QuestionQUESTION: Hi Jan -- my car has a little over 50,000 miles on it. I took it into a mechanic (not a Audi dealer) for a check up and he said brake work was needed and replaced the front and rear brakes, rotors and pads. Since then the brakes have been squeeking intermittantly -- no real pattern to it -- sometimes happens when the car is cold / sometimes when it's been running for awhile. It does seem to happen more when I press lightly on the brakes.
I took it back to the mechanic and he couldn't get the brakes to squeak (of course) so he said he doesn't know how to help me. I called the Audi dealer and they said that the squeaking will continue -- that it's common if non-Audi branded parts are used.
The mechanic does specialize in German cars and says he used quality materials. Any ideas how to get the intermittant squeaking to stop?
ANSWER: Hi, Unfortunately your mechanic is right. The combination of your pads and rotors on your car decided to start squeaking. You can round off or angle the friction material and clean off the glazing off the pads to try and stop it, but it sounds like your mechanic has used metallic or semi-metallic pads which are good for performance and don't fade much, but they do, occasionally, squeak. Changing the pads for others would be about my only sure way of eliminating an annoying, but non serious problem. Let me know, Jan
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QUESTION: thanks for your reply. I'm curious -- my previous brakes (which were original to the car) never squeaked -- I'm assuming they were also performance brakes. Is there a reason it would begin now with these new brakes?
Mary
AnswerDifferent pads will perform differently, although even similar pads from different manufacturers can have different 'squeak' characterisitics. You can also verify with the mechanic that the anti-squeak springs were put in properly... Let me know, Jan
