2021 C8 HTC and I had the dealer put new rotors and pads on earlier this year for the terrible squeaking noise.

They said I needed brakes and rotors so after 1800 dollars later I had new brakes and rotors, today 6 months and around 2500 miles later the mother f'ers are squeaking again? Daily driven no track miles!
Dealer said they probably need more grease on the pads but that cost would be on me?
There was a bulletin on this for the Dealers to fix but my car is past it's warranty being a 2021 with 27,000 miles.

So aggravating about to put it on graigslist

 

Not being critical but perhaps you should have done a deep search here & Google before you let the dealer get deep into your pocket for a service that no way should have been necessary. Your brakes under those miles could not have been toast unless you ride the brakes with your foot or track the car. I saw you don’t track is why I threw that in. I am sorry for them treating you like that but we all need to know a bit more about our vehicles to suspect when we are being taken advantage of. 🍻

 

I’ve not tried this stuff but some folks swear by it. Might find it to be at least worth a try/the $35 investment if it returns the joy…. Amazon link might not work, if not it’s called Wurth SBS Brake Treatment
https://a.co/d/9zjS6Th

 

I'm one of many that report brake squeal. I bought my '20 Z51 (makes a difference as it has different rotors and pad material) about two years ago with 8000 miles on it. Always squealed backing out of the garage, just the rear drivers side. I decided to get Power Stop Extreme pads to stop the horrendous brake dust and hopefully stop the squeal. Got them in the classifieds on this forum cheap. When I took the pads out of the drivers wheel it had a crazy amount of lube on it, obviously it had bothered someone before. The rotors look like brand new, in fact they still do. Put them on with ceramic grease at about 11000 miles. Worked great for about 8 months and 3000 miles, maybe a little less and it came back. Took the wheel and pads out, cleaned though roughly, relubbed and reinstalled. After one drive it was back. Only backing down my driveway. Just the driver rear...

I agree about it's enough to sell the car.

 

The Z51 has performance, track ready, brakes. Squealing is normal with performance, track ready, brakes. Squealing should not be normal for SR non-Z51 brakes.

 

Some on this forum have said the squealing while backing out of the driveway is the parking brake. I have this problem.

 

As another echo, the brakes that comes on these cars are designed for performance, not to be quite like a normal car. There is nothing wrong and just replacing them with something equal will squeak again. The best way to get a good heat cycle in them every so often and it'll go away for a while. Just daily driving around town usually isn't enough. When mine start to squeak I just hit a back road one day and do some hard braking works every time.

 

I had my wife put her face into the wheel well and she was 100% it was the main caliper.

 

I’ve tried believe me…

 

Add me to the list. My 23 non-z51 squealed loudly backing out of the driveway and maybe the first forward stop (end of our rear alley). Then they were silent the rest of the ride. Very frustrating but brakes were fine and I got used to it.

 

A ‘20 Z51 3lt with 24,000 miles. Never squeaked but a lot of brake dust.

At 22,500 replaced the pads with Hawk ceramic. No squeaking and Minimal brake fust!!!!.

 

The solution for performance pads is to take the car out every 3 months or so and do 5 hard (not into the ABS) stops from 60-20 MPH and then 4-5 hard stops from 80-30 MPH and then drive using little or no brakes to cool them down for about 10 minutes. That eliminates any uneven pad buildup on the rotor (which causes pulsing) and evenly coats the rotors with pad material.

 

That is the key can't baby performance brakes and pads. At least occasionally need to apply brakes aggressively. This is my experience and WHY They Squeal. Now to define, most squeal is with light brake pressure at slow speed. If they only squeal backing up probably a different issue causing vibration, why worry!

I had the original OEM Brembo pads on my 2014 C7 Z51 for ~6 months. Broke the brakes in as suggested very easy on brakes for the first 500 to 600 miles. At about 1000 miles they started to squeal like a stuck pig at slow speed with low brake force. Dealers may pull the pads and put a small amount of lub on the pads steel sides, GM will usually pay them to do that on warranty. It's Band-Aid that will help for a while but many report it returns. GM won't pay them to stop the cause (there are some safe driving issues) that is on you, by bedding the brakes!

• What is causing the low speed modest brake pressure squeal? Vibration.
• What is causing the vibration? Uneven pad material on the rotors. That causes a skip/slip friction and vibration.
• Bedding (GM calls burnishing) is recommended for Tracking and you can read the procedure in the Owner's Manual under Tracking.
• BUT all pads need to get and MAINTAIN a uniform pad layer on the rotors. Its microscopic but it's that thin layer of pad material on the iron rotor that provides the highest friction with the pad. It's NOT pad on iron (or if CCB's the carbon ceramic rotor.)

What I did:
Don't need to apply the brakes aggressively the 20+ times outlined for Tracking. Not easy to find a place to do 20+ aggressive brake applications from 60 mph to 10 to 15 mph without ever stopping and allowing about 1 minute brake cooling between brake applications. And ~10 minutes after also never stopping. the whole time (because it would damage the uniform pad material you just created on the rotor before it had time to fully bond to the cooled rotor.)

• For street driving, I find 5 to 7 are enough aggressive braking cycles from ~60 mph to 10 to 15 mph (~0.8 "g" not activating ABS.)
• Then drive a mile at 60 mph (1 minute) to let the pad residual that transferred cool and start to bond with the iron rotor.
• Then must drive ~10 minutes again "WITHOUT Stopping From The Start of the Procedure" to let the now uniform pad material you created fully bond to the rotor.
• The difficult task is finding a safe place to perform even this shortened procedure than that defined for Z51 OEM pads in the Owner's Manual. Your brakes, street driving, will never reach the high Tracking temps the recommended 20+ consecutive braking cycles creates. A reason GM will not reimburse a Dealer to perform. Your car up to you.

My 2014 C7 Z51 OEM Brembo pads stopped all squealing after the aggressive stop mini bedding. An article re the issue said periodically you must use the brakes aggressively to maintain the uniform layer. Particularly necessary with performance pads on a Z51. I do about every drive for fun, braking from highway speeds prior to a turn.

SIDEBAR
BTW switched my 2014 C7 Z51 to low dust pads after foolishly waiting 6 months. I was cleaning my wheels every few trips to town (~200 miles) or the dust not only looked bad it pitted my black wheels.. Switched to Carbotech Street Only pads with low dust. Also used those pads on mt 2017 Grand Sport and 2020 C8 Z51. Never had a squeal and only washed wheels when I washed the cars.

Some replacement pads suggest bedding when installed. They outline the procedure for their pads. My E-Ray CCB's were terrible braking to about 200 miles. I bedded using a modified suggested bedding (GM burnishing) outlined for Tracking with CCBs. I used 10 aggressive braking from 60 to 10 mph cycles, drove one mile at 60 mph after each and repeated. After drove ~10 miles not using the brakes. It was on a limited access 55 mph rural road. Only slowed the few times required using the downshift paddle. For my street only driving CCB's stop great when warm/hot and good with ambient temp rotors/pads.

 

I installed Ceika big brake kit installed. Larger than stock. Just for reference, the Rohana wheel in front is 20"