IS300H Squeaking/squealing brakes wheels (REALLY irritating))

[Ken83]

Hi,

Have had an issue with my IS300h 2014 F-Sport owned for 11 months. At low speeds <15mph there is an annoying and reasonably loud squeak/squealing coming from the wheels/brakes. Took it to my local Lexus not long after they purchased and they said pads and discs heavily eroded. The quote to fix was £550 (which the Lexus branch I bought it from paid). The squeak subsided for about 2 weeks and then came back. It's been on and off and in winter I could ignore it but now  summer is here again it's annoying having the windows open.

I took it for a service 2 weeks ago and asked them to look into it. They came back and said they can't hear a squeak (sometimes it goes away for a few miles) and that they had checked the brakes and they were fitted perfectly so there is nothing they can see to fix. But the annoying squeak still remains 😞.

Wondering if others have had the issue and if Lexus are perhaps covering themselves because it's a know issue with their pads and to say that would potentially have me telling them to change them? I'm happy to pay again to change these pads to non Lexus from a standard mechanic (if anybody has any suggestions which brand to change to). I previously posted about this and someone said like behind the caliper or pads needed to be greased. I mentioned that to Lexus and they said they didn't know anything about that so there is nothing they can see to do.

As the car is almost out of the 1 year warranty I got when I purchased, I want the problem resolved sooner rather than later by them - unless its as easy as changing to non manufacturer pads in which case I will do that instead? Wondering if it may be something more serious and they are stalling until I am out of warranty to all of a sudden discover the issue (though Lexus doesn't strike me as that kind of company - I could be wrong)?

Any advice/previous experiences would be appreciated as its really starting to impact my enjoyment of the car.

Thanks

Ken 

[Mihanicos]

Remove the brake pads including the springs and clean thoroughly the caliper parts where the pads and the springs rest. Remove the antisquel shims on the back of the pads and clean them thoroughly. Sand off any corrosion on them so they are flat. Do one caliper at a time so you can check how everything goes back together by looking at the other corresponding caliper. 

Apply copper grease on the back of the brake pads, then fit the first antisquel shim  then put copper grease on it, then put the second antisquel shim, then put copper grease on the antisquel shim only where the caliper piston contacts it. Make sure the copper grease never gets in contact with the rubber dust boot because it will make it swell.

Put copper grease on the top and bottom of the brake pads so they move freely within the caliper. Put copper grease on the springs where the pads are held and on the spring behind them.

Sand any rust off the pins and grease them. 

For the rear brakes, clean and sand off any rust from the slider pins of the calipers. Use silicon grease to lubricate the slider pins, this grease will never dry and will maintain the softness and flexibility of their rubber dust sleeves. Do not use any other non recommended greases, they will make the rubber sleeves swell and they will not fit into their position.

Copper grease does not run due to high temperatures.

 Chris.

[Ken83]

Thanks Chris. I'm unfortunately not very mechanical so will need to take what you wrote to my mechanic and hope he does it for me. It's ridiculous that we'd need to do this ourselves rather than Lexus when they changed the brakes when not having this done leads to such an annoying and persistent problem.

Thanks again,

Ken  

[Mihanicos]

You are welcome. We say " Experience is a flame that illuminates only those who has burnt " !

It is a very straight forward job. My brakes used squeal a little under light and slow braking, just before the traffic lights.

Most concessionaire garages and mechanics never touch the brakes, all they do is just look if the pads are worn. Then they just replace them. They have no time to "waist " doing what I always do as I described above during annual maintenance.

Chris.

[Cotswold Pete]

Ken83, 

I had similar issues with LS, and one thing I found was non-OEM made things worse.

So eventually got my local mechanic to replace pads, and shims and disks with OEM and hey-presto last 12 months have been silence from the brakes.

I am surprised with 11 month old car you have a problem, but the anti-squeal shims might be duff (even if they look new).

Maybe given you are in London, give Japex a call (Hemel Hampstead way), they seem to know their Jap cars inside out.  I use Osaka in Newport-Wales, but that is a bit of hike for you