Brakes are rough and making noise

[Spetz]

My brakes were noisy and not smooth.

I put new rotors and pads (both good brands) on and the noise/roughness did not go away.
Upon inspection the slide pins were stuck.

I cleaned the pins + added grease, and the brakes become much better but they are still not smooth and make some kind of noise like "woooooooooo".
Harshness can be felt through the pedal and car.

Checked bearings, they seem fine (no play).
Rotors are not warped.
This does not happen at low speeds (below 20-30mph).
The noise and harshness gets worse with speed, and gets worse the harder I press the pedal.

What could this be?
What should I check next?

 

[Sawdusted]

The caliper pistons could be sticking.

BTW, bearings do not need to feel loose to make sounds.

 

[Spetz]

It is a single piston setup, so could this still be causing the problem?

There is no other indication of bearings needing replacement. Is it possible it is still the bearings?

 

[KrisZ]

The wheel bearing on my Mazda 3 also had no play but was making quite a racket.
Try taking some turns, with a bad wheel bearing, the sound will get louder on the side that gets loaded during the turn, and will get less loud in turns that unload that side.

 

[javacontour]

Tires? Could have noisy tires that make more noise under the load of braking?

 

[HangFire]

Crooked pads, or could be bad bearings, they can have no play because they are all wedged up with bearing debris.

 

[4wheeldog]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
Tires? Could have noisy tires that make more noise under the load of braking?


I am thinking that this might be the problem. Check the tires for signs of cupping or feathering. "Rough" does not generally describe a brake problem, unless they are metal on metal.

 

[Spetz]

It is definitely not the tires (these are also new and high end tires).

Is there any way to definitively test the bearings without actually replacing them?

 

[Turk]

Did you "bed in" the new brake pads/rotors yet?

If not, go when/where there's not cars around. Slow down HARD & FAST from 60MPH to 5MPH, 8-12 times in a row. Then drive around some on the highway, etc. to cool off your brakes before you shut off the vehicle.

That stopped the similar sounding noise on my vehicle.

Let us know.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: Turk
Did you "bed in" the new brake pads/rotors yet?

If not, go when/where there's not cars around. Slow down HARD & FAST from 60MPH to 5MPH, 8-12 times in a row. Then drive around some on the highway, etc. to cool off your brakes before you shut off the vehicle.

That stopped the similar sounding noise on my vehicle.

Let us know.


+1, sounds like rotor finish is still a bit rough. Need more time for pads to condition the rotor surface.

 

[Spetz]

The rotor finish still has the cross hatch marks on it

But, they are harsher the faster I go, and smooth when going slow, so I would expect that if the harshness is coming from the rotor face then it would be most pronounced at slower speeds?

 

[HangFire]

Originally Posted By: Spetz
It is definitely not the tires (these are also new and high end tires).

Is there any way to definitively test the bearings without actually replacing them?


Not definitively, but close enough.

Remove the pads, put the wheel back on and give it a good hard spin in Neutral. Bad bearings USUALLY sound crunchy. Compare sides, they should sound the same, and that sound should be almost nothing.

If it is noisy, track it down to bearings versus CV Joints.

 

[Y_K]

Do they act up as if ABS is partially activated all of a sudden?

 

[Ojustracing]

So you put pads and rotors on and didn't notice the caliper pins were stuck? are the pads on properly? also did you do front/rear? Could the noise be coming from the other end of the car.