After my unfortunate experience with Carbotech products (and their lack of customer service), I tried to do some real investigating to see what in the world could be done to finally cure our persistent frustration brake squeal problem that plagues all of us Aston Martin owners from time to time.

Buying yet another set of aftermarket brake pads was not an option. I tried to source the OEM brake pad Shims, but it turns out Aston no longer makes them as the shims are now built into the new OEM pad design. My brake pads still had a ton of life left on them so I didn't want to have to get new pads. There had to be a better, simpler, cheaper way to finally solve this problem...

After talking with a few of the shop techs at Motorwekrs, they informed me that they use BG Stop Squeal on every set of brake pads they install. I asked them what is so special about it and what are its advantages over copper grease, shims and etc. They stated that copper grease on the backing plate is a very old school ineffective way of trying to reduce brake squeal as it is rarely effective. Also, Shims they said are only partially effective sometimes and again an old school approach. So I asked them what is BG Stop Squeal and how does it work exactly. To best paraphrase what they said I will refer directly to the company's website:



"BG Stop Squeal is a safe and effective product for eliminating or preventing brake noise by infusing the brake pad with ingredients/nutrients that reduce sticking between the pad and rotor surface. When pressure is applied, the vibrations are significantly reduced, thus brake noise is stopped"

So I decided to give it a shot, after all I kept the stock pads because I was going to ship them back to Carbotech (ironically enough), luckily I didn't. So I dropped the car off at Motorwerks and watched them as they applied the BG Stop Squeal.

Installation:

What separates BG Stop Squeal from other products it is the only product I have seen that is actually applied to the friction surface of the pad (view attached images). They applied one small bottle and allowed it to soak into the pad all the way down to the backing plate, waited 10-15 min, then applied a whole second bottle again to make sure that the entire pad absorbed the BG Stop Squeal. The black solution is applied to all 8 pad surfaces (view attached images, inside & outside on each rotor). I always stated that the biggest problem with the stock pads was not the shims or lack of shims, it was the actual pad compound itself. Logically I thought the pad compound had to be changed by purchasing a totally different set of pads. It never dawned on me that you could actually apply a product into the pad surface itself that could transform its properties, I was unaware such a product even existed. What I like about BG Stop Squeal philosophy is it permanently alters the actual chemistry of the pad compound itself thereby permanently changing its properties. This process is irreversible so you cannot go back (not that you would want to).

At first I was quite skeptic, but they insisted that they do this on Bentleys all the time and it has cured the problem every single time. Given I had nothing to lose I figured I would give it a shot. After they let the pads dry to the touch they put the pads back in and I went for a test drive.

Initial Impressions:

At first the braking power is reduced by a good 15%. I am not sure if this was entirely because of the somewhat moist pads soaked with BG stop squeal, or whether it was because breaking in the Carbotech pads removed some of the stock brake pads deposits on the rotor, but it was a substantial difference at first. Fortunately after about 100-200 miles, the brake bite came back as the stock pads redeposited into the rotor surface and is now back to about 95%. The best analogy I can think of is ... imagine your hands are super dry and you put moisturizer on them; initially they are very greasy, but after about 15 minutes they are much better off than they were before. In many ways BG Stop Squeal is like brake pad moisturizer that is permanent.

Above 10mph you almost cannot tell a difference from before / after, pretty much full bite has been restored (and is better than the Carbotechs on stock rotors btw, although not as good as carbotechs on Brembo rotors which I assume is mostly due to the Brembo rotors and not the pads) . However, the biggest difference is once you get below 10mph. Before it was a very grabby as you approached to a stop, and this is precisely when the squeal would be the worse (right around 5-8mph). With the BG Stop squeal, just as the website suggests, it prevents the pad from "sticking" to the rotor and thereby reducing the grabby feel the stock pads used to have. This does mean you need to apply about 5-10% more pedal pressure below 10mph to bring it to a full stop, but to me this is more than worthwhile of a tradeoff. In actuality, I like it more now because it is much easier to come to a stop smoothly than before as you can modulate the brake pedal better without having to play that tippy toes game with the brake pedal to avoid the squeal "sweetspot".

Conclusion:

I am happy to report that after a few months of driving (both casually and aggressively) and putting the brakes under every possible imaginable scenario... the brakes have not squealed even once. I thought after a dozen super hard high heat stops the BG would burn off, but it has not. I am shocked that a simple solution of $6 worth of BG Stop squeal (about 2 bottles worth) managed to cure the problem that has plagued our Astons for so long. Even better, this can be done on any existing set of used stock brake pads already on your car and the shop labor to do so is only roughly 0.5-1.0 hours of labor (depending on what your indie shop will charge you).

I suppose in a weird way the whole Carbotech situation was a huge blessing in disguise, had I never gone through that I never would have stumbled upon such an unbelievable simple and easy cost effective solution to cure all of our brake squeal problems. I could not be happier with my brake pads now; I kept the great stock feel of the OEM brake pads, without the obnoxious noises they create. I highly recommend doing this procedure as a first step measure if you are having brake noise problems. I cannot guarantee it will work in 100% of the cases out there, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did the job 95% of the time. It really is the cure we have all been looking for.

Hope that helps,
007

 

Thanks for the post, very informative. Not sure if I missed it in there, but where can you buy it? Think I might give it a shot.

 

It's available all over ebay and amazon. Some sellers sell it 3-5 bottles for not much more the that. Avg price is $4-10 depending on how many bottles you want. I recommend 2 bottles per full front/rear set of brake pads.

 

This is great info. I just may have to try it on my Audi S4 as well.

 

Sure thing, give it a shot. Some shops will only charge you half hour of labor to do it, and the BG stop squeal is so cheap it's hard to not try it as a first resort option to fixing any squeals. The fact that it can be applied to any existing used set of pads makes it the most cost effective option on the market.

 

Thanks for this great info. I ordered a 2-bottle kit on e-bay for 7-bucks and free shipping.

 

Lucky you, I found the same deal but shipping to Canada is $25 plus import duty. I haven't found a Canadian supplier yet. I may just order ten bottles as the shipping cost is the same to make it worthwhile.

 

Just for grins, I looked up the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for BG Stop Squeal. It's comprised of some alcohols, graphite and ethylcelluose.

Isobutyl Alcohol - 60-100%
Isopropyl Alcohol - 10-30%
Graphite - 3-7%
Ethylcelluose - 0.5-1.5%

http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/engineering/...p%20Squeal.pdf

You are more than welcome to put a "lubricant" on your brake pads.
Just don't be behind me on the track...caveat emptor!

 

Have torture tested the brakes and they have performed perfectly every time. Since I do not plannig on tracking it this is the perfect solution for me and the 99% that don't track their astons. If you do track them then I would recommend upgrading both pads and rotors and etc of course. But this is for those who just drive theirs on the street and are trying to eliminate the brake squeal.

 

This might not last as long as you would hope . I have applied this to many cars. If you don't drive a lot you will need to repeat this process after bout 6 months. It almost seems to dry out.
Don't not apply this to ceramic brakes. You will make it worse and can even destroy the rotors.

 

My brakes were squeaking a year ago and I went to my Nissan dealership to get new pads.. One of the mechanics gave me a bottle of this for free and told me to try it before I bought new pads. I did, and it worked.

 

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ml#post4142957


another way to stop squeaking that usually works 90% of the time for performance pads and used rotors.

 

Hey guys,

Been pushing her hard for past month and still zero squeals of any kind. This really does seem to have done the trick. The ultimate test will be in the winter when cold pads really like to squeal, but as of now since the pads were first put back in over 3 months ago no new noises.

On a side note, almost all of the pedals bite has come back, over 95%. It's only a little but softer below 5mph coming to a stop (which is totally fine, and actually preferred). Pedal feedback and feel is pretty much back to stock before the BG stop squeal was added and braking performance is 100%.

For such a simple fix, this really is the best bang per buck braking fix you can do for our squeaky brakes. If I ever upgrade rotors and pads I will apply it even to new pads moving forward, it's the best squeal insurance money can buy

 

How is this solution holding up for you? My 07 Vantage is squealing really bad right now too and I'm desperate to get rid of the squeal. This seems like a good cheap solution. I'll try to bed the brakes again to see if that helps any. If not - my next step will be BG Stop Squeal. Thanks.

 

Has anyone using the stop squeal noticed a reduction in the amount of brake dust?