Front left brake high pitch squeal!
 

hi, I have a 09 Volvo s40 that I love and I recently replaced my rotors and brakes all the way around. the 1st set of pads I bought and put on had no stopping power at all! So I bought high dollar bosch pads and put them on they fit without a problem and I now have amazing stopping power. but here comes my problem the next day after my brake service I noticed a very high pitched squeal (not a squeak) coming from the front left wheel. And it only happens after the car has been sitting for awhile such as 4+ hrs, also it only happens when I slowly roll and apply the brakes such as backing out of my drive way or the parking lot at work. The squeal only lasts until I apply the brakes to come to a stop, after that nothing! no noise at all driving around town or even at a stop sign/light it only happens on start up!??? I thought ok maybe I didn't lube them enough, so I re-lubed them all and cleaned the hell out of them. It seemed to work, but that very next morning it happened again. All 4 rotors look great with even amount of scoring and are smooth. It driving me crazy since I am very handy with cars and I love this car. Any ideas?


Thank you !!!!! :)

sounds like some overnight condensation is putting a thin film of rust on the rotors and it needs the first stop or two to scrub it off. I wouldn't be surprised if the sound goes away once the pads fully bed in.

That what I though also, but I see no visible rust and it seems to be pretty consistent, also how long do you think the pads take to bed in? And is it weird that its only the drivers side wheel and no others?

bedding depends on how you drive but I'd think after a few hundred miles of mixed in town driving would be enough. The only other thing I can think of is that there may be some glazing on the pad itself or on the rotor. Did you clean the rotors with brake cleaner before installing?

Ok, so today I decided to go out and buy a tube of permatex brake lube and took the pads off and inspected them and the pads themselves look great, no heat cracking or scoring same with the rotors. But the only thing I saw which might be the problem was where the pads "hook" onto their mount on the caliper. You could see the 4 points of contact where it looked like it was rubbing on the caliper, because the 4 points on the caliper where shiny and looked like a fresh rub. So I lubed ALL and I mean all the contact points. I shall see in a couple hrs to see if it still squeals. When I put everything back on and pulled out of my driveway there was no sound, but the brakes were warm. So tonight I will try when the car is cold.