What Causes the Noise After Replacing Brake Pads?
2 Answers
There are many types of brake pads available now. It is recommended to replace them with original ones or materials with similar friction coefficients. Sometimes, brake pads that work well on one vehicle may not be suitable for another, which is due to the mismatch between the brake pads and the brake discs. The reasons for noise after replacing brake pads are as follows: 1. Excessive friction coefficient: This means the brake pads are too hard, causing them to act like they are cutting into the brake discs, resulting in a clunking sound or other noises, depending on the hardness match and braking force. 2. The stiffness of the brake pads is close to that of the brake discs: This can easily cause resonance, and the noise is generated by vibration, but it is not a clunking sound. 3. There are granular hard particles on the surface of the brake pads: These can cause a screeching sound when scraping against the brake discs.
Spent the whole morning at the repair shop changing brake pads, only to hear annoying squeaks on the drive back. As an old hand, let me tell you—unbedded new brake pads are the most common culprit, just like new shoes rubbing blisters. My car screamed like a banshee during hard braking in rain for the first two days after replacement. After grinding through 100km of mountain roads to establish matching wear patterns on rotors and pads, the noise vanished. Another easily overlooked issue? Ungreased caliper slide pins. Lazy mechanics skip removing old grease, causing metal-on-metal grinding—no wonder it sounds like an ambulance siren! Last time my seized slide pins caused uneven wear, creating a stair-step lip on the rotor edge from mismatched pad thickness. Always check for that telltale ridge.
