Squealing Mintex

Lee S

Lee S

Member
Hi All.

I had my brakes overhauled about 4 weeks ago now to Mintex discs/pads up front and Mintex shoes on the rear and they have settled down nicely and have quite good bite and stopping power, however..... They are terribly noisy. Is this normal?

They squeal like pigs for the first mile or so in the morning and when I leave work in the evening. In other words if they have been stood for a few hours. I think the noise is coming from the front. They also squeal after a prolonged brake even when they have "warmed up". If I am braking from say 70mph coming off a motorway sliproad, then by the time I am at 40mph ish, they are squealing as I come to a standstill. I wouldn't call it excessive braking either. Just normal road driving. Certainly not race/track style braking.

The OEM Audi discs/pads were never this noisy.

Is any of this normal? Have they been installed incorrectly or is there a problem with any of the components? In the "old days" if my brakes squealed it was a sign of either glazing or poor quality pads. Sometimes a touch of copper slip on the back of the pads would work. Is this still right?

Any other Mintex users out there had the same problem? It is really getting on my nerves now and I don't think it should be this noisy after 1200 miles use and 200 miles careful bedding in..... Should it?

Cheers,

Lee
 
You are right about the Coppaslip, but the Mintex set up shouldn't squeal in the first place - I've used their 'Brake Box' kits for many years and on many cars with no problems at all.

Take the car back for a check up if possible and take it from there - there's little point in stripping the calipers down to put anti-squeal paste in, if it's something else (it's not uncommon for A2 pads to be installed incorrectly, always on the drivers side!).

Cheers,

Mike
 
Skipton01 said:
it's not uncommon for A2 pads to be installed incorrectly, always on the drivers side!
Click to expand...
What do you mean Mike? Upside down, inside out, wrong way round? How can they be installed "incorrectly"?

I am having her Stealth'd on Monday and Vince is meant to be giving the whole car a good going over and changing the brake fluid and 4 wheel alignment so I will tell him to look at the pads specifically.

Now you mention it, it probably IS coming from the driver's side.

Yet ANOTHER thing the local wrench monkeys got wrong when they fitted the suspension and brakes then.... I won't be going back there in a hurry. :mad:

Cheers Mike
 
It's easy to get the inside pad on the outside and vice versa. They look pretty similar, but the retaining clips are longer and slightly different shaped on the piston side pad.

On the passenger side, there is a brake wear cable to make mix up nigh on impossible!

Cheers,

Mike
 
Wicked Mike !!

I will tell Vince what has happened and what you said and see if he can find anything wrong with them.

Would this incorrect fitment have caused any permanent damage to anything?

Many, many thanks for the info.

Regards,

Lee
 
No damage Lee - it's just that the pads have probably glazed over from not being withdrawn from the disc properly, if they are the wrong way round.

You can check this yourself you know - rotate the wheel so that you can get your fingers on the caliper and feel for any protrusion on the spring clips beyond the caliper - there shouldn't be any!

Cheers,

Mike
 
Hi Mike.

Checked the pads in the calipers and both sides look to be the same. The upper and lower spring clips are located in the ridges of the caliper and the central spring clip does protrude more than them, but not past the edge of the caliper. Just below. It all looks OK to me, but then again I can't see what the clips are like on the piston side pad. Maybe the clips would be slightly shorter. IMHO though it doesn't look wrong, but it could be.

Could it be the rear shoes that have not been assembled correctly? It's hard to hear if its coming from the back or front when youre trying to drive. I pulled the handbrake up as I was driving along to try and engage just the rear shoes, and it was braking with no noise, so I don't think it's the rears. Could be under more pressure from the wheel cylinder though maybe?

It seems to be getting worse too. Louder for longer each time. I think they need stripping down and re-building. The wrench monkeys have also bent the front disc backing plate so that was scraping on the disc around right hand bends. I have sorted that out, but I bet it has taken all the paint of the plate and it will now rust over a year or two. Why are alleged "professionals" so incompetent. :confused:
 
Lee is there any 'stickers' on the back of the pads? if so scrub these off to get good clean side, clean the contact parts on the calipers, and put some copper ease on the back of the pads and slap em in. Jobs a goodun.


Cheers
SARGE
 
I might be wrong (as its been over a year since I fitted new discs/pads to my A2), but I'm sure the inner piston side front pads are ever so slightly thinner than the outer carrier pads. Your local garage may have fitted both thin pads to one side, and both thick pads to the other?
:confused:
 
Thanks for the info guys.

It seems worse when it is wet or damp in the mornings for some reason. Ah well. I have the car going in for the "works" on Tuesday with Stealth, so Vince said he would sort out the brake squeal problem too.

Thanks for all the help.

Lee
 
Presume you park with the hand brake on? If it's worse in damp mornings and it goes away as you pull the hand brake on whilst driving, this to me sounds like the rear drums. I get this too and is fairly common with drum brakes.
 
I have tried this early on Dan, to try and isolate the noise. I am pretty sure it's coming from the front. I will give that another try though. Cheers.

Lee
 
No. It's not coming from the back. There is a slight groaning noise if I apply the handbrake whilst in motion, but this squealing is deffo coming from OSF wheel. Stealth tomorrow anyway, so hopefully it should be sorted. :D
 
Problem solved !! Vince at Stealth stripped them all down yesterday and it turns out the IDIOTS at the first garage that fitted them initially, cross threaded one of the slider pins and it was on an angle. Vince has re-cut the thread, fitted it all together properly with a dab of coppaslip and now it is nice and quiet and brakes like never before - good job after the re-map too!! ;)
 
Excellent news! Good job the thread was re-cuttable too, as otherwise, you'd be looking at over £200 for a new steering knuckle and wheel bearing - the slider pins screw directly into the knuckle and as the bearing isn't swappable from one housing to another, you'd need a new one of those too!

Stealth are good blokes and I can't speak highly enough of them.

Cheers,

Mike
 
They were great Mike. I too, can't praise them enough. They sorted out numerous problems with my car yesterday that weren't even of their doing, and didn't even charge me for it. I was spending a fair bit with them, but the service, attitude and friendliness was second to none. Top company and great guys.
 
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