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I purchased my vette three weeks ago from Carmax. Lately, I've been hearing a lot of squeaking coming from my brakes. I contacted their service department over the weekend, and now have an appointment scheduled for tomorrow morning.
There policy is if you suspect something wrong with your vehicle 30 days from purchasing it, they'll check it out and fix it at no charge.
Given that I bought it from them, I know they did a rigorous inspection to ensure that everythnig was good to go before selling it.
However, I am nervous and wondering if they know how and where to properly lift the vette. Also, a customer service rep, which is a lady told me that they'll probably use compound to fix my squeaky brakes. I thought compound was used to get scratches off a vehicle, .
Most important thing to watch for when lifting a Vette is to insure that the lift pads don't rest on the rocker panels, which will crack. If you don't have time to get jacking pucks that snap into the chassis rail slots, get yourself four hockey pucks at a sporting goods store. Have the mechanic put the pucks at the ends of the lift arms & very carefully raise the lift arms so that the pucks come in contact with the frame rails & not the bottom of the rocker panels. I believe what they meant by "compound" is a bit of high temp grease on the backside of the disc brake pads. The squeal or squeak is usually caused by high frequency oscillation of the pads against the rotors.....the grease damps that oscillation & usually cures the problem. Another thing that works is doing several hard stops from approx. 40 mph (in a safe place). That will help to bed the pads & scrub off any containments that may be the cause of the squeal. Good luck....let us know how you make out.
If they've already inspected it they would've lifted it in the process.
My brakes will squeal too unless I brake hard once in a while, it's almost like they need abuse to stay quiet. Mine is an `08 with 32K miles on original brakes.
I agree with Al. The pre sale inspection would have required them to lift the car already so if you do not have damage now, you should be fine. Carmax sells a lot of Corvettes so hopefully they are on top of those details.
Make sure you tell the service writer your concerns about lift points when you drop off the car. He or she can make a note of it on the work order.
By compound, Dave is probably right. Just brake grease on the back of the pads.
Last edited by HBsurfer; Jun 30, 2014 at 02:07 PM.
Most important thing to watch for when lifting a Vette is to insure that the lift pads don't rest on the rocker panels, which will crack. If you don't have time to get jacking pucks that snap into the chassis rail slots, get yourself four hockey pucks at a sporting goods store. Have the mechanic put the pucks at the ends of the lift arms & very carefully raise the lift arms so that the pucks come in contact with the frame rails & not the bottom of the rocker panels. I believe what they meant by "compound" is a bit of high temp grease on the backside of the disc brake pads. The squeal or squeak is usually caused by high frequency oscillation of the pads against the rotors.....the grease damps that oscillation & usually cures the problem. Another thing that works is doing several hard stops from approx. 40 mph (in a safe place). That will help to bed the pads & scrub off any containments that may be the cause of the squeal. Good luck....let us know how you make out.
Thanks for the helpful information. Now, I have a better idea of what she meant by compound. Would it be funny if I said I have not done a hard stop yet. I thought that's what kills your brakes and rotors, silly me.
I agree with Al. The pre sale inspection would have required them to lift the car already so if you do not have damage now, you should be fine. Carmax sells a lot of Corvettes so hopefully they are on top of those details.
Make sure you tell the service writer your concerns about lift points when you drop off the car. He or she can make a note of it on the work order.
By compound, Dave is probably right. Just brake grease on the back of the pads.
My Sales Rep explained to me that my car is in good hands, and that Carmax sells a variety of vettes, and they don't purchase any vehicle they cannot fix properly.
The thing is I know nothing about the lift points, as I have not read my entire manual yet. I have a 2007 base model.
If they've already inspected it they would've lifted it in the process.
My brakes will squeal too unless I brake hard once in a while, it's almost like they need abuse to stay quiet. Mine is an `08 with 32K miles on original brakes.
As I stated before to the other posters, I did not know I need to abuse my brakes, . I thought that I was doing my car justice by easing on the brakes.
Best thing to do is switch to Creamic brake pads. No more squeak and less dust....I say less cause they still produce dust.
My 07 has 128,000 miles and I am on my 2nd set of Ceramic pads. I had 50k on the first set when I changed them. They still had almost half of the pad left but I was upgrading the rotors so I changed them anyway.
Best thing to do is switch to Creamic brake pads. No more squeak and less dust....I say less cause they still produce dust.
My 07 has 128,000 miles and I am on my 2nd set of Ceramic pads. I had 50k on the first set when I changed them. They still had almost half of the pad left but I was upgrading the rotors so I changed them anyway.
I'm jealous that most of you know how to work on your own cars. My husband does little work on cars, but he's already told me, that is he not touching my vette. Bummer!
Would it be funny if I said I have not done a hard stop yet. I thought that's what kills your brakes and rotors, silly me.
Not funny...fairly common on the forum. Sometimes we talk about racing and going fast but we also spend a considerable amount of time discussing waxes, wheel cleaning, engine accessory colors etc. Do a couple of hard stops from a good speed and likely the squeaking will go away. My '07 brakes have never made any noise at all.
2010 Grand Sport. Some weeks the brakes squeak at every stop sign, some weeks they don't. Agree with others...try some aggressive driving.
Squeaking is the nature of several high performance brakes. I once had a Nissan 350Z which was so bad that it drew attention to itself. People would stare. Yet, there was nothing actually wrong with the brakes or rotors.
Not funny...fairly common on the forum. Sometimes we talk about racing and going fast but we also spend a considerable amount of time discussing waxes, wheel cleaning, engine accessory colors etc. Do a couple of hard stops from a good speed and likely the squeaking will go away. My '07 brakes have never made any noise at all.
Good tip (now I don't want to be wreckless) when taking the car to the shop this evening, but a previous poster said go about 40mph, then brake quickly.
Most likely it is that the stock rear pads are not beveled. You can bevel the ones on there (leading edge) or buy new beveled ones.
Beveled
Not beveled.
If you create the bevel in your current pads: No reason for the trailing edge to be beveled. They do this on new pads for L-R interchangeability.
FWIW I had the same issue. I tried lubing stock pads (took off all four wheels/pad sets and cleaned and lubed them). No change in noise
I bit the bullet and ordered new front and rear AC delco ceramic pads. I changed the front ones first, no visible difference in pads except material (semi metallic vs ceramic). No change in noise. So I pulled the rear ones and thats when I noticed the bevel vs non bevel. New rear pads cured all noise.
Last edited by jedblanks; Jun 30, 2014 at 03:31 PM.
My brakes squeaks but when they're warmed up !?
I don't get it, if the pads are don they ALWAYS squeaks, mine does it after 10-15mins and some hard braking.
Good tip (now I don't want to be wreckless) when taking the car to the shop this evening, but a previous poster said go about 40mph, then brake quickly.
No, you do want to be wreckless, you don't want to be reckless
If they've already inspected it they would've lifted it in the process.
My brakes will squeal too unless I brake hard once in a while, it's almost like they need abuse to stay quiet. Mine is an `08 with 32K miles on original brakes.
Exact same scenario...I installed Hawk ceramic pads - they still squeal a little...
If they've already inspected it they would've lifted it in the process.
My brakes will squeal too unless I brake hard once in a while, it's almost like they need abuse to stay quiet. Mine is an `08 with 32K miles on original brakes.
Squeaky Brakes
.
. I thought that I was doing my car justice by easing on the brakes.
