My brakes squeak and I bought some copper grease (Texaco make) in a large 500g pot. Now the pot did not come with any instructions on how to apply the grease.
Is it a case of applying the copper grease to the brake discs? Now something tells me that I should not be applying grease to the friction surface????
Anyone knows where to apply the grease?
Thanks
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Is it a case of applying the copper grease to the brake discs?
Definately not. You apply a very thin smear to the backside of the brake pads that come into contact with the brake caplipers. Under no circumstances apply to the friction surfaces.
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Thanks for the reply. If I apply it to the back of the pads, how is that supposed to help stop the squeal???
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Thanks for the reply. If I apply it to the back of the pads, how is that supposed to help stop the squeal???
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By stopping, or reducing any metal to metal contact between the back of the pad and the piston, and/or damping the vibration of the pad.
Number_Cruncher
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Copper grease on the back of brake pads does reduce the incidence of squeal. An analogy is a violin. The rosin on the bow increases the friction on the string, producing the noise. The disc has the same effect on the pad. If the pad is able to resonate it will. Adding the grease damps out the resonance. You could put a bit of copper grease on a violinist's bow and see if he can still create a squeal. Not that I'd recommend it, the violinist could get violent...
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Do not forget you will have to strip the brakes down to apply the copper slip.
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There are of course other causes of brake squeak, and copper grease isn't a miracle cure.
Other things could be worn pads, worn disks, missing or loose anti-vibration shims, rusted restraining pins and springs, rust or dirt caught in the pad grooves, or between the disk and the caliper, worn wheel bearings, sticking piston causing uneven pressure on the disk, pads sticking at the edges in a rusty caliper.
But you will eliminate those when dismantling to apply the grease.
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Once they've started to squeak they can be very difficult to stop.
Have you just fitted new pads yourself? A set of OEM pads rather than cheapos might stop it.
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I think grease on a bow string would be more analogous to putting grease on the front of a brake pad in both cases the squeal (or note if you are of a musical persuasion)wouldn't get started so no resonance to damp.
I asked if it worked because I have tried it and it seemed to have little if any effect and if any very short lived. Until it work hardened a thin copper shim might work, didn't some systems have an "anti squeal" shim between the pad and the piston?
A friend was told by his garage that he should use his brakes more fiercely to prevent them squealing.
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i usualy find its the part where the pad sits/slides on the carrier thats rusty/dirty that causes noises
wire brush all the rust off and copper grease those areas
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Copper grease on the back of brake pads does reduce the incidence of squeal. An analogy is a violin. The rosin on the bow increases the friction on the string, producing the noise. The disc has the same effect on the pad. If the pad is able to resonate it will. Adding the grease damps out the resonance. You could put a bit of copper grease on a violinist's bow and see if he can still create a squeal. Not that I'd recommend it, the violinist could get violent...
i always thought that the grease took the reasonance to a higher frequency and therefore the human ear couldn"t hear it?
did not someone on here say that dogs can hear most cars and thats why some of them try to bite the wheels as you drive by them or did i drean it ? :)
my 500g tin is now half full and i bought it a month ago,dear BR am i copper grease obsessed?
--
\"a little man in a big world/\"
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>>i always thought that the grease took the reasonance to a higher frequency and therefore the human ear couldn"t hear it?
There are only two (effective!) ways to increase a resonance frequency.
i) Reduce the mass of the vibrating part
ii) Increase the stiffness with which the vibrating part is held
Adding damping does reduce the resonance frequency (but only slightly - it's a really weak effect in practice). The extra damping does reduce the peak vibration response, but only in the frequency range near the resonance.
The problem of brake pads vibrating has been studied for a long long time - there aren't easy answers. At a university I know, there have been phd studies into this problem since the late sixties, and new noise rigs are currently being commisioned.
There are a number of cometing hypotheses trying to explain brake squeal, but none of them fully explain what happens in practice.
I suspect the problem is bordering on the chaotic, because you can do weird things like stripping a quiet brake down, and reasembling it to the book, and it may squeal - and vica versa, a squealing brake can sometimes be cured purely by stripping it down and re-assmebling. You might argue that sometimes the copper-slip is little more than a placebo!
If I knew a simple engineering formula to make **guaranteed** quiet brakes, I would be rather better off than I am! I also know that many who a far more skilfull than I have tried!
Number_Cruncher
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"I bought some copper grease (Texaco make) in a large 500g pot."
Enough to last a lifetime - or 10!
Chris M
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"I bought some copper grease (Texaco make) in a large 500g pot." Enough to last a lifetime - or 10!
!! I've had a small mangled tube for the last 40 years. I finally had to buy a replacement a few weks ago. The tiniest pinch serves for most applications.
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The good thing is that is does last a lifetime or two!
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>>>>The good thing is that is does last a lifetime or two
If you mess about with your brakes when you don't know what you are doing, the lifetime could be quite short.
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Yes some of these replies made me laugh. These are OEM brake pads on a Merc E320 CDI 3 years old and 12,000 miles. Now I know that the SBC brakes are a pig to deal with and I dont quite fancy removing them. So I guess I just have to live with the squeal.
I wonder what I can do with 500 g of copper grease then???
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Yes some of these replies made me laugh. These are OEM brake pads on a Merc E320 CDI 3 years old and 12,000 miles. Now I know that the SBC brakes are a pig to deal with and I dont quite fancy removing them. So I guess I just have to live with the squeal.
There's quite a lot you can do without dismantling anything.
Clean up the rust from all round the caliper, and try and poke inside at the bits where it is very close to the disk. Spin the disk while holding a knife blade or screwdriver at the sections on the edge of where the pads rub. There could just be a rust lip that needs scraping off. Try and do a bit of similar poking at the back, and use a hoover with a bit of tube as a nozzle.
I don't know the particular design, but if you can easily see the edge of the pads where they slot in, it might be possible to lever them in a bit and check that the pistons aren't stuck. At least you could blow/suck out any dust that might have built up.
Of course if you can push the pistons in a bit you might be able to apply some of your Euromountain of copper grease between the pistons and the pad using a thin knife blade.
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I do a lot of work on cars as an amatuer not a pro & my pot of 500g is 2/3rds used, so I think you'll find it will last a lifetime + several others.....
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