How to evict brake noise?

Need some help from any and all. . .

When it became time to swap out the worn-out pads, I went with whatever EBC sold, and because of my desire to have brakes that actually work after sitting in the rain, I swapped out the solid rotors on the front wheel for some used KZ ventilated rotors off a later model bike. While everything works better than original, I also have found that about every 200 miles or so, there is enough glazing occurring to cause tractor-trailer/bus noises when I apply my brakes. It is more annoying than anything, but I have tried sanding the pads, using shims made out of aluminum, liquid dampeners (brake goo) all to no avail. I really don't think it has anything to do with the rotor swap. . .I would think someone here might have had a similar noisey problem and figured out a way to alleviate it. Am I stuck with this problem unless I can get the rotors ground or some other involved remedy? Thanks in advance.

I sanded my rotors with some 220 grit to shut mine up. Don't apply so much pressure in one area, sand it in circles like 2 revs in one area to rough it up and sand pads the same time. 2 uneven surfaces will work

I know that with bicycle brake pads, they must land toe in or heel in first (can't remember) or else they squeal. I wonder if there is a compatability issue between the old caliper and new rotor. Perhaps there are some minute differences between the two models that might account for the squeal. Check in a parts catalogue to see if the brake caliper's parts numbers are the same for the years of your bike, and the bike from which you took the new rotors. If the part's numbers are different, then the probability is higher that there are some compatability problems that are resulting in unwanted noise. How tough would it be to go and get the newer calibers as well?

P.S.
Sincerely, no sarcasm intended on that last sentence of prior reply.

Would it be costly, hard to find, pain in the but on a project that you have fixed a few times... That is what I meant by "tough".

Did you do a search in the forum for squeeky brakes?

Thanks for the tips given so far. . .I did the search for noisy, noisey and sqeeky. Squeeky should help me I think. Wish I had a spel checquer.

KaZooCruiser wrote:

Thanks for the tips given so far. . .I did the search for noisy, noisey and sqeeky. Squeeky should help me I think. Wish I had a spel checquer.

And on the offchance that someone actually spelt it right you might try squeaky:P

I had the same problem with my new brakes and the only way I found to shut them up was to sand the pads where the most glazing was happening. Seemed to work and the bike stops fine. I know you have sanded the rotors and pads, but have you tried sanding the pads only where there is some glazing? Other than that I don't have any other ideas.

Post edited by: teddycp, at: 2007/02/18 20:36

I have the same problem with My front brakes,and I think it had to do with having sintered pads,as opposed to the old-school pads that were softer and didn't squeel.
I'm not too sure where to get them.I think I asked Jeff Saunders from Z1 Enterprises about this quite some time ago,but I don't remember if He has them or not.