wendigirl

Ok, I'll start from the beginning.. I got my lexus IS350 2 years ago.. After about a year I was told the brake pads and rotors needed to be changed. I purchased the pads and rotors straight from the dealership. A friend of mine who works on cars replaced them for me to save me the huge amount of $$$ they were going to charge me for labor. Things were great for 3 months then the squeeling started when I applied the brakes. It got so loud that people would jump on the sidewalk because it scared them. I took my car to the dealership to have it checked out they told me... " This happens when you get after market pads" .. hmm really? Bought them from you guys! They didn't do anything. A couple more months passed by and my father became VERY concerned for my safety and the noise that he decided to look at them. He worked on cars his whole life. He noticed they were semi metallic pads that completely ate at my rotors . We had the rotors re-surfaced and put ceramic pads on. The squeeling stopped for 2 weeks and started back up again. He checked and lubed everything and now here I am 5 months after he had changed it having the SAME problem. Lexus quoted me $420 for new pads ( what a JOKE) and $668 for new rotors ( BIGGER JOKE!) The parts themselves when I bought them from the dealership a year ago came to $300. I don't know what to do anymore... Lexus told me the type of pads they would put on the car are semi metallic.. just like the first go around that didn't work. If anyone has any advice on what I can buy, or do please feel free! I am embarressed by the noise and almost tempted to leave the car in T.J.

IStnr

if this is happening to all the brakes (i.e. not just one in particular)...

buy a set of premium centric rotors (from rockauto, partsgeek, etc..) and oem pads (from sewell). with your re-occurring issue, get new shims from sewell...and might as well get new fitting kits too. just make sure you grease them properly when you install. i just did mine with wonderful results and <$400 total. i reused the shims but wish i bought new ones.

oh yeah- get a good flush of fresh brake fluid through all the lines too.