Why Are My Brakes Grinding After New Pads and Rotors!

Coming across with a grinding brake is an alarming incident that you need to take into account. In the wake of those boring and unwanted sounds, you have replaced the brake pads and rotors with brand new products. But you are still hearing the grinding and squeaking coming out of the brake system, and necessarily you are worried about that. 

Moreover, you have left no stone unturned to find out the reasons for those grinding or screeching sounds. But, all the efforts end in smoke. Therefore, we have got your back and delved deeper to come up with the possible reasons for the grinding brakes. 

In today’s blog, we venture into presenting before you the reasons for why the brakes are still grinding although installed new brake pads and rotors. Please bear with us for the rest of the article.    

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Brakes Making Grinding Noise After New Pads and Rotors – The Reasons!

Brake pads needed to bed-in properly

Just imagine what happens when you purchase a new pair of shoes from the market. The answer is newly bought shoes feel rough and stiff on your feet when you wear them for the first time. But, over time, the shoes perfectly fit in your feet, and you won’t feel the roughness anymore. The same theory goes for the brakes. 

When you purchase new brakes for your vehicle, you may hear grinding or squealing noise coming out of the brakes. The reason is the new brake pads are a bit stiff and stout and need some time to precisely fit-in in your brake system. The more the time passes, the better the brake pads break in. The process of breaking in the new brake pads is called bed-in. 

So, don’t worry. Let the brake pads wear out, and with the passing of some time, you will notice that the grinding sound is mitigating and eventually disappear. 

The presence of debris between rotor and caliper

You may hear screeching sounds due to the presence of foreign elements like stone, dirt, dust, etc., stuck in-between your rotors and brake calipers. These foreign materials are a real danger to your vehicle. These materials ultimately cause rust and corrosion in the rotors and kill the effectiveness of your brake system. As a result, you may need to replace or resurface the existing brake rotors and calipers.

When you go for an outing, there are many harmful elements existing on the road that get stuck in your brake system. Therefore, you may experience grinding noise coming out of the brake while driving. In most cases, this dirt, dust, and grim wear off easily while driving around. You should consult with a professional mechanic if the ugly sound doesn’t go off. The mechanic will wash off these foreign elements with the help of necessary equipment. 

Buying good-for-nothing brake pads

Installing cheap brake pads in the brake system can be the reason for squeaking, grinding, or screeching sounds. Low-quality brake pads may function well for some time when purchased. But they start decaying and making sounds.

Moreover, cheap brake pads are poorly constructed and designed. Therefore, they have a defective measure such as metal chunks in the pad materials that can scrape against the rotors causing serious damage to your vehicle. 

Insufficient lubrication on brake parts

You hear the grinding sounds produced by your brakes because you may forget to apply lubricant to your newly purchased brake parts. Therefore, your car is making screeching and squealing sounds. 

Once you purchase the brakes, you should apply lubricant on both the backside of the brake pads and brake calipers. As a result, when the metal of the brake pads and the metal of the brake calipers come together at the time of pressing the brake pedal, they won’t create any ugly noise because of proper lubrication. 

Moreover, you should also lubricate the brake caliper slider pins that link the two sides of the brake caliper. It will help finish off the squeaking at low speed. 

Worn-out wheel bearing

You may still experience the grinding from the brakes after installing new brake pads and rotors if faulty wheel bearings exist. With poor wheel bearings functional, you can’t expect to have a brake system free of grinding or squeaking. So, as long as you have defective wheel bearings, there is a chance that you hear noise though you have replaced the brake pads and brake rotors. 

Therefore, take care of the wheel bearings if you still observe the grinding sounds when braking. Otherwise, changing the entire brake system won’t help vanquish the noise. 

The dearth of vehicle usage

You may hear the noise from your brakes as your vehicle is in the garage for a long time. Though you have installed the new brake pads and rotors, you are still hearing the grinding sounds as you have left your car idle at your garage for weeks.   

When you don’t drive your car for a long time, the oxygen in the air causes rust and corrosion on the rotors. Corrosion starts killing the metal of the rotors, making them have an uneven surface. As a result, when the uneven surface rubs against the backside of the calipers, the grinding type of sound is produced.

Exhausted shims

Most of the time, you forget to replace the worn-out shims from the brake system while installing the new brake pads and rotors. It is the reason that your car is still producing the grinding sounds; nonetheless, new brake pads and rotors are set in place. 

If you don’t take the pain to change the worn-out brake shims, there is a chance that the shims may break apart and make contact with the brake rotors or other metal parts of the brake system. The contact between the broken pieces of the shims and the rotors or other brake parts is responsible for producing grinding noise. Therefore, try to ensure that the shims are replaced too at the time of bringing in new brake pads and rotors.   

Final Words

In fine, we have done our best to provide you with the reasons that make your brakes produce grinding sounds after installing new brake pads and rotors. We don’t try to beat around the bush by talking about irrelevance. Our blog encompasses exactly the same you are looking for. 

That’s all for now. Please shoot a comment in our comment section if you come up with any further queries. Our experienced team will respond to you as soon as possible. Thanks a lot for investing your precious time. See you soon. Have a nice day!