I don't know why this keeps happening, perhaps someone can shed some light. My front driver side caliper started creaking again whenever brake force is applied. The sound resembles a person walking across an old wood floor. It is not squeal; this is a very different noise and can be reproduced with the car stationary just by stepping on the brake pedal.

The first time I brought the car in for warranty work, it was diagnosed as the silver shim plate that goes between the pistons and the pad. Somehow, the piston was making uneven contact with the shim when the brakes got hot. So, the dealer replaced the shims and the noise went away. That was about a month ago.

Now, the same noise is back which leads me to believe the shim has warped again. The odd thing is, it's only happening on the front left caliper. All others are fine. Could anyone suggest a reason as to why this is happening, and how to prevent it down the road? Braking performance is unaffected, just the noise is annoying.

P.S. Is it ok to run without the front backing plate shims? The reason I ask this, is without the shims in, the noise could not be reproduced, even when the rotors are almost glowing hot. As far as I know, the shim is only there to prevent pad noise, that's why it's so confusing knowing that this shim is the cause of this noise.

 

No suggestions?

 

some don't use the front shim but use copper anti-seize on the entire back and side of the pad and seem to have no issues/loud squeaks.

 

Thanks... I'll try coating the shims with a layer of permatex and see if that helps. Any one else have any ideas? This issue is really starting to annoy the crap out of me.