Originally Posted by
WhyFi
I had a squeal a couple weeks ago; my rotor was evidently contaminated while sending a wheel off to be rebuilt. It was a matter of minutes to pull the wheel, wipe the rotor, pull the pads and sand them on a diamond plate (though a piece of sand paper on a kitchen counter would work just as well), and re-install. The process was certainly no worse than cleaning metal shards out of rim brake pads.
Why not replace the caliper with the same model - not available?
Not readily available. I couldn't find a quickly available source so went with the newer model not realizing the hydraulic connection was different or I realized it but thought they would ship the necessary connecting hardware with the caliper. In any case, I think using hydraulic disc brakes in the rain is worthwhile but I wouldn't bother for dry weather bikes. I sanded my discs which got rid of the squeal for a week or so but now it's back. Have a new rotor which I'll try next and hopefully that will be the end of the squeal. The squeal does work better than a bell for alerting pedestrians that I'm near which is an unexpected benefit.