Can a bad caliper cause squealing brake?

I'm sort of at a loss here. I've been trying to diagnosis and fix a brake squeal coming from the front passenger side. I get the squeal at slow speeds, usually 15mph and under. The front passenger caliper is a new "reman" replaced by the previous owner before I bought the truck. The driver side caliper is the original OEM. During maintenance I found the front wheels were hard to turn, which I attributed to sticking brakes. As a preventive measure, I replaced both front hubs, rotors, and pads. Even after that the front passenger side still squeals when braking at slow speeds. I might blame the pad compound but I'm not hearing any noise from the driver side.

My only other theory would be the reman caliper is defective, as that is the only other component I haven't changed. Any thoughts?

 

Imo there must be something on the pads or rotor if it’s only happens during brake application. I’d remove the pads and scuff really good with some sand paper and clean the rotor really good with brake cleaner and even run a wiz wheel on it. Then test drive. For a quick try you can do several quick hard brake applications at 40mph sometimes it can break off any baked on residue that may cause a squeal.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Mind you the squeal occurs with the old brake pads and rotors and with the new set as well. That's why I eliminated the problem as the rotors/pads. Also, the noise does not occur when braking at higher speeds or braking firmly. It only manifests when braking slowly and gradually from slow speeds.

 

And all the anti squeal shims are on the pads correct?

 

The new pads are from Power stop and the shims are built into the backing of the pads.

 

And you did the bedding in process for the power stop pads?

 

Yes sir. Roughly 6-7 firm brake applications from speed.

 

Well heck. Seems like you’ve done everything right.

 

I even added an extra caliper return spring to see if that would help and same thing. I just felt it was strange that it was only coming from the front passenger side and that was the side that had the caliper replaced.

I have heard of bad reman calipers but thought they were rare.

 

Trying to think what on the caliper would cause it to squeal

 

The only thing I can think of if for some reason the caliper was defective, maybe the brake pistons were not engaging evenly causing brake squeal.

 

Your brake line might have collapsed on the inside. I’ve had it happen on a few different vehicles. Pretty simple, cheap fix if that’s the problem.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I will order a set tonight and see if that works.

 

all day

 

So I got new replacement brake hoses in. I'm going to tackle the replacement tomorrow and replace both hoses for both front calipers. I know I had to bleed the calipers for air, but I do I have to do it for front/rear or can I get away with just bleeding the two fronts?

Anyone have a good write-up for brake bleeding?

 

Hey man I’ve been have the same problem and was gonna buy new calipers do u have in suggestion or was your brake line pinched? thanks man I’ve been puzzled by the noise I also changed my hub and wheel bearing cv axles and all the seals and brakes and rotors only thing left is caliper

 

Hey. I replaced the brake lines, one front caliper, and bled the brake lines. I still had the occasional squeal at slow speeds. I eventually got rid of the truck and got a new 2021. Sorry.

 

Make sure the caliper piston is flat relative to the surface of the caliper rotor (or the caliper body itself is distorted/twisted) such that when the pads get pressed to the rotor upon brake application, the leading or trailing edge of the pad(s) do not contact the rotor first. If it's a reman caliper, the piston may have been ground crooked, or the body may be twisted and didn't get caught by QC.

I forget which way it should be, but I THINK if the trailing edge of the pad contacts first, that is what causes squealing. The pad should contact flat. I think it was that if the leading edge contacts first, it's not ideal, but won't cause squeal.

Bike riders out there might be able to chime in because it's the same thing with bikes (whether leading or trailing edge causing squeal).