Prior to a single track day, my Speciale brakes occasionally squealed at low speeds. I did one track day, not pushing that hard, just enjoying the corning ability of this amazing car. I didn't feel any boiling brake fluid or changes in brake pressure. After the track day there is plenty of pad visible before the backing plate. I even jacked the car up and checked the inside pads just to be sure. On the front pads, you can see a little bit of wrinkling on the edges where the pads got hot. However, now my brakes now squeal at light braking. Anything from 80mph to a stop will squeal/howl in the ten miles I've driven if braking is light. If I slam on the brakes she stops beautifully. My guess is that I either need to re-bed the brakes (which seems weird to me), or buy new pads. Has anyone else had this issue? Did re-bedding the pads work? Am I possibly doing damage if I continue to drive?
You've probably glazed them. Usually, after extreme heat or hard usage, the top layer of brake pads will often harden and "glaze" over. It tends to happen more often on blank rotors. I prefer slotted for bite and to prevent glazing. You'll need to sand off the top layer of pad and the existing compound on the rotor and have some new pad transfer with the fresh pad material. Next time get track pads all around for your car ... it's worth it and you'll notice a huge difference in braking performance.
I would recommend cleaning the brakes with high pressure water first like you would normally wash the car. Be on the look out to see that the water runs clean after spraying the rotor and caliper. I would NOT use solvent brake clean. If that doesn’t help after few days of driving I would then re-bed the pads. If that doesn’t work, I would take a caliper off to inspect. Unless the pads are worn out, I would leave it alone and the squeaking may go away over time.
Yep this is normal. Like others said you can soap and water them up and wash them off but they will still squeal. You can wipe them off with 90% rubbing alcohol and that helps too. Doing this a few times helps. However they will still squeal with in a few miles. Sanding the pad can help a little too but its the transfer that got onto the ccm rotor causing the pads to grab and vibrate thus squeal. You'll notice the squeal comes and goes with brake pressure. What is going on is pad transfer to the rotor. Race car brakes squeal too bit not as bad as street car rotors and pads. Race pads and rotors are a different make up to with stand heat and transfer better. They suck on the street when cold though. Street pads are designed for working good cold on the street not working good on the track. It just takes around 300-400 or so street miles..not highway miles...city/surburban driving and the pads will eventually clean off the pad transfer (glazing) as you drag your brakes coming to a stop. This happened to my 488 after 7/10ths driving of 4 laps 2 sessions at Sebring. I knew it would happen though. This happened to all the Porsche's I use to track the heck out off either iron or ccb brakes. I used to swap out rotors and pads to race rotors and pads for track days so my street brakes would not squeal and last longer. Brake performance is not hurt... wash and wipe down the rotors a lot like I mentioned and go drive around and eventually the squeal will go away.
