Hi all- hope someone can help... got a '99 turbo bought back in May. Front offside brake squeaks intermittently after a long run (not with much hard braking... my commute to work's up the M3 to london, and the squeak (squeal) kicks in after I've slowed down after the motorway when it becomes the A316). Only squeaks when freewheeling - when touching the brake pedal, it stops. Weird. Got a receipt for new discs & pads from the previous owner, dated Feb. Had it in my local tyre garage who reckoned everything was A-ok. Stops OK. Discs and pads all look ok. But it's annoying. Any ideas? Also, the squeal stops when steering. I was thinking shims but the tyre garage said all were present and correct.

 

Sounds like one of the pistons in the caliber is sticking

worth having a look at, take the caliber apart and check it out

(have had the same problem, yours sounds like exactly the same)

 

Many thanks for that, I'll take a look at them.

 

welcome to the joys of subaru's **** brake calipers, only way to cure it is to upgrade the calipers.

 

I had this problem. Got my local Subaru dealer to check to make sure the calipers weren't sticking and they said everything was fine. Still had the noise though and it was embarrasing more than anything. Took all the wheels off one day as wanted to give the alloys a proper clean, haven't had any squeaking since Perhaps coincidence who knows

 

I really would not waste my time doing that! . .

I have a similar problem, if thats what you wish to call it, on my 05 WRX300 . . . .And I had a similar problem on pretty much every car I had . . .All that happens, is that under braking ( and it does not necessarily have to be hard braking), the pad heats up and expands . . .As it does so, it will start slightly grabbing the disk - hence producing the squeeking sound . . .Even under normal driving conditions . . .

As it cools , it will contract, but not do the original shape and consistency, and will continue with a slight squeek . . . It really is nothing more than an issue of pad quality I suppose! Don't worry about it! It will eventually go away as the pad gets worn away . .

Hope this helps!

p.S . . Too many drama queens who drive crap cars and then blame it on the caliper!

 

Not true, there's nothing wrong with the 4pot calipers for road use.

If they're squealing it may just be they were badly assembled. take them apart and give them a clean up get the brake dust off, and lubricate the sliding surfaces (not the friction pads and disks ) with copperslip and they won't squeal any more.

While they're off check the pistons arn't stuck and if it brakes smooth on the road all is well.

The std brakes should not be noisy.

Dave

 

On a bynote, the squeeking noise is the sliding surfaces rubbing against each other, the pad against the disk doesn't squeek unless there is other problems.

 

As I mentioned . .It might just be the quality of the pad . .

 

A possibility. Were pattern parts used or genuine subaru? or some other....

 

i actually sold my turbo 2000 on a w plate because of this, it crazed me so much and was extremly embarresing, and i changed from the standard setup that squeeked to a setup of tarox 40 groove discs and mintex fast road pads and it was fine for about 3 weeks then starred again, so i dont think its a queastion of quality unless tarox are poor quality?

 

Std ones should not be noisey. If they are that is easy to fix (by yourself, expensive from a dealer). I use mintex 1144 pads on another car of mine and find them to be squeeky. They do get a lot of abuse though and perform well.

Pads have a noise vs. performance vs. dust vs. wear rate balance, which makes them a very complicated thing.

 

it cant be that difficult to manufacture, after all other car manufacturers manage it, and i'm sure specialists such as mintex etc should have the technology to cure this after all u pay enough money for them?????

 

Not entirely, if you look at the performace alternatives.

Mintex 1144's - work well, not bad dust, noisey

Ferodo DS2500 - work well, quiet, produce 12x there own volume in dust

EBC redstuff - dusty, quiet and rubbish!

From my experience, redstuff was on a friends car never drove it much myself.

What you gain in one are you loose in another, mintex seem to have gone for performance over noise by me.

 

just put some mintex extreme pads in my03wrx and they only squeek when you have just set off and lightly touch the brakes ie turning around. as soon as the pads have heated up there fine.

 

My passenger front squeek's like mad at times.... very annoying
Standard set up as well

 

cheers for all the advice - I'll probably stick some Mintex pads on when I next service it, I think... std. scooby brakes aren't great after all.