[bab33face]

I've hit 1200 miles on my STI and I notice some pretty decent brake squeel. I thought it was due to the pads wearing in but shouldn't they be fully broken in by now? Its more noticeable sometimes but I can always hear a faint squeel. Maybe because I still don't have a stereo? Anyone else notice this?

[ldivinag]

search this forum... hi perf brakes/pads make noise....

[droideka]

Did you ever bed your pads? Big brakes need to have the pads bedded if you don't want them to squeal. I'm an owner of a StopTech BB kit and this is absolutely necessary, IMO. I've swapped street and track pads out dozens upon dozens of times.

To bed your pads, follow these simple instructions:

1. Accelerate to 60 MPH and apply moderate to high, even pressure on the brakes, slow to ~ 5MPH, but DO NOT come to a stop. DO NOT lock-up the brakes. Apply enough pressure so that you're right on the edge of lock up. On the track we call this threshhold braking. You'll need to find a long, open stretch of road to perform this procedure.

2. Repeat step one a total of 6-8 times. By the fifth stop you should smell the brakes burning.

3. DO NOT come to stop at any time, but if you must, DO NOT leave your foot on the brakes. If you do, the pads will leave an imprint of material on the rotors.

4. After bedding, drive around for upwards of 10 minutes to cool the brakes then park the car and let it sit for a couple of hours. When you get out and look at the rotors, they should have a nice even tint of brake pad material deposited across the entire surface and the rotors may even have a blue cast to them which indicates that they've reached optimum temps for bedding.

This can be a touchy procedure, so if you don't have confidence in performing it yourself, perhaps find someone local that does and can do it for you. Proceed at your own risk, and as a disclaimer, I take no responsibility if you do not bed the brakes properly.

Here's a link to the StopTech bedding procedure as a sanity check.