biacs

Bosch 50011463 QuietCast Premium Disc Brake Rotor,
Akebono ACT871 ProACT Ultra-Premium Ceramic Brake Pad Set For 2001-2006


So I did rotors and pads about 18 months ago. Both Front and back. A few months into the parts, I even swapped the pads to stop the reverse squealing. To be honest- its just embarrassing to SQUEALLLL down the driveway in the wee hours, heading to the gym, or just backing up in a parking lot. And I even swapped parts- what a PITA

Lol - I've done lots of brake jobs, used stop squeal etc. I even bought well reviewed parts (hahaha the name quiet is in the name!). What else am I missing? Is there some secret spacer that I lost??

05ls430518

iTrader: (1)

Take the caliper off take the pads off use scotch brite pads sand/paper to clean the parts of the caliper circled in red

Your pads are not moving freely and that is causing the screeching, when you clean them to bare metal put a little coating of grease were I circled in red. When sanding be carefull to not mess up the rubber boot on the pistons

Johnhav430

Embarrassing situation for many 335i owners, where the rears make a squeak squeak squeak noise about 20k into new brakes. People who were "in the know" said the only way to cure it is to prematurely replace the brake pads, believe us, we've replaced every component to come to this conclusion.

Well this happened to me under warranty so as a courtesy (noises aren't covered after 12k), the dealership completely disassembled all 4 corners, cleaned the pad backings, and put anti squeal. This did 0!

Eventually, I replaced the rear pads only as an experiment, left the old rotors, and just as the forum had said, squeak gone. What is different in the setup vs the LS430 is the pads are semi metallic, not ceramic. If we draw an analogy to the LS, the squeak is pad to rotor, not piston to pad, etc....my .02

If the same thing happened (noisy in 18 mos.) with Lexus rotors and pads, I would be surprised, because then it would happen under warranty when the vehicle were originally sold, and the dealers would be getting tons of warranty claims....my .02

biacs

So John - just to clarify -in the theme of most probable / cheapest / easiest fix first- I should get semi metallic rear pads - not ceramics and swap them out?

Johnhav430

No....I guess what I mean is original pads/rotors would likely have no noises at all...because Toyota would have designed it as such to prevent customer complaints/warranty....

However what you used is quality, so it just may be that the combination is causing a noise....after they wear in...

In the case of BMW, the original rear pads/rotors squeak squeak squeak at 10-20k of use, and nobody could do anything (other than toss perfectly good pads with 75% left, and install new), but they would never squeal at new. The semi metallic are for performance I believe, they are not kind to the rotors as they bite them, and they dust like no tomorrow...all of that is eliminated with ceramics...

I wonder, if in your case, you did not start off as a noise, what happens if you install brand new pads--does the noise go away? If not, you use the old pads, and install new rotors, does the noise go away? I know it would take significant time and money to start experimenting like that...on the BMW forum enough people could try it and come to the conclusion it was futile to get rid of the noise, except by getting new pads. I'm sure my rears on the LS are aftermarket, but no noise, so maybe ours is not as tricky...

2KHarrier

To answer your question, Metallic or Semi-Metallic pads are inherently noisy, while the ceramic you installed are quieter and usually last longer, but are a little more pricey. To quote myself, "Buy the best and you cry once..."

The noise could very well be inside the hub, where the parking brake shoes sit. If there's dust build up inside the hats, or something on the surface of the hat area, it will cause noise while in reverse, due to the way the shoes contact the hat area inside the disc.

Galco

Its not your pad choice. I've used Akebonos for years and with "Brake Quiet Spray" on the outer most shim that touches the caliper pistons and they run perfectly quiet. Also agree completely proper cleaning of caliper. See you're in the midwest, make sure you get all the corrosion or salts off the calipers where the backing plate of the pads touch the caliper as noted in the pic above. Add a dab of high temp grease (copper grease) to those touch point to prevent binding and as protection from future corrosion. I also add a touch of molly lube grease between shims and the back of the pads after completely cleaning them with brake cleaner spray. The shims need to slide easily between themselves like a sandwich.

While, I suspect you don't want to go back in there a 3rd time; I must say the LS430 is one of the easiest cars to service the brakes of just about anything else out there. Take your time, have fun and you will be noise free.

rkw77080

I re-used my existing shims with aftermarket Ceramic Brake Pads, and followed factory recommendations on where to apply the 2 different types of grease. My brakes are quiet going forward and backward - knock on wood...

Johnhav430

my point with using BMW as an example was the type of noise, and where it was being generated. Since "noise" is not covered by warranty, even the BMW dealership went through all the labor of removing 8 pads, cleaning 8 sides, cleaning shims, and applying yellow (non factory obviously) paste, all to accomplish nothing, because this was written as "courtesy." They wouldn't have been able to replace pads only 15% worn, and get BMW to warranty it, so they didn't, yet that would have solved the issue....the forum proved that the noise was pad to rotor, and this is with OE after about 20k miles, multiple people on the forum experimenting. Since the LS is not performance oriented and uses ceramics for dusting and quiet, true, they really shouldn't make noise regardless...I am lacking shims at all 4, no noises...and I have cheap aftermarket rotors in the rear as well...

rrgone

Are you still on OEM rotors?

rkw77080

biacs

Ill have to look if I even have the anti squeal shims.

Galco

If you're running shim-less, that is likely your source of the squeals. They are not cheap from the dealer, but seems to be the way to go on these cars. Keep us posted.

Johnhav430

I have my doubts that shims would elilminate, because I do have new shims front/back, in my basement. My car lacks them on all 4, and there are no squeals. I do think that it is feasible that lack of shims causes a brake pad shift sounding like a clunk.

My fronts are OE Lexus rotors/pads, but my rears are some aftermarket no coating rotors, with likely Akebonos (because the fronts were such, but selling dealership replaced with OE at my request as part of the sale).

What would be sure to eliminate noises are new rotors/pads and Lexus OE, but that's throwing the baby away with the bathwater., I know....

Can't find it but GM wrote a dissertation explaining brake noises getting down to frequency, explaining squealing, groaning, etc. In my honest or humble opinion from my doing many brake jobs at home, squealing is pad to rotor, not piston to pad backing....

warminwisc

Sorry to hear yur troubles. I had the same problem recently when I used centric rotors and Akebono pads last brake job. I could shoot myself the original rotors had 150k miles on em and no issues and I replaced em just cause they are old. I have 270 k miles I have had great success(neber this problem) just doing pad slaps and never replacing the rotors and just use Akebono or Lexus pads. Having said that way back on my first one 270k ago I bought it with a wobble when braking and replaced with Lexus pads and Centric rotors in rear and never had a problem and same guy does all my brake jobs. I think Centric has branched into alot of other areas gotten more popular and the quality went down. It either a non prefect rotor or harmonics I think on mine

So 15k miles now my breaks squeel very rarely but I know what U mean in the AM I used to scare the birds out of the trees backing out of my driveway and my neighbors never complained.

Poney up the dough take it to the dealer tell em your struggles expecting to possibly have to get Lexus parts to get closure to this. Good luck