My R32 for the past 3 weeks has had terrible issues with the brakes squealing as I come to a halt. Happens most when slowing from 30mph down to a stop in the wet and dry.
As others have said - a common fault at this time of the year - particularly if the roads have been salted. It is basically the brake pads seizing in the calipers - due to a variety of reasons. Do you park your car outside, or in a garage? Garage parking can actually make the problem worse. A good tip is to get a pumpy uppy garden sprayer, keep it filled with plain water, and when you get home each evening, let the brakes cool down for ½hour, then spray water all over the discs, pads and calipers - and this should wash the salt away.
The car was in for a service last Thursday and I explained to them the problem at my local dealer. The service guy advised me that the brake pads would be changed if needed.
A "service" is just a visual inspection of the brakes, so no dismantling or cleaning is carried out on them. If you did specifically make it clear that you also wanted them to check out the specific problem, then this would be work charged at an additional cost (but which can be claimed under warranty).
On picking the car up I was told the brake pads were no where near needing changing. On hearing that I asked them well what is causing the squeaking of the brakes when I slow down to a stop. His reply was 'dust'. I assume he meant brake dust.
"Stock" answer which seems to be prevalent by the majority of monkies employed by main stealers these days . . .
Whilst a build up of brake dust
may cause brake squeal - 99% of the time (on non-drilled and non-floating discs), it is caused by the pads seizing in the calipers.
On driving home I thought that this 'dust' would have been cleared as part of the service but the squeaking of brakes is still there! It is now getting to the point that I cant bare it. My car never did it before until about 3 weeks ago. The service has made no difference unless there is something they havent done.
As above, a service alone wont do anything to rectify this specific problem (actually, a service wont rectify ANY problems - because "services" are not "diagnostic" operations). But if you are sure you specifically asked them to investigate "squealing brakes" or similar - then the stealer has failed you.
Can any over you shed some light if you have had this issue with any MK5 golf whether R32 like myself or GTI/ED 30 etc. I was about to phone my service dept back to tell them I still have the problem but wanted some opinions from here first. Any of you any idea of a cause and/or a fix? Thanks.
Are you good with spanners? And don't mind working on your brakes? If so, get hold of some NICKEL based anti-seize compound. Cromwell Industrial Supplies over the counter branches - find them on
www.Cromwell.co.uk - sell some stuff called "Bostic Never-Seez Pure Nickel Special - NSN165" (they may have to order it from their central depot in Wigston). It is about £30 for a 1lb tin, but will last for years. Others have recommended using copper based anti-seize greases, but most are shyte, and will wash off very quickly - not a prob if you live in Dubai, but shyte in Blighty.
Strip your brakes down, clean all the rust, dust and general crud from the pads and calipers - taking particular detail with the "hammer heads" on the pads, the grooves in the calipers where the hammer heads slide. Also clean the inside of the brake piston, and the contact surfaces of the pad back plates. Then smear anti-seize paste on all the metalic sliding parts (the hammer heads & back plates of the pads, the contact face and the inside groove of the piston, and the pad grooves and contact surface of the caliper), and reassemble. As a rule of thumb, for each individual caliper, between one and two "pea-sizes" of anti-seize paste should suffice - any less, and it is likley not to be effective - and any more, and it will just get wasted.
Do NOT use any petroleum based grease or oils (copper grease, nickel grease, lithium grease, WD-40, etc) on ANY rubber components - particularly the caliper piston rubber dust seal, or the caliper rubber bushes for the slide pins. You must only use a generic silicone grease (Rocol AquaSil - also from Cromwell), or a specific "brake rubberlube" grease (which may be either silicone or a highly refined lithium grease) such as "Delphi/Lockheed Rubberlube". If you use incorrect greases on these areas, the petroleum content attacks the rubber, and causes it to swell, disfigure, and eventually rupture. This can ruin the caliper piston bore (through the ingress of grit), or cause the brakes to bind (where the rubber bushes swell on the sliding pins).
HTH
