Excessive brake dust and squeaking from Hawk HPS pads?

[FiveLeeter918]

Hey guys. I bought a set of Hawk HPS pads last month to start breaking in for when I do some autocross this year. Also did Russell SS lines at the same time. I decided on the HPS pads because they were supposed to be quiet and low brake dust while still giving a good bite and good on both the track and the street.

Did the install about a month ago, and I must say, the brake dust is overly excessive. I wash my car every Saturday, and by the time I wash again the front wheels are almost Gunmetal instead of the silver they should be. Also, the squeal is unbearable, and starts at about 1/4 pressure and continues until I come to a complete stop. Makes drive-thrus a lot of fun.

I did the proper break-in procedure according to the box, and they were quiet for a few days, then got worse. I have found that when I wash them, a TON of brake dust pours out from between the pads and the rotor, and then the brakes will be whisper quiet again for a few days.

I like the response from the pads, but don't want to have to swap back to stock for daily use.

Any tips to quiet them down? I bought some of the CRC Anti-Squeal lubricant (a clear squeeze bottle with a red gel inside), but haven't installed it yet.

 

[Derek@Lethal]

Did you install new rotors or have your current ones resurfaced with the new pad install? I've used HPS on a couple of cars and they have always been quiet and relatively clean. I always started with new rotors.

On my daily beater, once I just did a pad slap with some of the premium Napa pads and they made a ton of noise. I removed them, cleaned them and had the rotors resurfaced several months later and they have been quiet until now since it's time for a change.

 

[FiveLeeter918]

ah, that could be the issue. I'm doing my hyrdobushing replacement this weekend, so might be a good time to have the rotors resurfaced while it's all apart.

 

[5.Bro]

I have had HPS for about a year, they are pretty quiet and give off little dust.

 

[dirtyd88]

I thought the HPS+ were the ones that had these problems?...

 

[Budwise]

When you change pad compounds you need to at least do a light surface sand of the rotors to help A) Get the old compound off and B) rough it up a little so you can go do a brake in of the new ones and transfer some of that new compound onto the fresh sanded rotors.

Its ok, just pull your wheels off, takes some sand paper and spin the rotor around and try and scratch up and scuff the mirror finish off and reveal some of the fresh rotor material. Then take it back out and reset your brakes again with some 0-60mph runs and then hard brake for 5-6 times in a row until you can smell the brakes cookin. Then get off the brakes entirely for 5-10 minutes and just drive and let them cool. Then when you park do not use the parking/Ebrake, just put it in gear and let them finish cooling.

 

[FiveLeeter918]

what grit? My buddy works at O'Reillys and said he would turn them for free, it's just the time of taking them off and getting them to him then waiting...

 

[86merc]

Did you use compound between the pad and shim as well as between the shim and pistons? Most times I have seen where people had noise was taken care of when doing this. With every thing clean and compound installed I have no issues with noise. After thousands of miles of washes and rain I get some noise. I take them apart, clean them and install new compound. They are quiet again. I use Permatex 24125 Ceramic Extreme Brake Parts Lubricant. The say it is good to 1,800 degrees F. There are several on the market. You can usually get the Brembo stuff from a GM dealer.

I have HP pads and they are better on dust than the stock Brembo pads. But still dust pretty good. A ceramic pad will have much less dust. I plan to run a D10 or D70 and specific rotors for the track only. Then switch to a cheap ceramic pad & rotors for street use. I am not hard on my brakes on the street. So this combo works fine and has little dust. And the more aggressive pads will be more helpful on the track and have a higher temp range.