Spartan7

iTrader: (7)

This is a long post, so bear with me.

I've been chasing a squeak from my rear end ever since I bought my 97 TA. It sounds like the squeak you hear when a mouse runs on a mousewheel. Squeak, squeak, squeak, all freaking day. It increases with vehicle speed, and is very noticeable when I drive next to a wall or something. It goes away as soon as I start stepping on the brake pedal.

The rear end was recently completely rebuilt, but the squeak was there long before that happened. I changed out the pads and rotors for ATE slotted rotors from Sam Strano, and Hawk HPS pads. At first the squeak went away, then slowly returned. I was parting out my old Camaro at the time, so I took the good rear calipers off and put them on the TA. No change.

Well, I think I finally found my problem. The outside pad on the passenger side is very rough and pitted, as is part of the rotor. You can see it in the pics.

Here is the DS and PS outside pads side by side (pass. on left, driver on right) for reference:



You can see the pitting and roughness on the pad (outside PS):



Here is the inside pad (PS on left, DS on right). You can see the inside edge looks similar, but not as bad:



I thought this might be interesting, when I pulled the pads the shims on the back had moved:



Here is the PS rotor. The inside edge looks good...





...but the outside edge is clearly showing signs of wear. It feels very rough compared to the rest of the rotor. I did not feel any grooves with my fingernail, except for that one spot on the inside contact area:





And here is a side view of the PS outside pad. It appears to be wearing unevenly:



This squeak is driving me insane! I want to get it fixed soon, it's so annoying. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

00CaliforniaZ28

iTrader: (11)

I had a similar problem, and mine turned out to be a slightly bent rear axle. You did however say you rebuilt the entire rearend.. were the axles included in that rebuild? I changed pads and rotors and calipers and anything I could think of. I later went to a shop of a friend who looked closer, and said it indeed was a bent axle, and after he swapped that out, its been quiet ever since. Just something to think about, hopefully you get it fixed up!

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

Also check for caliper spread. That can cause uneven wear.

xbcrguy182x

I had the same problem. I put on cheap autozone pads and the squeak was gone. In the meantime, HAWK sent me replacement pads.

Spartan7

iTrader: (7)

No, axles were not replaced. My uncle suggested a bent axle as well, so I'm going to look into that (he rebuilt the rear end).

Since the last post, I had the rotors resurfaced and new pads, and greased the caliper pins. One caliper had the grease completely dry, so I think that was my uneven wear problem. The squeak is now much fainter, but still audible. But I'll check out the axle now, thanks for the help.

Silversurfer97

Did you ever find out what the problem was? You described exactly what happened to my 97 camaro except ive not had rearend rebuilt.

FASTFATBOY

iTrader: (23)

That rarely will cause a squeak like that. Make sure the slide pins are free.

Sounds like a U joint to me.

Brake pad noises change either on or off the pedal.