Noisy Brembos

[jammapic]

Hi,

Has anyone ever had a set of Brembos "creak". I.e. like a creaky floorboard, or old Pirate's Ship creaking.

I can get it to do it, stationary, engine off and just push the brake pedal REALLY hard.

Very odd.

Pads and discs are good, pistons seals all good, and just re-greased and rebuilt everything, problem persists.

Any ideas?

JP

[Rippthrough]

Usually creak if the caliper/disc/pad aren't quite aligned square, the pressure from the pedal squares them up and the creak is the flex in the caliper and disc as they move under the pressure.
Check all the mating surfaces under the caliper bolts and hub under the disc are all clean and true. If it doesn't help, try slackening the caliper bolts, have someone press the pedal and see if you can see any movement. If not, torque the bolts mounting the calipers up whilst someone keeps some pressure on the pedal to keep everything square, and see if that fixes it.
If you can see movement, you might need to file off any corrosion to get the mountings back square and use a bit of shim steel to centre the caliper back up.

[darrenjlobb]

What he said ^ Sounds like something is flexing.

[jammapic]

Cheers guys. Will have a look.

Weird thing is though, it never used to do it - then one day it just started!!

JP

[Rippthrough]

Could just be corrosion that's building up behind the disc or caliper mount, probably explain your judder too.

[jammapic]

Right... clean, clean, clean!!!

[Rippthrough]

Once you have, check the pads are still square, as they'll have worn a slight taper if it was. Either file 'em flat or change 'em.

[jammapic]

OK, so I cleaned everything. Noise still there.

I changed the discs, noise still there

I changed the pads for DS2500's, noise gone.

One thing I did notice, is the DS2500's are a very, very, tight fit. I had to hammer them in. Whereas the OEM ones I had in before slid in and out easily.

JP

[C2K]

Pad shims have undoubtedly deflected. they're awful on the Brembos on't 406.

[Rippthrough]

As above, if you had to hammer them in there's probably corrosion under the stainless steel wear plates that the pads ride on, no wonder they were creaking, I'm surprised you haven't bent the backplates!

[jammapic]

Pad shims??

[Seb_Ryan]

Pad shims??

Where the pads slide into, that little thin bit?

[jammapic]

Oh, the metal bits top and bottom?

[Seb_Ryan]

Oh, the metal bits top and bottom?

Yeah that's the things, sometimes they can bend out of shape, or as said get some rust build up underneath them, just pop them off and give them a check over and clean up where they sit against the caliper and on the caliper aswell.

And a little dab of copper slip etc will help abit

[Rippthrough]

Don't use copper slip, the reason they corrode underneath is because it's stainless to aluminium as it is (galvanic corrosion accelerated with the heat and water/salt from the road), adding copper to the mix won't help with aluminium there.
Use aluminium anti-seize or some Ceratec, or even a smear of silicone sealant. Don't use any of the graphite based anti-seize either.

[jammapic]

So the silver bits inside the calipers which hold the pads in. Doesn't look like they even move, they seem to be screwed in.

[Rippthrough]

They are, but they corrode underneath and push up slightly, hence you having to hammer the Ferodo's in...

[jammapic]

Ahhhh... ok, will take them apart again over the weekend and clean under there. Any idea why the OEM's just slid straight out?

[Rippthrough]

Will just be production tolerances, I have some different thicknesses of shim steel to suit for the 4 pots on the buggy, to get all the pads to a similar fit, but it doesn't really matter all that much.

[C2K]

The shims lift routinely on the 406 Brembos. I rebuilt a few sets when my friend and I made a kit to fit them to our rovers. Almost every set they had lifted, just a question of how much. After market pads always seem bigger, particularly ds2500. My tvr ap calipers were the same, couldn't get the ferodos in for love nor money as they were so big.