.com]

Have you scuffed your rotors when you put your EBC greens on? The old resin I think that is left on the rotors can cause the squeeking. I used some rough sandpaper and it worked for me.

 

[jimandela]

Another yellow thread!!!

Kenny,
I have EBC and no squeak or dust.
But my vipertech cleaned my rotors completely of any old material before install them.
They looked really good completely scuffed.
I would agree with Ab this is probably your problem.

JIM

 

[SUN RA KAT]

My Viper only had 2 miles on it before Woodhouse put the EBC pads on before I flew out to pick it up. The squeek just started - up until then the EBC pads were nice & quiet. No increase in brake dust noted - still very little the way EBCs are supposed to be.

My Sean Roe Supercharger should be coming in a few weeks and I'll give my Viper Tech any info you guys (& gals) give me. My Viper Tech is going to install my supercharger at his home and do a few other things for my Viper at the same time...and I guess one more thing.

 

[red98GTS]

Kenny, let me add something here if I may. After reading most of the posts here over a four year period, the ones concerning brake squeal and EBC greens have taught me the following, for what it's worth:
1. Some guys just pull the old pads out and put the new ones in and don't do anything to the rotors and they never squeal again.
2. Some guys do that and they squeal.
3. Some guys scuff the rotors and never have another peep out of the brakes.
4. Some guys scuff the rotrs and they squeal either right away or later.
5. My Viper tech has good luck just putting them in without much/any rotor work
6. You can try scuffing the rotors again NOW and seeing if that makes the noise go away
7. Some owners experience increased dust and a bit of squeal INITALLY from the EBCs, and then it goes away...not your situation, I know, but they do.
If it were me, I would simply scuff them up properly and give it another few hundred miles to see what happens. pete the XGG & hot rodder

 

[racetech]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by red98GTS:
Kenny, let me add something here if I may. After reading most of the posts here over a four year period, the ones concerning brake squeal and EBC greens have taught me the following, for what it's worth:
1. Some guys just pull the old pads out and put the new ones in and don't do anything to the rotors and they never squeal again.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yup...that's what I did. The stock front pads on my Viper would sing like a banshee under light application, especially while backing up. I just cleaned the rotors with Brakleen and slipped in the new EBC pads. However, my 2000 RT/10 only had 800 miles on it. If there'd been a lot more miles, I'd have certainly had the rotors refinished--and by someone who knows what kind of "non-directional" finish is correct for the application.

But...I'm wondering just how badly your new pads are squeaking. There is squeaking, then...there is SQEAKING! Nearly all (maybe all) brake pads (especially the metallics or semi-metallics) squeak to some degree--it's nearly impossible to get around it.

This is because you have the classic situation for making high-pitched sounds. It's kind of a violin scenario...steel rotors with their own high-pitch resonant frequency and a caliper that lightly "bows" the rotor at differing speeds and under differing pressures. Sooner or later, you hit the "sweet spot" and the rotor sings.

I tell people that my brakes "don't squeak" anymore after installing the green pads, but that's not technically true. They will still give a little peep now & then under light application, but I can release the brake pedal & hit it again before anybody starts to wonder why a $60,000 car would behave that way.

I also had a squeak after doing some fenderwell cleanup. The car was left parked afterwards and water on the rotors caused a little corrosion. Once that was gone, so was the more pronounced squeal.

The guys here are giving you the good advice. You can't do much to stop squealing completely, and there is no set formula for reducing the problem. So, you try things to change the friction characteristics by scuffing the rotors and/or pads. I'll be surprised if you don't still have that occasional peep from them. Mine do it, but it's just part of the deal.

RC

 

[SUN RA KAT]

It's not a loud squeek, but it's still a squeek where none was there before, and it sounds like just one wheel on the right side is squeeking (I think it's the right front).

It's not the end of the world, but it is annoying to have people turn and look because they hear a squeek. I liked it much better when they turned and looked because of the wonderfull exhaust noise my Viper makes.

 

[dancojax]

This is probably not the place to ask, but how do you guys like the EBC green? I have been thinking about putting them on Nancy's daily driver (JaG XJ 8) on the basis that they claim to cut out the brake dust -- she doesn't drive the Jag anything like her Viper, but the darned thing had terrible dust on the front wheels when she comes home from the car wash.
Thanks for the advice/

 

[Wing King]

Kenny, actually I think it's just a temporary little rotor issue, especially since it's coming from just one wheel. AND, you say all your stopping so far has been fairly gentle...... so go ahead and make a few harder stops from around 50mph. I'll bet that takes care of it for you.

Once the pads are properly bedded in (however many miles that may take for YOUR particular rotor situation), you will not hear ANY noise, and see almost NO dust. Even with very few miles on a rotor, sometimes dirt or debris can cause one rotor to score more than another. Give it more time.

 

[SUN RA KAT]

dancojax -

I really like the EBC Green Pads - stopping distance is great and there is a whole lot less brake dust than the pads that came on my Dodge Ram truck. Bill Pemberton at Woodhouse told me to get them & I'm glad he did.

Wing King -

I was thinking the same thing so earlier tonight I took it on a closed course run up to a little past 100 MPH and hit the brakes fairly hard and was amazed (as usuual) at how fast it got to that speed and how fast I slowed down to a stop with absolutely no pull right or left. It squeeked less afterwards, but it still squeeked. Maybe some more quick stops are in order tomorrow...

 

[viperdoctor]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by dancojax:
This is probably not the place to ask, but how do you guys like the EBC green? I have been thinking about putting them on Nancy's daily driver (JaG XJ 8) on the basis that they claim to cut out the brake dust -- she doesn't drive the Jag anything like her Viper, but the darned thing had terrible dust on the front wheels when she comes home from the car wash.
Thanks for the advice/

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


I have the EBC greens all the way around on the Viper and only on the fronts of a 98 XJ8L (they don't make them for the rear).

I can say that the brake dust is much much less on the Viper.

However, the Jag it's only a little better. The wheels still turn black with dust in only a couple of hundred miles.

I am thinking it's because the Jag is such a sled and is driven more miles than the Viper. And I think the Viper stock pads are unusual on how much dust they put out. So it's relatively a big improvement over stock Viper pads, but not so dramatic on the Jag.

HTH

 

[MtHam ACR]

Are you guys chamfering the leading edges of the pads? I noticed the stock rear pads have a 45-deg relief. Maybe there's something to that?

 

[racetech]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MtHam ACR:
Are you guys chamfering the leading edges of the pads? I noticed the stock rear pads have a 45-deg relief. Maybe there's something to that?


<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I noticed that too, but decided to just put them in the way they were--because had I chamfered the edge and then they made noise, I would have always wondered if I screwed up. At any rate, there were no ill effects by just installing them as is from the box.

Shortly after installing the pads, I did make some really HARD stops...and repeatedly...not for the intent of burnishing the pads, but because it was "necessary" to drive the car that way for the occasion.

That occasional "peep" I get seems to be heat related...but it only happens once in a long while and is not loud enough to draw attention.

The "patience" idea posted here sounds like the best advice to me. The squeaking characteristics will likely change (hopefully go away) as rotors change pattern and pads change in depth and hardness. Try the hard stops as you have...put some heat into them...let them cool. Let up on the pedal if it starts to squeal and reapply it--it does seem that once the resonant frequency starts, there's some degree of "memory" created. This could perhaps be a micro pattern put into the rotors sort of like the grooves on a phonograph record--then it's set up to recreate that sound.

I know this is a lot of "maybes", and "try this"'s,...but this is a black art.

RC

 

[SUN RA KAT]

I went to my favorite closed course and did quite a few almost stops from 90 MPH. The last stop had a lot of white smoke coming from my right rear wheel well after I almost stopped (20 MPH = almost stopped). I drove it on the open course again at legal speeds for about 45 minutes to make sure the brakes & fluid had a good chance to cool down before I went on roads where I would need to do some braking.

It appears the squeek is gone!

I do have to wipe off my wheels - especially the right rear - to get rid of the brake dust from my closed course adventure.

I'm going to drive it again tonight when everything has cooled completely down to the outside air temperature to see if I really fixed that squeek.

 

[Matt M PA]

When I switched to EBC green pads, I scuffed the rotors, and cleaned them with Brakeclean. This was around 1000 miles. My car now has 4700 miles and while the brake dust is much reduced, they still squeel. (I also notice that the rear wheel get dirtier than the fronts.) The car stops even and straight.

 

[SUN RA KAT]

I did a lot of driving tonight looking for lights that were going to turn red so I could stop and I timed most of the lights right. Then I looked for stop signs and 90 degree turns. Everywhere I stopped was absolutely no brake squeek.

I am Happy, Happy. Joy, Joy.

 

[jimandela]

SWEET!

nice yellow car by the way!!

my yellow brother!

JIM

 

[Snakester]

I put my EBCs in a few weeks ago now. Scuffed the rotors, and lightly chamfered the leading and trailing edges of the pads.
I installed EBC Greens in the front and EBC Reds in the back and so far I've been VERY pleased with the pads.

I had loud squealing sometimes with the stock pads, and the EBCs have been squeek-free so far, even with a couple 150 mile trips taken lately.

The biggest advantage for me has been the dust. My stock brakes would make the ACR wheels almost black in a week's light driving use, and now with the new pads I haven't had to clean the wheels again so far. Which is remarkable!

-Dean.