arentz07

If you're getting vibrations, that's no bueno. I'd definitely put pressure on them to fix it, since brakes are a safety issue at a certain point.

I think what others in this thread have talked about - the squeakiness in cold weather - is perfectly normal, if annoying. Vibrations are not.

roli

I have this issue as well. Though mine usually sound more like groaning than squeaking. I've just had the car serviced last week and the regular testing that they do didn't show any issues (though I didn't mention the horrible noise).

I've noticed that this usually happens when you lightly press the brakes. Slamming them or stopping on a slight incline usually ensures silent braking. My mother with a BMW F10 keeps telling me that this is normal - her car does it as well. Though I am pretty sure that the Lexus is way louder. This thing is highly annoying and is really not something that one would expect in a luxury brand. Especially when a beaten up 20 year old French car doesn't have these issues.

E46CT

20 year old french car also did not have 13 inch brakes with high friction compound and four pistons.

Brake squealing on these types of brakes is normal and even sought after. Many complaining are normal ES300 or Accord/Civic owners who strayed into sports sedan territory because they liked the sporty looks but they don't know performance car world. You will get some noise when you introduce performance. just how it is.

The best way to mitigate is to powerwash the brakes once a week to make sure gunk doesn't build up and exacerbate vibrations which leads to noise. (by vibrations i mean micro vibrations, not steering wheel shakes)

J3ffrey

Service Rep called back - they are going to replace the rotors due to the vibration and 'clean' the pads.. he said the main reason they are replacing the rotors is because they cut them last year (Not sure if that's something they shouldn't have done, but it's the reason)..

Said they aren't going to replace the pads because it wont fix anything. I may just replace the pads myself if that's the case as this did not become a problem till at least 10,000 miles. Anyone know what the stock pads are and where to get them for a non-inflated price?

Also thinking I may just buy the car at the end of the lease depending on what the offer is.. Figure it's only got 17000 miles on it right now and we're 2 years and 1 month into a 3 year lease so wouldn't be a big deal to put some $ into the brake pads and do them myself.

Fsportme

I get brake squeal briefly when cold and only in reverse for a few yards. I'm on stock pads with drill slotted aftermarket rotors. Sounds like it coming from the rear pads so I cleaned and re-assembled the rears, it went away for a few days but came back.

Shouldn't be normal to have brake squeal even if they claim performance pads. The re-surfacing and or sanding of rotors etc is only a temporary fix as the sound will return once the surface wears in. The only remedy is swap out to different brand pads and or rotors. In my case it only happens when when cold in reverse which is less than 1/8 of the drive time so I think I can live with it until the pads need replacement.

dizlex

Did I miss it, or did no one suggest simply replacing the pads with the non-F pads? Unless you're tracking the car, they're better in all regards - less noise, dust, and disk wear.

arentz07

So, I'm reviving an old thread, but it's for good reason.

I had my 20k service done (a little early, at 17.1k miles) and remarked to the service advisor about how the brakes have been noisy. He came back later and said the tech thought they sounded "obnoxious" and would try to find the source of the problem. They ended up resurfacing the rotors under warranty (i.e., I paid nothing out of pocket that day).

Yesterday we had some snow, and this morning temps were in the high 20's. On the entire drive to work, including just me backing out of my driveway when I pretty much always had squeaking, there was no squeaking whatsoever. It was glorious! So, I just wanted to drop this here to remind us that the brake noise may not be normal, especially if it's really loud. Please do yourself a favor and just have someone look at the brakes.