Hey guys I just bought a 09 Cobalt SS. It has drilled and slotted rotors all the way around and the brake pads look pretty new. The brakes do squeak pretty bad when coming to a stop though. I have no idea what it could be or if it’s just normal. Any suggestions?

 

Can you tell what pads are on it? May be metallic pads which makes the squeaking normal.

 

I’m not sure. Im too lazy to go check right now so I’ll just assume that’s what they are for now. I’ll check when I get the chance but thank you

 

I replaced mine with drilled/slotted last year, and they squeaked bad the same as you described. I replaced them with a different brand and they still squeaked (but a little differently). I took them off again, sanded them a little, added high temp grease to the back of the pads, etc. This helped a little, but not completely. After about 2 months of driving the squeak finally went away. Not sure why, but could be they finally got bedded properly. Try re-bedding with some hard stops, and ensure there is plenty of grease or anti-squeal on the backs of the pads.

 

Drilled rotors are prone to warping and cracking, much more than solid ones.
The stock rotors and pads on an LNF can't be beat by any after market product.
Here are links to the OEM parts at the lowest price:

 

^Agree, I autocross on my stock rotors and pads. They work so good im not gonna chance getting slotted/dimpled/drilled rotors. At best ill get hawk pads or something but chances are since I can get oem so cheap ill probably stick to those.

 

Stick to stock pads. I ran Hawk HPS are they are total junk. Heard good things about Hawk HP+. I run Hawk's full on race pads now, DTC-70. Tons of dust and squeals like a dump truck but oh boy do they stop.

 

What kind of tires do you run with the DTC-70 pads? I have used those on my BMW with Nitto NT01s in HPDEs and it's way too much brake. I dropped down to DTC-60 to ease up on my rotors and stay away from ABS. I could definitely go down in pad compound still.

 

I run NT01’s as well. How could it be too much brake though? I have honestly never invoked ABS at the road track. I have slammed on the brakes on a local toll road from 100mph and the car just squirms a bit but never loses traction. DTC pads do eat up rotors but that’s a good thing since rotors are much cheaper than DTC pads lol

 

What's the brake specs on your bmw? (Rotor size, etc)

 

Just that I don't find the pads necessary with the amount of grip NT01s have. Those pads have a lot of bite. If they work for you, stick with them. I do run run larger brakes and the BMW has a very different weight bias.

 

325mm front, 315mm rear. 4-piston Wilwood all around.

 

Those are def bigger than the LNF which might be part of the reason, and it could depend how BMW setup the ABS threshold vs Chevy

 

Take the wheels off, take the pads off, apply high performance brake lube/grease all over the back of pads and on any sliding metal on metal areas on caliper. reassemble, squeaking gone.

 

Sounds to me like it's just the compound of the brake pad. I have yet to find brake pads that don't either squeak or the car just eats then alive. I have hawk pads, can't remember which ones cause I put then on 3 years ago but they held up very well other than noise. I think I may try power stop next go round since I'm not as a aggressive driver as I use to be

 

Originally when I got the car, I had the Brembo pads on blank rotors in the front, ACdelco metallic pad on the rear blanks. Its what the car came with. They lasted all of 6k or 7k miles lol. The sliding pins werent lubed. I did the swap to R1concept slotted rotors and their ceramic pads. Worked well, lasted the majority of my cars life. 3 years ago around 90k miles I went with R1concepts drilled slotted rotors and bought the factory brembo pads and ACdelco pads, everything properly lubed and they are lasting so far 15k+ miles. The car eats through the pads if the pads are dragging hard on the rotors. Make sure to lube up everything, sliding pins, all metal on metal surfaces.

This was the last brake job I did in 2016 on the car. I replaced swaybar endlinks while I was at it.





















Rear calipers were done as well. The copper stuff is Brembos brake grease they provide with the pads.





Loved the final look when it was all said and done. Next time I do the job, I am replacing the rear calipers, the passenger rear felt like it was seizing.

 

Slotted and drilled rotors are fine for those of us that only daily drive or do some roll racing in Mexico. If you're doing road track days you want the OEM solid rotors.

I personally run Powerstop's slotted and cryo treated front rotors with stock pads (still on the stock rotor and metal pad on the back). I don't track my car so the slotted rotors aren't an issue, I actually like them better because there is less dead pedal when braking in the rain.