Ford Repair: brakes, mercury sable, sable wagon

Question
Hi, I have a 97 Mercury Sable wagon. The rear brakes make noise when applied. It's a slight squeal and scraping and comes and goes. I replaced the pads and rotors but it only fixed it for a short time. It does not have antilock brakes. Any ideas.
Thanks Gene


Answer
Gene, that noise may be due to the composition of the brake pads, or it could be something else is rubbing on the rotor.  
Some contact is always present with disc brakes - there is no spring to push the pads apart, and the loss of hydraulic pressure (when you release the brake pedal) allows to pads to 'float' back just a tiny bit.. but slight contact is still evident, usually, and may create a noise if the pad composition is hard.  One trick I've used is to bevel the leading edge of the pads to a 45 degree angle of contact between the pad and rotor... some pads will come with this bevel made into it.
While you've got the pads off again, check the backing plate for any rub marks and see if anything else could be contacting the rotor.
Hope this helps...
Clay