Answers to Your Questions From Whats Inside Brake Pads Sues Recent Popular Video

Hey, everyone, it's Sue from 1A Auto and I'm gonna do a questionnaire and answer your questions that you asked on "What are brake pads made of, the materials and type?" and I'm gonna answer them now.

So my first question is from Hector and he asks basically, I've used ceramic pads. I've used organic pads and I've used semi-metallic and I still get a squeal every time I take my brake pedal off, like when you brake back off your brake pedal, and what I think it is. So if you've used all those types of pads, what do I think it is? Well, there's a couple of questions I have for you, Hector. One is are you changing your rotors at the same time? Don't just put pads on a rotor and think that you're going to get away with it because it's going to have a friendly reminder constantly with off and on squealing, brake dust or a pulsation.

So if you're changing your rotor every time and you have a squeal, well, then maybe it is your sliders on the calipers. So this is the only common denominator that's still not getting changed, and that would be inside here. You need to make sure that your caliper sliders have an equivalent amount of silicone grease or a caliper grease inside that boot so that it slides and releases perfectly. So this, when you push on your brakes, pushes on and release your brake pedal, that should come off. That actually takes this caliper piston, takes the pressure off. If that is hanging up, your brake pads are still touching just enough that you're going to hear a friction noise or a squeal.

Now, the other problem I have is if you are turning your rotors, this is a little education for everyone that has maybe a machine that will turn rotors. Even if you have your own shop, I'm going to educate you real quick on this. And I learned this through the years. I actually learned it in a brake class I had to go to eon, decades. I rode my dinosaur there. Anyways, when you cut rotors, machine them, shall I say, some people use a brake clean. They'll just take the brake clean and they'll just spray it and get the material off. What they did find, not me but scientists found, the pressure in that can pushes the little little brake dust, which is metal because it came off the metal, metal dust in the groove of the rotor. There are grooves there that you can see with a microscope but they're there. And those little little flakes sit inside there so when you apply the brake pad, it embeds it in the material of the pad. Then you'll develop a squeal.

Well, as a business owner back in the day, I didn't like comebacks. Nobody does. I don't want to hear someone complain, and I personally don't think it's right that they should have to complain so I found out the reason why it works and I actually got to know brake complaints once I did this practice. If you turn a rotor, you take detergent, I use the stuff that takes oil off of animals, and you take a brush. So you fill up a bucket with soapy water, detergent, put the brush in there. After you've machined it and you clean this rotor surface just like this, don't use brake cleaner if you don't have to and it's gonna get rusty right away. Okay? No big deal. But that and the brush and the bubbles of the detergent actually take the little metallic flakes out of the rotor material and separates it and it falls to the ground. Rinse it with some water. I guess you could use some brake cleaner after. Just rinse it down. Then assemble your brakes.

If you are using a rotor like this and you're not surfacing it, and you're throwing a brand-new pad on like this and then applying the brakes and you think, "Oh, they'll be fine," they're not. This has a groove in it and it's embedding in the pads. So it doesn't matter if you buy an $80 pad or a $10 pad, organic, semi-metallic or ceramic, you're gonna get uneven wear and you're gonna get a noise. So I hope that answers your question, Hector.

My second question is from Jim Pie. He asked what do I think about coated rotors? Well, Jim, I love them. I like coated rotors a lot. When they first came out, I did my homework, a little skeptical, and the key for any coated rotor is to make sure it's coated all the way through. If you'll look at this rotor right here, I can't turn it because I didn't have my Wheaties. The camera comes around here, you'll see the inside of the actual rotor is coated also. That is amazing to me, being a New Englander, because that keeps this rotor alive. Stops it from rusting, stops it from breaking down sooner than it actually needs to. And you don't have to wash the material off. The manufacturers put that on there for a reason. It's basically for shelf life and so that they don't rot out in here in this lovely weather of the world, but you don't have to wash it and scrub it off. I've seen some guys scrubbing away, scrubbing away and I was like, "Just stop. Waste of time." It'll burn off the pads if it does get attached to it. It doesn't do any damage to it but it helps the rotor for long term of life. So, Jim, I hope that answers your question.

So my next question is from Sean Healey. He writes what do I feel or how do I feel about hybrid pads? Now, he's talking about hybrid brake pads so I didn't add that in my three materials. I wrote organic, semi-metallic and ceramic. Because the hybrid actually is a combination between hybrid and organic. That is what a hybrid pad stands for. They actually have 30% less metal materials than content which they're basically between an organic and a semi-metallic pad.

How do I feel about them? Just like all the other pads. It all depends on what kind of driving you do, what kind of vehicle you have, and how is that going to benefit you in the way you drive and what kind of car you ride. So semi-metallic or hybrid is probably a little bit more stronger than organic, maybe it has more metals in it so it won't break down as fast so you won't have to change them as often. And another thing I wrote, I said that asbestos is no longer in brakes. Well, I found out I'm wrong. Organic pads have a little bit of percentage of asbestos in it. Wow, talk about being fooled. Anyways, I hope that answers your question, Sean.

And Mark writes in asking a question about the best combo for brake pads and rotors on his Crosstrek Subaru. So, Mark, my question to you is what kind of driving do you do? I'm gonna say the best I would do, I would get the slotted rotors with the ceramic brake pads. I think that would be the best combo. If you could find that, I know we have it, look it up, get them, and that way you'll never be disappointed because they cool down so much quicker, so if you do do some off-roading, get a little mud in there, they'll clean up faster and cool down sooner. So I know in the past on my Subarus, that's what I've gotten. So that's what I would get.

This next question comes from Paul from Texas. He writes that he put a certain brand of ceramic brake pads on his F-150 and he has brake dust. Well, a little quick correction, I did say in the video no brake dust with ceramic pads, and then if you watch later on I say a little brake dust. I meant to say ceramic brake pads cause less brake dust than semi-metallic or organic. So you still will get some brake dust, Paul, but also driving habits, and every manufacturer has a different combo, amount of material that they put in their pads no matter what they are, ceramic, organic or semi-metallic, so it also can do with the brand. So I would switch brands, make sure you get good rotors on there, new rotors, and maybe dirt roads or towing will cause more dust because it's harder braking. Hope that helps.

So my second to last question I want to answer today is from Dan World. He has a Honda Pilot and he says he hears a scraping noise on every rotation of the wheel and he can kind of see some rust from the outside and someone said, "Oh, it's gonna be rust." Well, Dan, without actually physically seeing your car, I can't tell you where the sound is coming from but if you have rust, all depends. Does the car sit all the time? If it sits all the time, you're never gonna get rid of that sound. It's gonna be there forever.

Do your rotors need to be replaced, Dan? Because if you have rust coming out of the fins, which I've shown on that video, then yeah, you can try to. On the rotor, on the outside where the fins are, if there's flakes, take a screwdriver or a hammer and just tap them and spin the wheel. So you've gotta take the wheel off, jack it up, put a jack stand underneath, and put the car in neutral, and you can spin that wheel and chip all that way off and see if the sound goes away. But an overlooked situation a lot of people don't see are the brake tins. So the brake tins on the caliper bracket, right here, if these are not centered or they're rusted out, or have not been replaced in the time and you've gone through several brake pads, these can actually rust and kind of get weak and have an angle to them. And it will scrape on the rotor every time it goes by and you'll hear usually a high-pitched squeal. But it can cause some noise and if it's a high surface on the rotor, it's only gonna hit every time that rotor spins around that one spot.

But more than likely if your rotors are rusted, if they're too rusted on the surface then you need new rotors and pads. But if there's a little rust coming out of where the vents go, and this is where the rotor will ride, right in here, just like this, it'll come right through just like this. And if there's rust on the outer surface where the vent is, it's hitting right in here. That's probably the noise you hear, the scraping noise. So like I said earlier, take the wheel off, support it well with a jack stand and just take a little hammer and chip away that rust. But once again, without really seeing it, I can't answer it 100%.

Last question of the day is from Alex. I saved this for last because it's kind of important to me. They asked if I could discuss more about drum brakes. So I want to say something to you, Alex. I appreciate it because now I have a whole new video I can make for you because there's so much involved that I can't answer it in one question so I'm gonna go in-depth about drum brakes and stay tuned for that one.

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