Cars - For Car Enthusiasts

It’s fucking brakes, not breaks.

You are describing a car with overheating brakes. Brakes squeaking is from "glazing", which causes a high frequency slip and grip that "rings" the rotor like a bell. Wet finger on the rim of a glass is the same idea. Some squeak is normal, just annoying. The shake can be caused by a few things, but since we are talking brakes, the rotor being warped is most likely.

Why the brakes are overheating are usually due to two factors, caliper issues or improper use of the brakes.

Caliper issues can be things like a sticking piston or sticking slide pins. The technician who did the brakes should have cleaned the pins as well as the hole they go into and lubed them. The grease that the pins use to slide can gum up and cause the caliper to stick and seize, resulting in the pads not retracting away from the rotor, just like you were riding the brakes. The "saddle" that the pads sit in can also be a sticking point due to rust or improper brake pad hardware installation. The tech should have cleaned up the channels that the pads ride in and lightly lubed them. A sticking piston will have the same result, the pads riding the rotor too much and excessive heat and wear results. Too much heat cause by either issue can result in both issues being observed.

Improper use of the brakes is usually riding the brakes, like in heavy traffic, or hard braking habitually. Long braking periods of light pressure can also cause excessive heat to build.

I am not saying the shop did a bad job, but that is as likely a possibility as bad braking habits from where I am sitting with the information available.

'SUV' are big cars. Most are pushing 2 tonnes or more, so will naturally wear brakes out faster. That goes for all unsprung components such as tyres, bushings, and all the other wear items in the suspension.

Some cars are notorious for being under braked for their size, especially 'SUVs' that share platforms with standard sized counterparts so that contributes to it as well.

That said, brakes shouldn't judder/shake under braking during normal operation, even when worn. Juddering is due to something either not being right or very, very heavily and dangerously worn brakes. It may be warped disks/rotors (from cooking them due to overuse), pitting (if the car hasn't been driven much) or something else. The squeaking can be anything from debris caught between the pad and disk, a hard point on the pad or the wear indicator (called a squealer). The former 2 generally clear themselves out.

Without knowing how and where you drive or perhaps even the car itself it's difficult to say where the problem lies. A set of pads and disks can easily last 10s of 1000s of miles. But it depends on many factors.

1. Brakes. Rotors.

2. Its an SUV, so the weight it needs to stop is higher than a small car. People who don't know how to drive heavier cars cook brakes pretty easily on them.

3. Is she a lead-foot? Ride the brakes downhill? Two-footed driver? Is she an attentive driver, or does she constantly get distracted doing other things like makeup? Is she constantly speeding?

Might be a stuck caliper or faulty brake lines

Bring it to a NEW shop or do the brakes yourself. It's about the easiest repair you can do. Basic tools are needed and tons of videos on YouTube walk you through the process. And the cost will be a lot less than bringing it to a shop - maybe as low as $200 for the front rotors and pads and secondary parts you will need. (The cost will vary greatly depending upon the specific vehicle)

Also while the front brakes do do most of the braking, so they will wear out before the rear brakes, don't forget that the rears will need servicing eventually.

Squeaking usually comes from not lubricating the pads when you put them in. Or it can come from not lubing the caliper components.

Shaking usually comes from rotors that have warped from heat. And braking your car produces a LOT of heat. You mentioned that the rotors were sanded down. I hope they weren't sanded down. They should have been turned down on a lathe. That will give you a smooth even surface for the pads to grab onto. But the problem with turning down the rotors is that they are now thinner, and thinner materials tend to warp. Usually it isn't worth turning down rotors. The mechanic might charge you about $50 to turn them down, but new rotors would probably cost only about $100, so you are far better off replacing the rotors instead of turning them down.

Sometimes shaking comes from the pad material leaving small bits and pieces of itself onto a hot rotor. That happens when the pads haven't been "bedded-in" properly. I'm not going to explain that - there are plenty of videos that explain bedding-in brake pads you can watch.

Broken caliper, or more likely a broken piston in the caliper.

3 stop start isnt great but it wouldnt wear them out super fast, the easiest way to utterly fuck brakes is frequent heavy braking or riding them.

What kind of car is it SPECIFICALLY (year, make, model and badge)