Quote:
Originally Posted by JusticePete
High performance brake pads make noise. On the SS the only way to reduce the noise is to dumb down the pads You'll hear many disagree and claim they have replaced pads and the brakes are no quieter and makes less dust while stopping better. Being politically correct, I'll just say I have yet to see any data that supports this claim 
The roller skates are there to add mass to the caliper and pad assembly. The greater mass alters the harmonic and reduces noise. Yes they do work, but not to the satisfaction of many. The real question is why is the brake noise a problem? The best brake pads money can buy squeal like a stuck pig. Check any SCCA road course or autocross event to verify this with your own ears. |
From my experience with disc brakes in other industries, this is due to crappy design, although when you're using a pad that wasn't originally designed for the brakes, all bets are off and you are probably going to get some interesting squeals.
There's always been some difference between a little bit of noise, squeal, and crazy noise accompanied with vibrations. I'd assume it was toward the bad side of things with the OEM calipers, which are off-the-shelf brembo products adapted for our cars.
The problem is that a frequency is allowed to propagate and resonate. If we know the exact combination of components, metals, sizes/shapes, and how they contribute to alowing the frequency to propagate, it's easy to fix in the design process. But, we can't change the caliper, and in the process it was probably determined that it's easier/cheaper to add the weights to the pads/caliper than to redesign anything else, like the mounts/interfaces/rotors/axles, etc.
In other motorsports, people sometimes have to resort to attaching fishing-weights and other things to the caliper to achieve the same result, so this is by no means isolated to the camero. In some of those situations though, it was the result of some pretty crappy engineering by the brake company, due to how many instances of installation caused massive squeal/vibrations. I actually had this myself with a 4-piston brake and it was crazy, I eventually ended up getting different rotors, which fixed the problem on this installation. This company is notorious IMO though for poor testing/QC, as I've had fairly consistant issues with them when you add it all up over the years.
If the system really is designed correctly, it shouldn't do this. It's not the "sign of high performance brakes", and I HIGHLY doubt you get a nice porsche or bmw and the brakes are going to be squealing. If they did their homework, no, there should be no significant sound comming from there. Sometimes when I put in new pads or operate a vehicle with new pads I get some light squeal as they are bedding in, but that's more like the first instance I described above, not major squeal and definitely not vibration. Sometimes a contaminant can cause it too. I can see this happening more if you are using AFTERMARKET pads, maybe not tested/balanced out for the system or they only work properly when they get hot enough, but I've never seen any descently designed brake
system that makes excess noise. Again, all bets are off when you change out parts in the system, and it's relatively easy to make an aftermarket part that increases performance in one area and makes some sacrifices, but to increase performance with no or minimal sacrifices is a much greater challenge.
Think about this: Noise is vibration. You want your kinetic energy converted into heat, not noise. If there is excessive noise it's probably "tearing stuff apart" on a small scale, making your brakes less effective due to contact, putting excessive wear on all of the parts.