Alright, went down'ar to da autozone de udder day and picked me up some of them there shiney new brake pads and rotors. The installation went quickly and smoothly, however they're sorta loud. I bought "average" rotors from Autozone, and semi-metallic brake pads.

Sacicons, in another thread you mentioned ceramic pads (i think) being quieter than whatever you use. I'm wondering if the noise i'm hearing is normal, or if theres something wrong with my setup. Its like a, damn its really hard to describe a noise through typing... I dont want to say a grinding noise cause that makes it sound way worse than it really is. Put it this way, in order to hear it i have to have the windows down, radio off, air conditioning off, AND be applying the brakes next to parked cars or buildings so the sound can echo.

 

As far as I know, your brakes shouldn't be making ANY noise when applied. Of all the brakes I've done (probably 24 or so), I've never had a brake job that was noisy of any sort.

 

Yeah, i've done a ****load of brake jobs too, but this was the first time i'd taken worn rotors, and severly worn pads and replaced them with brand new rotors/pads at the same time. Its usually one or the other.. Any suggestions people>?

 

Before you installed the new rotors, did you clean them with brake cleaner to remove any grease or oil?

 

Yeah i did, did i maybe not use enough? The guy told me to use it "sparingly"

 

You gotta make sure ALL the grease or oil is removed or it could build up on the pads and cause funny noises among other things.
What you could do is take a bit of sandpaper (not too rough) and just roughen up the smooth surface on the pads (to remove any oil or grease build-up), and clean the rotors again with the brake cleaner ( I never use sparingly), then take some new sandpaper and quickly go over the rotor surface as you spin it (to remove any glazed surface).
Try that and see if it makes any difference.

 

if you did everything properly and cleaned it properly. i wouldnt worry about the noise. a lot of non metalic pads make noise.

 

these are semi-metallic, does that make a difference?

 

yes, personally I don't like semi-metalic. they tend to be a little louder, as you are experiencing, and they wear down the rotors faster. I went a longer time with my stock rotors and OEM brake pads than I do now. After the stock rotors went out(to thin) I decided to go with autozone replacements and the semi-metalic brake pads(they didn't have the ceramic ones) and the rotors warped on me. I have since then gone through about 2 sets of rotors because of the semi-metalic pads. this came straight from a Honda service tech. they see this all the time. From now on my brake pad replacements will be with OEM pads and OEM rotors.

 

There still shouldn't be any noise from your brakes. Follow my instructions above.