i've anecdotally noticed that my brakes will squeal and i will get a weird smell in the car.

i previously thought the smell came from the fuel tank recall - i had also got mazda to replace my OEM pads with Hawk HPS pads at the same time but have only recently put 1 and 1 together. (20 mins of driving = brake squeal + smell in cabin)

last week i got mazda to take another look at the brakes - the tech said the rotors were glazed and they machined the rotors again and that worked for about a week. and the smell wasn't as strong anymore.

but last couple of days, the squeal and smell are back.

any ideas?

Thanks.

 

Are one of the calipers dragging and getting hot? Drive till you get the smell and then get mout and see if one brake caliper/rotor is hotter than the rest........

 

I'll try to explain this as good as possible, I'm not to well with explaining things on writing but here goes. Their is nothing wrong with your brakes, most performace cars usually use performance brakes which have to be heated up to be used at their full potential. But what happens is that you never use your brakes to their full potential which in then causes your brakes to start building deposit. Try doing some hard stop 50mph-0mph-50-0-50-0 by the third hard stop you should feel your brakes start grabbing better, and the noise should go away. The brakes are now at their full potential, and are heated up and the deposit should be gone. My friend was having the same problem with his porsche, the noise went away when he did the hard stops.

Another thing that could cause the squealing is dusty and windy conditions.

 

I just had my frontpads replaced too. The Squealing was killing me! i felt like an idiot every time I came to a stop. So They replaced the front pads with the new ones listed above. No more squeal today but I also have a problem now with the way it's actually brakeing! My 8 used to stop on a dime and nice and even. Now it dives forward and seems to take a lot longer to stop! Will this go away with wear or do you think they set the front brakes tighter then the rear or something? I'll also mention that they had to touch them all since they painted my rusty rotors (Under waranty) :D Much prettier now... Anyway, What to you all think??? Thanks, G.

 

^^^^ what he said. i have MS brake pads, and thats exactly what i do to get rid of the squealing.

 

thanks for the suggestions! i will give them a shot and report back

 

Garynjr, hey man your 8 should definetly not be doing any diving, you should go raise some hell at the place you got them done at.

 

I'm not sure if I agree with this whole 'heating the brakes will make them stop squealing' theory.
Mine is late '05 build that squeaks under light braking in the morning and then sqeals like CRAZY after some agressive driving. Check out the Malibu Cruise thread in the West Section to see what I mean by 'agressive' driving.
After about 20 minutes of tearing up those canyons, the brakes squeal non-stop! It's driving me absolutely insane. (btw, my car only has 6,000 miles on it)

I think I'm going to go to a different dealership to see if they'll replace them for me...

Unforutunately, it just seems to be a part of this car. I have heard of very very few forum members whose brakes do not squeal.

 

Do a search on bedding brakes. It sounds like they simply need to be bedded properly. This is especially important for high performance pads. Wreckless' instructions aren't quite the right way to do this (though it may work well enough on some pads).

Jedi - it sounds like you've got the same problem. Though yours may have passed beyond what a simple re-bedding can cure. I'd take it to the dealer and see what they say - you may need your rotors turned.

I was having brake squeal under light braking, and had the dealer perform the TSB. I bedded the brakes properly after that and haven't heard a peep since.

 

Asmoran,
You think I need to have them turned after only having my car for a few months? I don't care about the cost, just wondering if it's necessary so soon.

I'll check out that bedding brakes thread...

 

Yeah, bedding might take care of the problem too. The whole theory I got from doing the 50-0-50-0-50-0 was from a column in road&track (or Car and Driver can't remember which one) where a guy wrote in about is McLarenSLR brakes squealing, and thats what R&D (or C&D) told him to do. So my friend tried it out with his Porsche and it worked, but like Asmoran said, maybe it only works on certain pads.

 

i noticed this post is more recent than the other brake squeal posts so i wanna ask
does anyone know if mazda will still replace rotars and pads even if the vins are past the specified vins seen on the Service Bulletins?
any one with an 05 past above vin JM1FE******145826 get them replaced??

 

sunofabitch! the brake squeal is back with a vengeance. i was driving pretty much the whole day yesterday and it squealed pretty much the whole day.

i bedded it a couple of days ago - i only got up to about 80 km/h and then 70 km/h - which solved the problem for that night only.

i've tried to see if one rotor is hotter than the other - but it's hard to tell with just putting your hand up close to it.

how often can the rotors be resurfaced without premature replacement?

Thanks.

 

My Brakes squeal like hell too. Its so annoying that I was about to trash my beloved 8 into huson river.

I havent heard of bedding it. Maybe I will give it a try in an hour or 2.

and will post follow up in here.

 

Well, it's strange that you're having such a severe problem after only a few months, but if your brakes failed to bed they could very well have made some very uneven deposits. You could try the bedding procedure and see if it smooths them out - as long as you do it safely (ie, not on the highway) I don't see any reason not to try it.

edit: Actually, I just went back and re-read your post. Check the brake squeal TSB (on Rosenthal's site at http://www.finishlineperformance.com...6-04-1369b.pdf) and see if you fall within the vin range (you may not if you just got a new car).

Other than that I can only suggest you "heat up" your brakes, then take a mazda tech for a ride so they can hear first hand what you're talking about.

 

still squeal even after I brake that sucker @ 50~ mph like 5 times.

So ... I think it has something to do with the material that they use ...

I think I should change it to Mazdaspeed ones or Endless ....

 

You can have the front pads switched to the new pads under waranty... Seems to have worked so far for me...

 

The problem is that, I already "Switched" to the new pads about a month right after I brought my 8 ... and it squeak again I think a month after ... till now.

I mean I can bed it a few times a day, to try to get rid of the noise for a few hours. but I think thats going to hurt my tires even more .. and My Proxes 4 cost alot.

So ....

Im just going to change it to Mazdaspeed, or Endless. and I think I will trust Endless more even tho it cost the double as Mazdaspeed ones ...