Wicked brake squeal...but pads look great. Any pointers?

Some pads are directional. Check the back of the pads on one of the squealers for an arrow.
Do the 7 at 70 exercise, stopping quickly 7 times from 70 mph.
I'm sure you'll get many other good suggestions.

 

Your an animal

 

I tend to use 90-30 MPH, but the drift is the same.
If you have the windows down, you can smell when the pads are sufficiently hot.

 

Wash the rotors with warm water and a few drops of dish detergent, then rinse thoroughly. Sounds odd, but works

 

I used most of the tricks here with dealer installed pads. The squeal might go away for a short time, but would return with a vengeance.

Switched to Porterfield pads recommended here. That did the trick. Every so often I'll get a chirp, but a quick hard brake like when you bed the pads does the trick.

 

I would remove the pads and put some "anti squeal" spray on the back of them then reinstall. It's basically a sticky coating that prevents the pads from vibrating. I always do this when changing pads and never have any squeal issues.

 

I switched to the softer Porterfield pads and the squeals went away. Great pads IMO.

 

What is the dust factor of the Porterfields? I know about the "anti squeal" stuff, but my shop says it is ineffective with the stock 355 pads, and the squeal always returns.

 

Really? I put CRC Brake Quiet on mine 4 years ago...still waiting for the squeak to return.

As I understand it, the squeal comes from the back of the pad against the brake pistons. Certainly a perfectly bedded pad with rotor will not have any chatter to cause the squeak.

But if it is not perfect, putting a shim or energy absorbing material between the back of the pad & the piston should stop the squeak....maybe just long enough to let the pad properly bed to the rotor.

 

Depends on the porterfields you use, but generally they are quiet dusty.

The CRC Brake Quiet Watson mentions helps quite a bit.

Also note, track pads, when they aren't up to temp, they'll squeak quite loud, but once up to temp and slowing you down at high speeds, there will be no squeaking.