That buddy who swore by WD-40 on squeaky brakes was dead wrong

My friend Dave told me to spray WD-40 on my Nissan's rear brakes to stop the squeaking, said he'd done it for years. I tried it last weekend and after a day the pads glazed over and I almost lost stopping power pulling into a stop sign in Austin. Has anyone else had a bad experience using the wrong lube on brakes or am I the only one who listened to bad advice?

2 comments

2 Comments

piperf4020d ago

Wait, is it REALLY that serious? I've doused my old beater's brakes in WD-40 twice when they got noisy and it just made them quiet again after a couple hard stops. Felt fine to me. @park.wyatt I think you might be overhyping this a bit because I literally did it last month on my Camry and nothing bad happened, no mushy pedal or anything. Maybe your Ford just had old rotors already going out.

park.wyatt20d ago

I actually read a piece in Motor Trend a few years back that talked about this exact problem. They said WD-40 is a penetrating oil and solvent, not a lubricant, so it washes away any residual brake dust and then dries up fast. That leaves the pads with nothing to grip but a slick, glazed surface. I had a similar thing happen on my old Ford truck when I used the wrong spray on the caliper slides. The noise stopped for a day, then came back twice as bad and the pedal felt mushy. Had to replace the pads and turn the rotors to fix the damage. You're not alone in trusting that advice, but that can is best left for rusty hinges and stuck bolts.