Hi Everyone -

First time posting here, yet I've followed this site for the past 3 years as I've owned my first Land Rover (2005 LR3). This site has gotten me through transfer case and differential services, locked up EPB scenarios, door lock issues, and random noises that had me worried. There is ONE issue I'm having now that I can't seem to find an answer to…

About 3 months ago (approx. 2,500 miles), I replaced the front and rear brake rotors, pads and sensors (purchased the complete rebuild kit from British Atlantic). For the first 25-30 days, everything was great. Then the front brakes started squealing. I'm not talking about a little squeal like when the brakes are getting low - it sounded like there was a cat under the car being dragged. It was more of a scream. However, this was ONLY happening in REVERSE. When coming to a stop while going forward, there was no sound. Turning the wheels in reverse seemed to make it even worse. I had a buddy stand outside and confirm that it was BOTH front brakes and the rear was silent.

After narrowing it down to the FRONT, I removed both wheels and couldn't replicate the sound by putting the car in neutral and reversing the wheels by hand. I took a look at the small metal clips that hold the brake pads and the looked like POSSIBLY they had rubbed the rotor (enough to make a sound), so I centered them, put the wheels back on, and low and behold, the screaming cat was gone.

Three days later, the squealing started again, in reverse only, but not as loud as before. It's been almost 2 months and the squealing has progressively gotten worse, but not as bad as before and still only in reverse.

My question - am I missing something here when I installed the clips that hold the pads in? Moving the clip seemed to fix it the first time, but it came back after 3 days.

Is there something else causing this squeal?

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. I'm getting tired of people turning and pointing when I back out of parking spaces! Thanks in advance...

 

Usually, this type of squeal is caused by vibration of the pads or shims. The springs should help in this respect, but semi-metallic pads (which are the OEM type) are going to be noisier than others to begin with.


Did your pads come with shims? If so, were they already attached to the back of the pads? Did you use grease (preferably a ceramic grease or sil-glyde or something similar) between the shim and the pad? Give us a little more info about how you installed and we might be able to help a bit more...


To provide a bit of help right now though, your pads should always come with a new set of metal shims which go over the back side of the pad. If these shims are not "self-adhesive" (most are not, but some are nowadays), then you want to use a very thin layer of grease (sil-glyde, ceramic grease, or something similar) between the back side of the pad and the metal shim. Typically, you would also want to apply a small amount of this grease on the "nubs" at the end of the pads too (the part of the pads that sits in the tracks where the springs are to help them slide in and out.


DISCLAIMER: Obviously, please never apply grease on the side of the pads that contacts the brake rotor.


Finally, you also want to remove the caliper glide pins and their rubber boots and clean them thoroughly, then apply some grease to the pins and reinsert them, then place the rubber boots back over the top.


Hope this helps a little bit. If it makes you feel any better, my front pads (not installed by me) are squealing in reverse also... I just haven't had the motivation to go regrease the pads/shims yet. :P

 

Thanks for your reply and I'm glad I'm not the only one out there with the reverse squeal.

I did NOT grease anything when I installed. One break pad on each side had a peal and stick cover on it, which I removed (as per instructions) and this seemed like it was the "grease." I was wondering why only one pad on each side had this.

What "metal shims" are you referring to? This is the kit I purchased…

LR3 Brake Rebuild Kit: Order LR3 Brake Kits Online At Atlantic British

I will probably tear apart the front brakes sometime this week and grease everything. I just didn't know if it was something with the metal clip that holds the pads in or not. Or if I missed something completely during the install.

Thanks!

 

Interesting... that is strange that only one pad per side would have a "peel and stick" type adhesive. I assume after you "peeled" that you stuck a very thin piece of metal to the back of the pad? If so, that's the shim that I'm referring to. I don't see them shown in the AB picture, but that's likely because they came in the box with the pads and perhaps already attached to the back of the pads. The peel and stick should suffice for noise abatement, but I would still grease between the other pads and shims (the ones without the peel and stick) and I would grease the point at which all of the pads contact the calipers (at each end of each pad... where they contact the metal springs).


Just did a quick google search and here's what a pad and shim should look like. Please note that this is a terrible job of "greasing" the inside surface of the shim though... It should be a much thinner coat and be evenly distributed.

 

Ok, I clearly remember the kit NOT including shims like this. When I pulled the old breaks off, everything was in one piece, and it did not stay in the caliper as I remember looking at the pistons. I'm going to hope (and assume) that they were already on the pads. When I pull everything apart to grease it, I'll be on the look-out for this.

When I pealed the backing off the peal and stick side, it WAS sticky, but I just assumed that this was a lubrication for this pistons. Now I've got an itch to tear it all apart and see what the deal is...

 

I have purchased brake pads for other cars in the past and they came with shims that was "Sticky" on one side. This is because many companies have stop making the shim to "Snap" onto the back of the pad and now you just "Peel & Stick" it to the back of the pad. To keep noise down and to prevent the pad from not fully releasing from the rotor, you still must grease the back of the shims and the contact points on the calipers.