[RichardSwe]

I have a 2014 F30 335i with M Performance brakes (blue calipers). It has just under 30,000 miles on it.

I have tried several times to fix a persistent brake squeal that started at roughly 20,000 miles. I took it in for service twice, looking for a warranty repair. The dealer said that the squeal cannot be stopped; it's due to the BMW brake pads and it's a common complaint. They said they would not assemble with CRC Disc Brake Quiet. They basically said to learn to live with the squeal. I did try to make the point that BMW engineering could solve this if they chose to. They didn't buy my story. So there is no warranty service to fix this, per the dealer.

Well, that's not acceptable to me.

Being a DIYer, I have twice coated the back of the brake pads with CRC Disc Brake Quiet. I had done this once years ago on an Audi TT with brake squeal; it worked great. It seems to cure slowly to a rubbery consistency. The first time I may have been quick in reassembling the brakes, not allowing enough curing before assembly. So, when the squeal came back quickly I redid the job with a longer cure time per the instructions before reassembling. Still squeaked.

I just changed the brake pads to PosiQuiet ceramic pads; most recommendations say this will fix or greatly reduce the squeal as well as almost eliminate brake dust (good thing). The manufacturer, Centric, says they do not require break in but I did some high speed braking anyway over several days. The squeal went away for maybe a week but now is back as much as ever if not more.

When replacing the pads I did not change the rotors; they looked OK to me. Almost no "lip" from wear; no grooving. I did not measure the rotor thickness though. I've read that brake pads build a film on the rotor, but that seems bogus to me. No film apparent. Squeal continues.

Now with the squeal persisting, I am wondering if there is something else to be done. I am out of ideas. Would changing the rotors possibly help? I'm thinking my only option now is to take it to a brake shop and asking them to change to rotors and to work some magic to stop the squeal.

Help!! Please.

Thanks.

[RichardSwe]

bump

[silvrbreez]

I'm having the same issue on my 2015 F30 335i. I too have just over 20k on the car. The squealing isn't limited to cold starts and seems to occur off an on while driving. I hear it when I brake moderately creeping to red lights or stop signs. I've got an appointment with the dealer on Friday to see what they say about the issue. I'll keep you posted.

[wdeerfield]

This is very common with our cars. i too have it coming to a stop slowly at a light while pressing the brakes lightly. If i press them hard, no noise at all. Try doing a few hard stops on the pads to transfer some brake material to the rotors and help clean off the rotor surface some too. That seems to help for a week or two for me. dealer couldnt do anything for me. sounds like a school bus coming to a stop all the time and then a faint squeal leaving the intersection too.

[torkles]

i have the same problem. i hate it. it's so annoying to be driving such a nice car and then pull up to a stop light sounding like you can't pass a safety inspection. or worse, have clients in the car, or even worse a woman, and have to explain that no, the car is perfectly safe but blah blah.

i think the only solution is change the pads. i thought about getting some anti-squeal from the parts store and applying it to the backside of the stock pads, but at that point i might as well just put new pads on.

edit:
i'm surprised switching to full ceramic pads didn't stop the squeal. that's very demoralizing.

[silvrbreez]

@wdeerfield I'm not hearing the squeal continue once I lift off the brake. I'll keep an ear out for that.

@RichardSwe I was considering swapping to Posi-Quiet if the dealer gives me the run around, but I know you said your squealing came back after a week or two. Not sure if a complete rotor/pad swap would get rid of it, but you'd like to think it should. Right?

[thisismikeyb]

How cold is it outside? I switched to StopTech this summer and the squealing started when the temperature dropped to around 45 and the brakes are still cold/damp. Once they are warmed up it goes away, but if they cool down to much it will return. Stock brakes did squeal, but at a much lower temperature.

[RichardSwe]

I looking into the rotors question a bit more. Nothing indicates that the rotors themselves are part of the problem. There is no warping. I measured the thickness with a micrometer; there is plenty of disc left, well above the minimum thickness. The grooving looks very minor and comparable to photos I found online searching for normal rotor appearance.

Reading more, most everything seems to point to trying aggressively bedding the new brake pads. So, although I had done this some, maybe 4 "brakings", I went out and did it aggressively. If you search you'll find recommended bedding procedures, basically warm up the brakes with a series of moderate brakings, followed by aggressive braking from 60 mph to 15 mph, repeating about eight times. Smelling over heated brakes is OK (actually confirms you're on the right path) and brake fade is OK. Then drive a while to cool off. Avoid stopping while the discs/pads are still very hot, so there is not a spotty transfer of pad material.

I took before and after photos of the discs and I definitely can see a bit of grey "coating" on the discs that was not there before (I think). The grooving seems to look lessened. There is also possibly some blueing from high temperature. All this is what's recommended to look for for successful bedding.

So I've done this. Coming back home there were no squeals.

I'll report back. I'll be listening for any new squealing and, if it's OK for now, to see if the squeal eventually comes back.


[Temperature - mid 50s today. The squealing was happening in warm weather also. Colder temperatures probably caused a bit more, but the brakes quickly will warm up so air temperature isn't a factor, I think.]

[jthoms1]

I picked up a CPO car with 66k on it a month ago. Brakes squealed in a similar fashion. Took it back to the dealer. They diagnosed that the rotors needed to be turned. They did the front but had to replace the rear rotors and pads. Problem solved... no more squeal.

[silvrbreez]

@RichardSwe Keep me posted on how the bedding works out for you. I may try this myself as well.

My visit to the dealer Friday was unfruitful. They said that some squealing is normal for the M Sport brakes but they also acknowledged that mine is excessive.

They did not try applying grease behind the pads or any other service...YET. My service rep is working with their “Zone Rep”, the regional service director, to determine the best path forward for me. I will mention the rotors and turning that @jthoms1 mentioned to see if that should be considered, but I’d hope not with less than 25k on the car.

Thought I’d mention that the service rep said that someone had recently brought in an M4 with the Competition Pack and carbon ceramic brakes complaining of squeal. Those obviously will make some noise, but he said the noise coming from my M Sport brakes was much worse.

[Broker2009]

I joined this forum b/c of the brake squeal on my 2014 435i with 370mm front discs and the blue brembo calipers (sport brake package). Rotors turned--rears were warped badly. O'Reilly was slow as molasses in turning fronts and I stood in their store until they hurriedly turned the fronts and gave them to me at no charge just to get me out the door. So I don't know how bad they were or still are. Threw on OE Performance pads from R1 Concepts and they squealed like a stuck pig. After examination, the counter weights at the top of the R1 pads are larger than Brembo's OE pads and I believe that they were rubbing on the retaining clip and harmonizing. Pulled OE pads out of garbage and reinstalled (still 1/4" pad left) and screaming has been replaced by mild whimper when coming to stop. Thought maybe the pins and retainer clip should be replaced--went to bmw parts dept who wanted $20 per pin and clip so $120 for front brake hardware. Autozone says $15 for fronts so ordered online.

Going to bite bullet and replace front rotors, front hardware and pads with OEM unless someone on this site says there is a better way. I've had the front rotors off 3 times now, swapping left to right, swapping pads, greasing hardware. Real PITA. upside is that I can now change out a rotor in less than 15 minutes so I've got that going for me...

[Broker2009]

BTW tried CDC Brake Quiet and caliper pistons just rub it off. Did the two coat thing, let them dry in the sun for an hour. Dealer is right on this one... it doesn't work.

[wheen]

If it makes you guys feel any better, my non msport brakes (grey; you know, the supposedly quieter and cleaner at expense of less thermal management) also squeal in temperatures below 40. And I’m only at 12k miles.

[FaRKle!]

I'm also in the Bay Area, and my M-Sport brakes started squealing when it got cold (Nov). I bought some EBC Redstuff pads that I'll throw on first week in Jan after a track day. The EBC pads have a very abrasive top coating that I think is supposed to help remove prior pad material, and then after that's worn down (in about 100-200mi of normal driving), then you're supposed to do the bed in.

I'll see how well that does, but at least it should be WAY less dusty!

[Orion4]

Did you also clean and lubricate the guide pins and expansion springs with hi-temp brake grease such as Permatex Ultra Disc brake caliper lube. Those are often the source of the squeal, especially at low speeds. The edge of the pad backing plates slide against the expansion springs and the caliper slides on the pins as it centers on the rotors. There is a lot of pressure on these points and if not clean and lubed -may well squeal. Good luck.

[oceanview]

RichardSwe
I used the Liqui Moly Brake Anti-Squeal Paste and applied it to all contact points as shown on the video you find on this page.
https://products.liqui-moly.com/brak...l-paste-3.html

As M Performance caliper is a fix caliper, naturally the contacting surface of the brake pads are also the upper and lower edges of the pad where they slide into the caliper.
Make sure to first clean contacting surface of the pads and the caliper housing from brake dust.

Also apply correctly. The paste needs to dry a few minutes before putting the pad back into the caliper (but that's clearly described in the instructions of the paste)

[juld0zer]

After one set of pads the rotors will likely have a lip on the inner edge more so than the outer edge. These brakes for some reason wear the inner edge more. Any mileage over 30k km will almost always produce a lip. This is one cause of the noise, particularly for those who have changed pads and still have the noise. The new square edges on the pads ride on the curved lip, creating noise. The solution is to always chamfer the long edges of a new pad if fitting to non-new or non-turned/machined discs.

Check the disc surface on both sides for signs of sand entrapment - ie, scored rings in the friction surface

Lube the short edges of the pad backing plate, lube the piston contact area.

Clean the caliper thoroughly with brake cleaner and a rag.

Check the pads for loose damper weights.

Roughen up the pad friction surface using strong abrasive pad and check also for debris entrapped in the pad.

Avoid using high pressure cleaning equipment and chemicals on your wheels. Use normal car detergent and some time and muscle instead.

Do not wash the wheels until a week after you have done any work to remedy the noise.

Torque the wheels in a star pattern. Nip the bolts up with the car still raised, then tighten with a torque wrench with the car on the ground.

[silvrbreez]

Just thought I'd share an update on my trial with BMW on this issue. Below is a copy/paste of the response I received from my local dealership service rep...

Okay, after consulting with BMW about your brake issue; BMW has agreed that they're aware of the brake noise issue. However, there is no repair that could be made to correct the noise concern. "The Motorsport brake calipers and pads are performance driven, and noise concerns are normal characteristics of the braking system." That was the exact response from BMW.

I've reached out to them and tried to clarify that the issue is not noise when performance driving but when approaching a stop at speeds around 20mph or less. The local dealership service rep and his manager have agreed to go for a ride with me and hear the noise. I'm hoping that they acknowledge that the squealing is excessive and at least try to do something. So far they haven't even proposed anything.

I find it interesting that BMW acknowledges a concern of noise but doesn't propose a way to remedy it and just considers the noise concern normal. If it were normal, why would you call it a concern?

UPDATE: I went for a ride with the service manager and master tech at my local dealership. The master tech said the noise I'm hearing at slow speed braking is common with the Brembo M-Sport and M Performance brake upgrades. He went on to say that it is common with factory Brembo performance brake package from other makes as well such as some of the OEM kits on Mustangs, Mopar, etc. Sounds a bit bogus to me, but I'm going to continue my research. They offered to "sand the pads down" in an attempt to get rid of the groove that he said develops along the edges of the pads. The tech said this might resolve the noise for a little while but assured me it'd be back, and I opted not to go this route for now. They inspected the rotors again and said everything looks good there. I'm a bit at a loss and think I'm just going to have to deal with this indefinitely.

[FaRKle!]

Originally Posted by silvrbreez

UPDATE: I went for a ride with the service manager and master tech at my local dealership. The master tech said the noise I'm hearing at slow speed braking is common with the Brembo M-Sport and M Performance brake upgrades. He went on to say that it is common with factory Brembo performance brake package from other makes as well such as some of the OEM kits on Mustangs, Mopar, etc. Sounds a bit bogus to me, but I'm going to continue my research.

It's real.

Squeal from performance pads is common. Sometimes it goes away once the pads are heated up.

[silvrbreez]

I’ve had performance pads before. These squeal hot or cold at show stops.

By the way, my kids love to play Farkle.

[BillyTheBimmer]

Bought a CPO 2013 328i xdrive approx 44k early December 2017, with aftermarket brakes not changed proor, but were pratically new; one week later noticed squealing while braking at slow speeds. Happened especially with foot pressed about 50-70%. There was one point it was so bad i took a video and upon lifting foot of brake to roll through a light, it squealed and scraped until i sped up and hit the brakes hard. After that i compensated the squealing by either braking last minute, or throttle control. Only went away when brakes were wet with rain or moisture. Happened even after driving for long period.

Wrote an email last week to the dealer after worries about brakes giving me buyers remorse and went in the other day for them to check it out. Service explained they’d speak to their bosses; I showed the video to the SA and they took it in without needing to test drive.

Great news as despite the car being sold with a note saying ‘aftermarket brakes intalled, oem parts recommended replaced - request denied’, they stepped up and replaced the front brakes completely with sales taking the cost Repair Kit, Sensor, Disc, and Paste). Was extremely happy with their actions and service.

Diagnosed that the brakes were glazed.

[BMW in NE]

Same here.. they squeal in the mornings backing out of the garage. BMW says it's normal. I actually had a separate brake issue (warped rotors) and they ended up turning all 4 rotors and replacing the pads. It still squeaks when I back out of the garage.