RS246.com Forum :: The World's #1 Audi R, S and RS Enthusiast Community

In the past month my cars front brakes have started squeeking.This only happens when i brake very gently for example when in crawling traffic.Does anyone know of a quick fix for this?

Mine has done that since new... ( only 2 months old though).... I was going to ring the dealer tomorrow and have a moan....

I've not had this on the RS4, but with other Audis. Both times its been back to Audi for full brake rebuilds with little effect. After a futile waste of money at the dealership, I went down to Star Performance where they chucked in a £14 set of pads and all was good. Seems that some of the compounds used by Audi aren't the best.

I have not had this with any new Audi's, I have always been sympathetic to the brakes for the first 200 Miles, and there in lies the answer IMO.

i've found that if you get this go and use the brakes hard and this always seems to cure it for me on my B5 disks and calipers and i found bedding the brakes in properly from the start seem to help blued my B7 disks after they were fittted and never had a problem with squeeks yet
see the link
http://www.zeckhausen.com/bedding_in_brakes.htm

You get this a lot usually during colder weather if you drive your car a lot around town and don't do a lot of hard braking at higher speeds also if the car has been sat and the discs oxidise. What happens is all the road grit and grime picked up by your discs collect on your pads when you brake at slow speeds, then with a little bit of heat they cause the pads to start to glaze and reduce friction - when you brake the smooth glaze causes the squeak - like rubbing 2 glazed tiles together. Usually if you drive a car normally then when you brake harder the pads wear away the top surface and the extra heat burns off any residue so you always have "clean pads" which offer good friction and don't squeak. Cars with big disc/pad set ups like RS4's and 911's always suffer this problem more since htere is a bigger pad and disc area for the residue to collect on. I used to drive my S8 round london mostly and the car really suffered from this on a daily basis because i never did much braking beyond 20mph and the discs just never got up to temperature. they took the pads off and showed me them and they were covered with a 1mm glazed residue smooth as glass.

People who dont do a lot of stop start driving or use their brakes more heavily at higher speeds don't tend to experience the problem hence its put down to faulty brakes which it isn't. A lot of people are a bit reluctant to use their brakes too heavily since they don't want to wear them out, ironically though if you don't do a decent bit of stopping on performance brakes then you reduce your pads efficiency since they are constantly designed to have the top skimmed off to keep their friction.

Harder Race type pads are more prone to squaking under these circumstances since you usually have to get them to a much higehr temperature before they start to wear off so if they glaze its harder to shift, softer pads wear quicker at lower temperature so clean off quicker which is why changing pad compound can often help by matching pads to your style of driving.

Nothing wrong with the RS4 brakes though - ive had the same problem on all my Audi's and also my Porsches and Ferrari.

Thanks guys.I guess I will have to drive a little harder than I normally do.

Hugy,

I have the same issue - you beat me to posting!! My car has been driven hard since new, and does a mix of motorway and town driving. Ive done 12000 miles and my brakes have started squeaking too - but I also have some slight vibration in the steering wheel. I suspect the pads/disks are due for replacement.

Hi reevesroadster,
Unlike you,I have not driven my car very hard so far,I only have 3000 miles on it.I can understand the above reasons for my brakes squeaking.I also had this problem on my previous car a BMW 535d M sport.They would squeek in slow moving traffic but would dissapear when realy givving it some!
Your problems are probably down to wear and tear if you have 12000 on the clock.As a matter of interest have you noticed your car getting faster now your at 12000 miles?I was thinking of getting a revo remap I think they have just released one for the RS4 B7,any thoughts?
See you,
Hugy.

Hugy,

Defo getting quicker - much more noticeable now im over 10K. Was meant to get a remap by Ray West but he cancelled, then i cancelled and havent had chance to re-organise. Havent done much research on remaps, as I know somebody else on the forum whos local to me and recommends the ray west treatment.

hugy wrote:In the past month my cars front brakes have started squeeking.This only happens when i brake very gently for example when in crawling traffic.Does anyone know of a quick fix for this?

Try some ant squeal spray or this ;- http://www.eliseparts.com/shop/index.ph ... cts_id=386