Hi All... I have been battling this problem for months and am annoyed.

Mistake 1: Had a trip and had to make sure my car got inspected (State of PA) and was under the gun time-wise. So, I took vehicle to my friend who runs the local AAMCO shop. Told me I needed to replace pads and rotors.

Mistake 2: Did so without question.

no problems at the beginning, but a few weeks after change, I start to hear a rhythmic chirp, or squeak coming from the left front side of my car. I can hear it especially driving near walls or curbs. Stops when I use brakes, but starts again as soon as I let off.

ABS issue started a long time ago and will send unit to Cheap ABS later, but have never had a problem before. Now, suddenly brake error occurs periodically then clears (when word "brake" light flashes on dash and beeps). So I am getting a bit nervous.

Guys have switched out the pads and rotors 3 different times with different brands and now will be the 4th time. Chirping returns each time. I don't think these guys have a clue what is wrong. I am afraid they damaged something when changing the brakes. They lubed a few things last time and it was good for a few days. I thought it was fixed. I was wrong.

2005 A6Q 3.2L

Car is driving me nuts these days. Love my vehicle, but so many little things constantly going wrong these days, but a new(er) vehicle not in the cards right now... need to make it one more year.

Hope you can help. I own VCDS, so is there something I can do to diagnose or check on my own, or reset something like calipers?

Thanks,
R

 

First thing I might look in to is whether or not the anti-rattle spring was installed correctly. The anti rattle spring will put pressure on the caliper and bracket to reduce noise when the caliper is not contracting. This could be why you hear noise when you're not applying the brakes but it's silent when applying the brakes.

Next, check and make sure that the pad guides on the bracket are clean and even. (The part where the pad's backing plate's shoulders sit) There might be so much crud and debris in this channels that the pads aren't being pushed into the rotors correctly that it is causing weird noises. If they are dirty clean them up with some sand paper or a wire wheel but don't go too crazy with the sanding because you do not want there to be extra room for the pad to wiggle if you remove some of the surface material of the bracket.

I do not believe you will see any codes with respect to this issue.