Screaming brakes

[HYPRVYPR]

I took delivery of my 2002 GTS in June. Had it for about a day when I noticed that the brakes made the most god awful squeal I've ever heard. I took it back to the dealer and he told me he was going to replace all the pads and rotors. I picked the car up the next day and it still sounds like a school bus every time I touch the brakes. The dealer tells me there's nothing else he can do. It's pretty embarrasing when you pull into a lot and everyone's checking you out and they put their hands over their ears when you hit the brakes. My son (13) won't even ride with me any more and the old lady's complaining too. Any suggestions?

 

[Y2K5SRT]

You will see several suggestions if you do a search by hitting the search key above. My own two cents: Go buy some EBC Green pads (assuming you aren't doing any track driving) from Parts Rack. They will virtually eliminate the squeal and also reduce the brake dust about 90%. You will find that most of the folks do that immediately after buying their Viper. Most here will swear by 'em, including me!

Chris

PS. I always used this analogy of the stock brakes: It is like Claudia Schiffer coming up to you in a bikini on the beach and promptly breaking wind upon her arrival.

 

[VPRVENM97]

HYPR,

The brake squealing is a common issue with stock Viper brakes. Another issue is the brake dust that will cover your wheels after a cruise. I changed my pads to the Porterfield R4's . Many have gone with the EBC Greens and have reported no squeal and significantly less brake dust on the wheels. Do a search on "brakes" and you'll find a wealth of discussion on this matter. Also, give Sean Roe a call at www.roeracing.com or JonB at www.partsrack.com

<FONT COLOR="Red">edit:I see that I pretty much duplicated what Chris said...sorry for the redundancy.</FONT c>

 

[Y2K5SRT]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by VPRVENM97:
edit:I see that I pretty much duplicated what Chris said...sorry for the redundancy.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

No, you gave some valuable hypertext links which I decided not to do in order to reply faster - I didn't want somebody trumping my reply and making it redundant!

Thanks for the great links and for the tip on the Porterfields, which I neglected to mention.

Chris

 

[Viper Wizard]

HYPRVYPR,

NORMAL!!

The stock brakes are disigned for the BEST of BOTH worlds!!
Track and Street! They are HARD = noise.

Just drive your Viper and ENJOY! CONGRATS!

EBC's are NO GOOD for the Track!!

Call me and I'll tell you all about them!

 

[Tom Glenn]

EBC makes a great street pad (Greens) They also make a great track pad (yellow) which is used on the car leading the Unlimited division at Viper Days.

 

[Marv S]

So Tom, How many different classes are you trying to win in?

A bit of expansion on the Porterfield pads --

The R4 is a race pad. Dust, noise, and grip.

The R4-S is the Street pad. Low Dust and Low Noise but don't use them on a track.

 

[Snakester]

I just swapped out my stock brake pads and installed EBC greens in front and reds in back.

The brake squealing WAS truly embarassing at times, and it is completely gone now! We scuffed the rotors, scuffed the leading and trailing edges of the new pads, didn't use any anti-squeal compound, and they worked flawlessly (and noiselessly).

And the other reason that I got the EBC Greens was that before in 3 days the front wheels would be nearly black with the stock pads, and now it's been a week and there's no visible dust at all.

It was not a huge task to swap out the pads, so if I feel compelled to run at a track soon I'll swap in the stock pads.
But short of racing, the EBCs are in for-good now, and I'm quite pleased with them so far.

-Dean.

 

[KenH]

I hit my brake calipers (and whole rim) with the pressure nozzle on my hose. Flushing out the brake dust from between the calipers and rotor seems to keep mine quiet for about a days worth of driving before they start to squeal again.

 

[onerareviper]

Snakester,

Why EBC reds in the back? Are they more agressive to allow more rear braking? Any downsides to doing this? Please help, as I plan to swap out the stock pads. Also, please compare stopping performance vs. stock brakes - street driving.

Thanks in advance.

 

[VPRVENM97]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Y2KGTS:
I didn't want somebody trumping my reply and making it redundant!

Chris
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hate it when that happens.

 

[Snakester]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Why EBC reds in the back? Are they more agressive to allow more rear braking? Any downsides to doing this? Please help, as I plan to swap out the stock pads. Also, please compare stopping performance vs. stock brakes - street driving. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Two reasons. One is purely cosmetic. The EBC bright green brake pads are fully hidden within the front calipers, but the rear brake pads are clearly visible through the wheel, and I like the red look better than bright green.

More importantly, the red pads are slightly more grippy than the greens and with the normal brake bias, the fronts do most all of the braking work. Installing the reds out back gives those meaty rear michelins a better chance to share the braking load without locking up the tires.

The only downside that I know of is that the reds dust more than the greens, but still only half as much as the stock pads. Neither sqeal so far.

As far as braking goes, it's still too early to say since I've only driven 40 miles on the new brakes, and they are still seating to the rotors, but offhand they feel at least as good so far.

-Dean.

 

[onerareviper]

Thanks Dean. Makes perfect sense.

 

[GTS Bruce]

A little dust and an occasional squeal have never bothered me.Or onlookers that are too ignoraant to understnad what's going on. Bruce