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k6ncx's avatar
k6ncx
Explorer
Feb 06, 2017

Newish motorhome, squeaky brakes

Forgive me for being an ignorant newbie, but I've got a question about my motorhome's brakes.

The rig in question is a 2016 Thor ACE 30.1 (bought new in September, under 5,000 miles on it now,) but I don't think the answer is specific to any brand or line. It's built on a 18,000 lb gross Ford F-53 chassis but, again, I don't think the answer is going JG to depend on that.

Ever since the drive home after taking delivery, and up to the last I drove it last week, I've noticed that the brakes squeak. Not as in a squeak with the movement of applying or retracting, but a continuous sound for the duration of braking. But not always. Only sometimes.

I'm old enough to have known to replace brake linings when rivets rubbing the drums made a squeak like that. But that squeak wouldn't come and go. This does.

Should I be concerned? Should I make haste to a Ford truck dealer?
  • With the dirty oil thread, and wore out brakes sounds like MH has a whole lot more miles, and hours than the dash pod said. It's very easy to change the odometer, hr. Meter. Hope I am wrong.
  • take in while its under warranty. you have paid for use it.
    it is probably as john wayne says but why worry your self when you have the tool to get it resolved before it cost you.
  • Likely my problem is unrelated but this sounds quite similar to my experience after having the disk pads changed at a local truck garage. The squeak or high pitched rattle was continuous with the brake pedal pushed. Quite noisy, embarrassing in city driving. It was only in one front wheel. The truck mechanic stopped by to look and thought the problem was rust on the rim of the brake disk. He ground the rust off and the squeal stopped until three potholes into the next camping trip.

    Once home again, I took both wheels off and had a really good look at the new pads. There was a difference in how the noisy one was positioned compared to the quiet side. The shiny tabs were not placed the same.

    I wrapped electrical tape around that tab in the photo and that changed and reduced the sound. I got the mechanic to have another look and he corrected the installation mistake on the noisy side. The tab is securely tucked in so it can't vibrate. No further trouble. This mechanic is a friend and very experienced (mostly on much bigger trucks) so it must be an easy mistake to make. The brakes worked fine and there was no squeal on his test drive or for me until I took it on a camping trip.
  • If the brakes don't get a lot of use, sometimes they can squeak at first due to (what I assume is) surface rust on the discs, dust on the pads, and that sort of thing. Usually it goes away after a little use, at least for me.

    If the pads are in good shape and the calipers working freely I wouldn't worry overly much about it.
  • You have disc brakes on all 4 wheels. It could be that you need to have the pins and the calipers lubed where the pads slide on the cradle.

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