Bad squeek on my XR when braking...but also when not braking at all!!! - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

Young Angus · 03-24-2005, 14:47

There is this terrible squeek on my XR (1967 XR this is, not an xr6 or something) that happens not only when braking lightly but also when im just rolling slowly with no brake on at all, and even happened while i was accelerating! Its like a brake squeel but its even worse!

I just had the roadworthy done on this car and just picked it up two days ago and he actually did have to do something with the brakes and he replaced a stack of bushes throughout the car.

One thing he had to do was back off the brakes cos the road worthy guy said they were too good and locked up too easily. They were XD brakes he put on for the previous owner, front discs that is, and it still brakes well but the noise sucks. He put a new booster in or something.

If anyone can help where this noise might be coming from that would be great

81foXDwagon · 03-27-2005, 04:25

Ah now heres a subject I know a bit on...

XD front brakes.... never have i seens such a bad design.

This may / may not be your problem but its something to keep in mind.

Instead of having a nice dual piston caliper they are the economy single piston with a floating arm which compensates the load between the brake pads.

I discovered (rather suddenly) that the floating arm doesnt really float. This is because the runners which support it are just in the air / outside / mud / water and all the other nasties that get thrown up by your tires. This results in the runners becoming sticky... and then eventually stuck. This will result in one brake pad being applied more than the other... and often violent brake pull.

The only way to solve it... pull the spring clips off the arm and polish the runners with a wire brush. Then lubricate with a high temperature molybdenim disulphide grease. Once this is done... reassembly the caliper and you might as well bleed it just for the sake of it. Check the brake pads as well. If they are shot... best to buy some Ferodo XL pads. They are waaay better than bendix and dont even compare to the 20 dollar ones.

You will notice that the brakes now work about 200x better. Its worthwile to check the runners are clean every now and then to prevent this.

Hope this helps you out (if not today.. some other time).

ebxr8240 · 03-27-2005, 17:06

A slight bevel on the leading edge of pad and some hi temp grease on rear pad and caliper piston..Change pads if this keeps happening..They could be hard compound..
MOST if not all brakes these days are single piston... Especially on poverty packs....