E36 Squeal

[kevin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Kevin Lee)]

Brandon,

Duane was nice enough to help me out also a couple of months a go with the
same question.  My brakes were sounded worse than a poorley maintained
logging truck.  I tried the goop, more goop, different goop, and blue goop.
 I tried using the old shims.  Could not find the teflon ones Duane had
suggested, so I tried champhering the leading and trailing edges of the
pads at about a 23 degree angle.  Again no luck.  

The problem on my '94 318ic was that the original factory pads were
slightly smaller than the new pads that replaced them.  The rotors all had
a slight lip on the outer edges where the slightly smaller factory pads had
not worn the rotors.  The replacement pads had more surface area and
actually touched this lip on the outer part of the rotor.  I had the rotors
resurfaced, which removed the lip and the squeal.  When I compared the
factory original pads to the ones I purchased from the dealer the new ones
had slightly more pad area for some reason.  YMMV

Kevin Lee
94 BMW 318ic 
90 Honda Accord, spends weekends on jack stands
74 Ford F100, hauls parts for the honda

>Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1999 10:17:26 -0500
>From: Duane Collie <drcollie@domain.elided>
>Subject: Brake Squeal
>
>>From: Brandon Ong <ong2jr@domain.elided>
>>Subject: E36 Brake Squeak
>>
>>        About 3000km ago, I got the front brake rotors and brake pads of my
>>95' 320i Cabrio replaced by the BMW dealership.  Since then, the front
>>brakes have been squeaking.  Sounds terribly annoying.  Brought it back to
>>the dealership to rectify the problem, they told me it may take up to 5000
>>km to run-in the new brake rotors. 
>
>Brandon,
>
>They are shoveling this crap at you in spades.  5,000 km to 'break in the
>rotors'? Gimme a braak <pun intended>. They are 'stonewalling' you hoping
>you'll simply go away.
>
>Brake squeal is caused by one thing and one thing only.  The pads
>themselves are vibrating within the caliper brackets when you apply the
>brakes.  This is a very common occurence and the # 1 cause of returns for
>brake jobs.
>
>There are several ways to cure this.  First off, most BMW pads come with
>anti-rattle/squeal shims that are attached to the backside of the pad.  Did
>your dealer use OEM parts or aftermarket pads?  It the latter, you can
>either goop a bit of anti-squeal on the back of the outboard pad (requires
>removing the caliper) or have the mechanics put a champer on the leading
>and trailing edges of the pads.  There are also some teflon pads on the
>aftermarket that you can install on the backside of pads.
>
>Don't live with the squeal...make 'em fix it.
>
>Duane Collie
>BFKAB

------------------------------