Car breaks squeaking after new pads/discs fitted

confused.com2

Well just as an update it's been back in to the garage and I've been told it's the brake shoes causing the noise. So it's back in on Saturday to be stripped down and the shoes either cleaned or replaced!

Ibrahim5

You either have drum brakes on the rear with shoes or disc brakes with pads. Do you know what you have as you seem to have changed.

confused.com2

Ibrahim5 said:

You either have drum brakes on the rear with shoes or disc brakes with pads. Do you know what you have as you seem to have changed.

It's funny you say this as fellow customer was stood listening as the mechanic told me this, and he said the car doesn't have shoes! Yet I've looked up parts with my vin number and you can buy shoes so yes it's a bit confusing!

mrmechanic

Ibrahim5 said:

You either have drum brakes on the rear with shoes or disc brakes with pads. Do you know what you have as you seem to have changed.

Or they have rear disc brakes for the service brake with combined internal drum for the parking brake.

confused.com2

mrmechanic said:

Ibrahim5 said:

You either have drum brakes on the rear with shoes or disc brakes with pads. Do you know what you have as you seem to have changed.

Or they have rear disc brakes for the service brake with combined internal drum for the parking brake.

The mechanic did mention the parking brake in his explanation.

Goudy

Some cars of the same model might have drums on the rear and a different spec/engine might have discs on the rear.

For an example, a base spec and engined Fiesta will have drums but the higher spec and some more powerful Fiestas will have discs all around.

It sounds you are suffering from a common rear disc problem, they just don't get the heavy use like the fronts.

Eventually the pads and discs do wear, but by then the calipers, pistons and sliders are all a little rusty as they haven't been apart and cleaned once.

To get the new discs and/or pads on, the piston in the caliper needs winding/pushing back to make room for the thicker discs/pads.

Now the pad lugs are no longer running on the same bit of frame but now run against a rusty bit, the piston that's been hanging out in all weathers for years and is probably pitted is pushed back into the caliper body and the caliper is also now sliding on dry parts of the slider pins that haven't seen any action since it was new, so the brakes jam a little and squeal like a pig.

Hopefully the garage will strip them down, clean and apply appropriate brake grease to the right parts and that should fix it.

If not, it'll need new calipers or a caliper refurb (if they are expensive calipers and a refurb is cheaper).

BOWFER

Goudy said:

Some cars of the same model might have drums on the rear and a different spec/engine might have discs on the rear.

For an example, a base spec and engined Fiesta will have drums but the higher spec and some more powerful Fiestas will have discs all around.

It sounds you are suffering from a common rear disc problem, they just don't get the heavy use like the fronts.

Eventually the pads and discs do wear, but by then the calipers, pistons and sliders are all a little rusty as they haven't been apart and cleaned once.

To get the new discs and/or pads on, the piston in the caliper needs winding/pushing back to make room for the thicker discs/pads.

Now the pad lugs are no longer running on the same bit of frame but now run against a rusty bit, the piston that's been hanging out in all weathers for years and is probably pitted is pushed back into the caliper body and the caliper is also now sliding on dry parts of the slider pins that haven't seen any action since it was new, so the brakes jam a little and squeal like a pig.

Hopefully the garage will strip them down, clean and apply appropriate brake grease to the right parts and that should fix it.

If not, it'll need new calipers or a caliper refurb (if they are expensive calipers and a refurb is cheaper).

Yup, discs on the rear of cars are a total PITA.
More fashion than function, drums would do 99% of people perfectly well.
But people want to see discs through their alloys, but then moan when the calipers seize through lack of use and the rear discs need changing at <30000 miles.

confused.com2

Well I've contacted BMW direct who have confirmed that my model does have shoes. They said the garage should have checked them when they changed the discs and pads as this does happen. 

BOWFER

confused.com2 said:

Well I've contacted BMW direct who have confirmed that my model does have shoes. They said the garage should have checked them when they changed the discs and pads as this does happen. 

I can't get my head around why a garage changing front pads and discs would be expected to check rear shoes.
And I definitely can't get my head around why changing front pads/discs could lead to the rear drums making noise.

confused.com2

BOWFER said:

confused.com2 said:

Well I've contacted BMW direct who have confirmed that my model does have shoes. They said the garage should have checked them when they changed the discs and pads as this does happen. 

I can't get my head around why a garage changing front pads and discs would be expected to check rear shoes.
And I definitely can't get my head around why changing front pads/discs could lead to the rear drums making noise.

It was the rears changed, as mentioned in my opening post! Never mentioned fronts!