Repairing glazed brake pads

[Spin Doctor]

The front brake pads and rotors on my 1993 Stealth RT are pretty new (about 5000 miles on them), but they make a sort of low pitched squeaking sound when I decelerate from a slow speed i.e. lightly touching the pedal. I don't hear it on hard, high speed braking.

I'm thinking that the pads are glazed, possibly from the zinc coating that the pads scraped off the rotors when they were new. I have the stuff to fix the pads (180 grit sand paper) but was wondering how much material I should remove from the pads when I sand the pads down.

Also, if anyone has any other ideas as to what could be making this sound, or anything I should watch out for when doing this job, please let me know.

Thanks

[Twizted_3KGT]

Are the pads metallic? semi-metallic? If they're glazed you'll be able to see it. Yyou can try taking off just a small top layer, but a lot of times it's just the pads are cheap and will make a squeak when they first contact the rotor.

[Spin Doctor]

Thanks for the reply

Well I was a dumbass in that regard as I don't know what pads were put on. I had a guy do the work for me when he did the 60K maintenance/air intake/brakes/tranny and I was more concerned with the trany upgrade (clutch, alum flywheel, etc) than the brakes. I just assumed he'd get the right ones, so it may be that they are cheap. The rest of the work is top notch and this brake thing just started happening.

The guy who was in the Navy at the time as moved to a new duty station so I can't contact him. The only reason I had him do the work is because he has a 600hp TT that he races and I have to say that being in his car is the only time I've felt G forces like that. So I pretty much let him do what he wanted.

If this doesn't work, I'll probably put on some ceramic pads. Any recomendations?

[Linebckr49]

EBC green stuff

[2old]

The type of brake pads depends on your driving preferences... This is my personal findings:

Kevlar (eg: EBC Green stuff) - Cold friction is better then stock but works a lot better when warmed up, little to no squealing, low dust but wears out fast.

Metallic (eg: Stillen) - Very good cold and warm friction and very hard initial bite, squeals at low speed (sounds like a truck) and produces lots of dust.

Ceramic (eg: SBS) - Good cold friction and very good warm friction. Initial bite seems harder then Kevlar but softer then Metallic. Low dust and very minor squeal at low speed.

Carbon Metallic (Eg: Hawk) - Good cold and warm friction, initial bite seems softer then Ceramic but still harder then Kevlar. More dust then Ceramic and slightly louder "moan" then ceramic.

My personal favourate was SBS brakes but it did not have a wear indecator on the pad and it wore a little faster then i would have liked (not enough to complain about). I am right now running Hawk HPS pads which have a wear indecator and seems to be lasting a bit longer.

[Igovert500]

Check the pads/rotors. You can sand the pads down a bit. Don't take too much off, just a bit. Also spray some lub on the pistons and caliper bolts to reduce vibration squeel. See if that helps.

[Spin Doctor]

Thanks for the list and the info, guys. This car is mainly a garage queen. It's averaged less that 5000 per year for the last 11 years (when I bought if from my boss's boss). I don't drive it that hard, but had a few mods done so that it could at least get out of it's own way. From the info you guys gave me, I would think the Green Stuff pads might be the way to go, since I tend to be pretty easy on brakes in general.

I'm hoping the pad sanding thing will work, but if not, changing the pads isn't too big a deal. I'm not that much of a gear head, but if I can find some online information on how to change the pads, I'm pretty sure I can handle that.