Hi! My breaks on my car squeak and squeal. Usually, it goes away after I drive a few minutes. But, I know it's not good. It has been brought to a shop before, and they said that it was just from dirt (which I figured), and they cleaned them. But, is there something that I can do myself that'll make them hush?
Thank you!

-Trinity

Trinity: You don't say what kind of car you have but I can tell you that most cars built in the past 10 years or so are using a brake pad material that tends to make a lot of noise and many people are very sensitive to it. Disc brakes don't get dirty, as there is no place for dirt to collect; however they are probably the source of your noise. If your vehicle has rear drum type brakes, as many vehicles do, they can collect brake dust inside of the drum that should be cleaned out periodically but in most cases won't cause much if any noise. The squeaking/squealing noise is due to the content of the brake pad material. Most of the newer cars use a high copper content pad material to provide better wet weather performance. This material is processed by sintering. A combination of metals in an almost powdered form is put into a mold and subject very high temperature and pressure which causes the metals to form into a single unit but does allow some porosity. This is another contributing factor to your noise. There are companies that make a material to apply directly to the face of the brake pad to fill some of the voids which will reduce this noise but also bears on the braking performance, not a good compromise. There are aftermarket brake pads that are made of different materials that may also reduce or eliminate your noise, but here again you may sacrifice some braking performance. Not being able to hear you noise too, makes this difficult. It may be a normal noise, or not. I kind of suspect that it is.

Hi! My car is 1998 Dodge Stratus. I've taken it in for this problem before, and they cleaned the breaks, rotated the back ones, and did say something about two different metals making the sound. But, a car's breaks should not squeal..period. I am working on taking it somewhere else, but, my schedule and their schedule don't mix. :P
Thank you for your reply.

-Trinity

Trinity: Be careful with where you take your car. If the last place told you they rotated the rear brakes.... well, I think they are blowing a little smoke at you. There is no such operation as rotating brakes. Perhaps they meant that they switched the left side brake pads to the right side and the rights to the left. If that is what they did they should not have. Pads wear into the face of the brake rotor and form a match to each rotor's irregularities and by switching them they will actually decrease your braking efficiency. By cleaning the front pads they probably deglazed them meaning they just ground the surface glaze from the pads. This will eliminate the noise for a period of time but it will probably come back. I think I mentioned before you may want to try an aftermarket pad to eliminate your noise. Some of these are made from a softer compound and will be quieter, however they will not last as long.

I think the place I took it too is all phoney, too. They also worked on a friend's car, on the air conditioner..The air conditioner didn't work. They made it work, but, it makes a bunch of noise. So, my friend doesn't use it.
I'm not taking it to that place again. I promise. I don't think my friend will go back there, either.
Thank you for your advice.

-Trinity