To be perfectly blunt, they're doing my head in.
Whenever I brake when I'm going slowish or coming to a stop, the brakes squeak very loud. Normally they'd do this and then stop after a while but they're doing it all the time and I wince every time it happens. I'm 99% certain it's coming from the back, therefore, the drums.
Now I don't want to take it to the garage to look at squeaky brakes so is there anything I can do? Bear in mind that my knowledge of stuff like this is strictly limited to you guys. I can take the wheel off and don't mind getting my hands dirty but that's about it.
Any advice and pointers?
Cheers,
Adam
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And while I'm on the subject, recently the front brakes have been making grinding graunching (more graunching than grinding) noises when braking heavily even from very slow speed.
The pads are literally weeks old so are they glazed? I've tried braking hard from speed to "de glaze" them but it still persists. Any help there too?
Many thanks...again,
Adam
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id say the fronts are glazed, did you put copper slip on the back plate of the pads?? as for the rear are they shoes or pads?? if shoes maybe a load of brake dust in the drum just needs cleaning out and adjusting, if pads the same as fronts!
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Rear Brakes
Needs drums removing and dust carefully removing. Possibly also need to chamfer the leading edge of the linings. An easy job for a DIYer if the car is well supported.
Front Brakes
Are you sure original quality pads were used?Only had this problem from pattern spares.
Maybe the discs are grooved as well which would cause noise.
If brakes are actually squeeking you need to consider anti-squeal shims or a smear of special brake grease on the rear of the pads.
Buy a Haynes manual or help a more knowledgeable friend to do it with you. Enjoy.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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Thanks for the advice.
The rear has shoes rather than pads. I've no idea whether copper grease was used or original Ford parts as I got a good garage to sort it out for me. I doubt Ford parts were used.
Thanks for all the help though - I might check it out over the weekend and pretend I look like I know what I'm on about to the neighbours.
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Just a bit of an update.
I took the back wheels off before to sort the squeaking problem but in the centre of the wheel is a large nut (about an inch across) and I don't have anything to release it with. The closest thing I have are pliers which don't get a good enough grip on it.
There's a very good chance, looking at the state of the drum, that the back shoes haven't been attended to in a long time. It's rusted to Hell and the cap that goes over the centre was stuck on pretty good. (And incredibly dented too)
I won't mess over brakes but the car brakes fine. Needed to do a swift stop the other day in fact and couldn't have been better. Should I worry about this? Should I worry about how rusty the outside of the drum is?
Thanks for any advice,
Adam
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Is it one where you don't split the hub but undo the four bolts on the back and remove whole stub axle complete?;that's what you do on Ka and Fiesta-saves having to reset hub bearings too.Rust on outside of drum is harmless but it will look prettier with a wire brushing and a coat of hammerite.
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I'm not sure jc.
If you take the wheel off (the wheel with teh tyre that is) and look at it, there's a silver dome shaped cap in the middle. If you take that off, there's a large nut in the centre which looks like it holds the whole wheel on.
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On Ka & Fiesta,you can do it either way but if you take that nut off,you need to take the bearings apart and then reset afterwards.The four bolts on the back on a Ka/Fiesta allow you to take drum off with stub axle still attached and is the Ford recommended way.I've never worked on Focus back brakes but I'm sure someone else has.
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