[The_DDub]

I too have battle the squeal monster known as BMW brakes. I am proud to say I came out victorious! It was a long and arduous battle, many have died in the name of all that is righteous, but we honor those that were lost.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=485353

[TheStigsTwin]

Mine don't.

[TXe92]

Originally Posted by N54_Fan

I have this same problem and starts squealing from 4-15 mph. My rears were replaced at 26000 mile and now I have 39000 miles and I am scheduled to have the fronts replaced in a week. Glad to know i am not alone. These are still under warranty and my SA told me about the braking form 60 mph but that did nothing! I did not have to fight with them last time and dont expect that I will this time either.

The more and more I read up on this.. it seems to just be either a pad issue or a culmination of brake dust built up.. some people have said it the sensor.. but that doesnt make sense to me? Esp. since the problem appears when accelerating..

[John 070]

Originally Posted by TXe92

The more and more I read up on this.. it seems to just be either a pad issue or a culmination of brake dust built up.. some people have said it the sensor.. but that doesnt make sense to me? Esp. since the problem appears when accelerating..

I've never done my BMW brakes, but did My Nissans over its entire life, like 4X on the front, and only 3X in the rear, over 200k. It seems quite unusual that the rears on the BMW wear faster than the front--my CBS says 40k left on fronts, 25k rear, only 25k on the car.

My sneaking suspicion is something is going on with the hill holder etc.....

[rocco]

Just had this taken care of today. SA told me they replaced the rear wear sensor and this usually the cause. Did the trick on the ride home, will see how long it lasts.

They also asked me if i had squeaking under slow acceleration from 0-15 ...i do, like all of you, and they said it is a known issue without a real fix.

I can live with that, but the grinding squeak when breaking was driving me insane.

[John 070]

Honda lost a class action on rear Accord brakes. Maybe our sue-happy culture will do the same to BMW? Incentive is that the law firms on Browne v. Honda earned $2 mil. The Accord owners got multiple sets of new brakes.

Me, I wouldn't mind the squeaking to go away. Honda also denied coverage under warranty until their hands got forced.....though Honda is such a bigger fish to fry, nobody cares about BMW, look at the N54...

[galahad05]

Originally Posted by John 070

I've never done my BMW brakes, but did My Nissans over its entire life, like 4X on the front, and only 3X in the rear, over 200k. It seems quite unusual that the rears on the BMW wear faster than the front--my CBS says 40k left on fronts, 25k rear, only 25k on the car.

My sneaking suspicion is something is going on with the hill holder etc.....

I've always thought it was due to the DSC/DTC/electronic "differential".
Using the rear brakes to curb power-induced wheelspin = more wear and tear....
Especially on the 335i models.

[Michael Schott]

Never a squeak for me in over 42000 miles on an 328i. Maybe it's climate related or how you use your brakes. I'm pretty gentle but drive a lot of city miles so my brakes probably never get glazed.

[Amlethae]

Mine aren't squeaking yet... only 1.5k miles on the car. But I'm not posting to brag, rather to share how I've fixed brake squeal on all my other cars:

Disk Brake Quiet never worked for me, YMMV. What I do instead is take an empty soda or beer can, cut off the top, bottom, and cut straight down one side. Then I flatten it out, and lay a brake pad on the flattened can's tin. Then I cut the tin down to the size of the brake pad and put it on with the brake pad -- disk quiet can be useful to glue it in place if you can't figure out how to keep it in place another way. The tin is a perfect absorber... no brake squeal ever since.

Sadly BMW doesn't make soda or beer... but a good Spaten would do the Bavarian instinct proud... or for cost cutting I recommend Highlife.

[dreamnmotion]

I had this exact problem. First time, they swapped out my brake sensors, dunno which ones, but the squeaking went away. Now, it starts to squeak again, so I don't know if it's the brake sensors or not, very annoying, but as others said, I just deal with it.

[John 070]

I think again a clue is that the rears are wearing faster than the fronts, much like the Honda. I'm easy on my brakes, and a stick only helps. Yet 40k left on fronts, 25k on rears. There's a lot of electronics going on where we don't know about their effects, such as brake force, ABS, stability, hill holding, etc. I think BMW's relative numbers are too small for anyone to ever take an interest in, aka force the mfg. to do something, like what happened with the Accord. It is annoying, and based again on people saying rotors/pads replaced and it comes back, well, what can we do then?

[John 070]

Originally Posted by Amlethae

Mine aren't squeaking yet... only 1.5k miles on the car. But I'm not posting to brag, rather to share how I've fixed brake squeal on all my other cars:

Disk Brake Quiet never worked for me, YMMV. What I do instead is take an empty soda or beer can, cut off the top, bottom, and cut straight down one side. Then I flatten it out, and lay a brake pad on the flattened can's tin. Then I cut the tin down to the size of the brake pad and put it on with the brake pad -- disk quiet can be useful to glue it in place if you can't figure out how to keep it in place another way. The tin is a perfect absorber... no brake squeal ever since.

Sadly BMW doesn't make soda or beer... but a good Spaten would do the Bavarian instinct proud... or for cost cutting I recommend Highlife.

Gotcha my Nissan had shims like that, two actually, stainless steel, and teflon. I believe the stainless touched the piston, then the teflon touched the pad backing....I stopped buying the kit and actually eventually went aftermarket, but did OEM at least twice all corners with the kit...

[Taipei-TT]

Originally Posted by John 070

Kinda funny that I've done the brakes on my Nissan myself since day 1, and none of the above applies over 13 years. The first set of pads went 89k before I replaced the rears--they have never made any noise to this day. When you have people saying the dealership prematurely replaced the pads/rotors and 6 mos. later the squeak came back, I don't think the above advice is on the righ track. Squeak--not squeal, not groan. Why would someone have to grind away pad material just to eliminate a noise? It may work, but so would applying grease to the surface of the rotors. And I'm not sure if BMW is like other cars, the replacement OEM rotors are not as good as what came from the factory.....they are outsourced and can usually be spotted by the hats...

I think the funny part, in all seriousness, is that the materials on your Nissan are not the same as those on BMWs. AND...the fact that European cars' brakes squeak more is because of changes to the materials used that are required by European environmental regulations. Thus, the solution is on the right track...the reason 6 month old pads come back in for squeaking is that they are made of the same material that is vulnerable to squeaking in the first place! I have talked to senior technicians at Audi and MB about their brakes too...and they say the same thing...squeaking is caused by the required changes to the materials and that they are actively investigating new materials that will stop our cars and not squeak. In the mean time, we have a material that stops our cars, but squeaks.

The reason I think grinding down the leading edge is better than grease is simply that it is a permanent and easy solution that in no way affects the performance of the brakes.

It's up to others what they choose to do, but I'm happy with a solution that keeps my car squeak free!

[Alpine328]

ADMIN...I think this topic might deserve to be a sticky under the "Suspension | Brakes | Chassis" forum??



What say ye?



...and, yes, my brakes are squealing as well AND just got them back from being worked on.