Why Your Disc Brakes Are Noisy (And How To Fix Them)

The dreaded squeaking brake! It is safe to say that we all hate that frustrating noise and don't seem to know why it happens in the first place.

Luckily, we have got Conor who gives you a quick run down on how you can diagnose your noisy brake and rectify it with just a few simple tools!

00:00 How to stop disc brake squeak
00:15 Ways to identify the source of the noise
01:18 Misalignment
02:07 Worn brake pads
03:14 Contamination

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What do you do to stop squeaky breaks?

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[gcntech]

What do you do to stop squeaky breaks?

[stevevitale]

i love my squeaky brakes. I ride on the Atlanta beltline and it is full of clueless people walking, running, biking and riding electric scooters. Nothing clears them out than when you come up behind them and hit the brakes.

[pedrokranios]

My rear disc brake was rubbing. Turns out it was the misaligned caliper. I was able to easily fix it after following the instructions on the video. Thank you GCN.

[alexeydanilchenko]

A lot easier brake pads bedding in procedure is before installing them, wet them with water (tap will do) and rub them against each other whilst wet for a minute or so. Then wash them under water to get off the rubbed bits and dry them with a cloth. Install and ride without any bedding in - works a treat.

I saw this in one of the bike mechanic preparations for the bike before race and used it a few times. Saves loads of time.

[iamcliffordwells]

After watching this video I learned that the squeal in my brakes was due to contamination of the pads. Without taking anything apart I cleaned everything with alcohol as suggested to no avail. So thinking of everything demonstrated in this video I took a pressure steamer that use for cleaning around the house and applied it to the brakes assembly, pads, and rotors. It worked great. Squeal is gone. Thanks for inspiring me to think outside the box.

[peterthomas]

What I learned from seminars, and courses in the motor industry, on disc brake noise. if the pads and discs are not contaminated, but a squeak occurs when braking in the wet, but only for a second or two. Then it can sometimes be down to 'harmonics'. i'e' water between the pad and rotor creates vibration. This causes a squeal, as in when a wet finger is rubbed aroung the rim of a wine glass, thus producing a noise. Once the water is cleared from between the pad and rotor during braking, then the noise ceases. That's what they taught us anyway.🧑‍🎓🙄

[stevedonne]

Had disc brakes for many years on Mt bikes first, now on my road bike, always maintain them well, squealing noise rare. Last spring took bike out from garage where it had been 3C overnight into 20C of spring sunshine, extremely noisy brakes... realised it was water condensation on the cold rotors. Bit of extra braking over first couple of mins of ride, sorted, once rotors warmed up.
Sometimes it's not a major problem.
Enjoy your rim brakes if you like them, but give me discs any day. Have been riding for 50 years nearly all on rims. When I bought my latest road bike 4 years ago, it was discs ....fantastic, at 60km/h on a mountain descent with a hairpin approaching, no comparison.

[yeeth]

I had an issue some time ago where I had brake squeal and none of the methods in the video fixed it. Went to a bike shop and they pointed out that my rotor had heat damage which were causing the sound. Had to replace the rotor, but everything is good now.

[savagepro]

GCN Tech: Your Disc Brakes Are Noisy (And How To Fix Them)
Manon: Buy a rim brake bike. Solved!
If your disc brake are squeaking, it caught a rat!

[ColinKlupiec]

Why haven’t we learned more from car disc brakes? Mine have always been quiet, regardless of conditions, contamination, etc. etc., etc.

[Riley-]

Rim brake question - I had the same issue with my Shimano brake pads. I swapped them out for Kool Stop brake pads, based on a recommendation I found and I have not had the issue since.

[oplkfdhgk]

Also some pad materials are more prone to screaming. Like sintered pads often make much more noise than resin but i personally much prefer sintered. I like really agressive bite on my brakes.

[SquirrelsLiveMusic]

It is almost like you guys knew my brakes are squeaking 🧐

[telmemorem]

I myself quite enjoy the squeal :D I know it is not from pads being old or something else clueless, just "pay attention pedestrian" breaks.

[chrishands]

Hi Conner very good 👍 advice… where can you get that blue thing from what stop your front wheel from moving 👍

[defenestrator]

If you use resin based pads they make less noise than the metalbased pads. Most road bikes do not need the metalbased pads that cool better and can resist high temperaturen. But most roadbikes do not need these pads and the resinbased pads stay clean better when you do not do a lot of extreme breaking.

[Onigure]

Man! My feed has like 5 videos about disk brake noise in 2 days.

[simonsaville]

Squeaky brakes are very effective at alerting 'phone zombies of an impending collison, more so than the "ting" of a bell.
I'm keeping mine!

[Mike]

i find diamond grindstone for knife, works better for cleaning pads

[jesuisjamaiscontent]

You can easily check pad wear because most calipers enable the pads to be seen.