| cgoodwin |
02-02-2004 01:30 AM |
Squeeeeeeeek
DRIVES ME NUTS!
Nothing worse in a shop, the client comes back and you do the job again, and again. Be careful and detail oriented, make sure the pads fit in the caliper properly and dry fit everything, look at where the pad backing rides on the caliper and clean this area and lubricate it. Clean the points where the pistons contact the pad backs as well and use paste. I scuff the rotors with a ScotchBrite disc on a die grinder as well just to get the glaze off and frequently spray the entire disc with a silver spray made by Wurth, similar to the factory coating on new Mercedes rotors. As soon as I get things back together I push the pedal down hard a few times and place a dead man on the pedal while I put the wheels back on and torque them. I do this to insure that the paste etc. settles where it should rather than with a gap between the pad backing and the pistons.
All this may seem extreme to some but really it is not, when you do brakes day in and day out you don't even think about it anymore, your hands just move through the job by muscle memory and you learn to try as best you can to do it right the first time. I would rather spend an extra few minutes the first tiem than be embarassed by a come back and have to do the whole thing over.... When all is said and done I go for a good test drive and drag he brakes a little for the first block, another block with no brakes and a few solid stops, a good speed run and a steady brake to a stop, then drive in traffic back to the shop and I am done.
I have had real trouble with EBC pads making noise and as a matter of personal preferance I like Pagid although i have mounted a good many PBR's. Another thing to be sure of is the disc thickness, most of the newer discs have a slight bevel to the edge and this can be used as a thickness indicator, if you must machine past or to the bevel to get rid of the ridges and lip, replace the rotors. If you turn them they will warp within a week and frankly I can not remember the last tiem I turned a rotor on an newer German car, just replace them after all brakes are not the place to save money.
Good luck,
Chris
PS. While you are at the brakes, check the brake fluid! 90% of the failed wheel cylinders and calipers I replace could have been avoided with an anual brake fluid change, remember it attracts and absorbs water which corodes everything from the inside out.
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