New poster here revisiting old topic - BMW M5 brake squeal

[benefar]

Dear forum members,

This is my first post on Bimmerforums. I was super active 15+ years ago when I bought my first BMW (a 2000 M Coupe), second BMW (E46 M3) and third BMW (E39 M5). I forgot my username and changed email, so I just created a new account. In the past 20 years I have had numerous BMWs including the M vehicles mentioned above. I've never had any significant issue with the vehicles, and was super excited to buy an M5 last year (**without** ceramic brakes) as the ultimate dad car (I have a family of four). The first several months were amazing, and I had no issues at all. I was only putting on about 400-500 miles a month. Starting sometime around May or June I started to notice some minor brake squeal. While I didn't like the squeal, it was minor enough that it didn't really bother me.

Over the course of the summer, the squeal worsened a lot. The squealing was constant and given that most of my driving is urban, all fun has disappeared. If I lived in a place like Texas where I was doing mostly highway driving, I wouldn't be that upset. But, 90%+ of my driving is urban slow going LA traffic with a lot of braking. I saw that some have recommended spraying wheel cleaner on the rotors to temporarily stop the problem. It hasn't worked well for me, nor do I think this is an appropriate remedy either.

I decided to bring the car to my local dealer to get it evaluated. They told me that the squeal is super common and there was nothing to do, other than to submit a complaint with BMW of North America and hope for the best. I submitted the request and after several weeks of review, I got a response from Brian K who said he was the most senior person in his department. He said that they are aware of the issue and it's common. He also said there was nothing they could for me, and offered very little if any remorse for the situation. I tried seeing if there was any way to elevate the complaint, but he held firm that it was impossible.

While I concede I have not had an M car recently, I have never had this issue before on my former M cars, nor have I had on multiple Porsches that I have owned including a GT3 with ceramic brakes.

I do not understand how BMW can get away selling a car with squealing brakes. It's not like you go on their website and this is disclosed with a disclaimer. BMW of North America does not make you sign a waiver of this issue.

I am not looking for snarky responses such as "you should have known what you are getting yourself into" etc. I'm more interested in understanding if there is any path - through the company, through legal means or another way - where I could pursue this and resolve the matter. I do not want to sell this car over a brake squeal either.

Thanks in advance.

[pbonsalb]

I read on M5Post that BMW updated the brake pads in the past year. Not sure if that has fixed the problem or whether just swapping pads on a car with worn rotors that probably have pad deposits on them will help — might need new or resurfaced rotors.

[Honolulu]

You reference frequent braking in traffic and I suggest this (unavoidable behavior) may have glazed the rotors. An old tech at my local dealership, having lived through the ages of severe "warped rotors" and wobbly braking some years ago, recommended (five or six) several hard stops from high speed. This will put significant heat in the rotors and possibly allow the pads to scrub off material that has become bonded to the rotor surfaces. Please make sure no one is close behind you if you do this. Do this completely at your own risk, I cannot be relied on for professional advice.

There's also a aftermarket brake specialist outfit (PMB Performance? they do mostly Porsche calipers) that at one time published quite a reasonable explanation of rotor glazing, but I can't find it just now. Others may have the article or something like it. An internet search for "brake rotor glazing" will turn up lots of info.

[pbonsalb]

I have found that some hard stops helps clean the pad deposits off the rotors but the problem returns. I have not tried temporarily swapping metallic race pads to really resurface the rotors, but that could also help. My rotors have 43k miles and I can feel lips on the inner and outer edges and some waviness on the pad surface. I bought new rotors during Black Friday at a good price and am looking for aftermarket pads to use with them maybe next year. Whatever I chose, I will try to make a 100-0 stop part of my routine about once a week. I bought used with 24k so my current pads and rotors did not benefit from that and though I have done plenty of high speed braking (from as high as 160+ mph), I have not eliminated the school bus squeal during the last few mph to a stop. It’s just the last 10 feet or so.

[osuwari]

If your brake pads are nice and flat across the friction side, you will have a slight squeal when braking softly. To fix this, take out your brake pads and chamfer the edges.