I have a constant squeal on my BB5 caliper. Mostly when brakes are not applied. It’s been the same with the past 3 sets of pads. I’ve tried a different disc and I’ve tried aligning the caliper but it’s just getting worse.

It’s been well used now and done a good few thousand miles. It never used to do it so I’m wondering if it’s some kind of wear in the caliper or something else.

You can physically see the shimmy in the pads and the vibration transferred through the chain stay.

Could it be as simple as adding some copper grease to the back of the pads like you might do with a car, or is there anything else I should look at before giving in and buying a new caliper? Bit fed up with it now.

make sure everything is tight and not moving. Don’t put anything on the back of the pads.

I have a constant squeal on my BB5 caliper. Mostly when brakes are not applied.

Sounds like the pads are rubbing. Backing off the adjustment a bit is an obvious thing to try. Is the rotor warped?

make sure everything is tight and not moving.

That’s all well and good but how do I do that? Pads are having a party. Tried putting extra tension in the retainer

Backing off the adjustment a bit is an obvious thing to try

Tried that too. No joy.

Do the pads have the little retaining springs that hook onto the piston (i.e. one for each pad), or the single big spring that pushes the pads apart? It sounds to me like the pads haven’t been fitted properly and are rubbing against the rotor. Those springs can be fiddly little bastards.

They have the spring in, and I tried prising them apart for more tension because they seemed really loose initially, but they still sound like a screaming cat.

I’ve never run these brakes but isn’t there a specific setup method regarding the pad adjustment, cable tension and the caliper arm/pinch bolt position?

I seem to remember warnings a few years ago as if set up incorrectly, the cam action of the arm could cause brake failure as it ran out of travel.

This could be your problem, if it’s adjusted incorrectly there may be insufficient clearance to the disc.

When I had BB7s copper grease used to work really well in tandem with the eccentric set up technique I had to follow every time I changed the pads.