Front Brake's "groan"
 

I had put new breaks all around on my car about 2 or so months ago. Now it is making a "gronaning" sound when at low speed and turning to the right. ( ie. pulling into a parking spot. ) Very embarrasing to say the least. I took the brake pads off, hosed everything down with brake cleaner, re installed. STILL making the same sound! Any clue what is causing it?????

RE: Front Brake's "groan"
 

What do the rotors look like? Are any of the calipers sticking?

RE: Front Brake's "groan"
 

your rims might be bent. thats the problem with my back right rim, im not sure what it is scraping against but its making a grinding noise and its aweful.

RE: Front Brake's "groan"
 

Are you using OEM discs or aftermarket OEM style, slotted, drilled or slotted/drilled discs? Are you using ceramic, organic, or hybrid brake pads? Did you reinstall the shims with brake silencing gel? Did you torque down the brake caliper bolts down correctly? If you've used the stock discs, did you have them rotated? Does your brake pedal feel squishy? Give us more info bro, groaning brakess after brake change is too vague.

RE: Front Brake's "groan"
 

Wow. Lots of questions! ( And GOOD ones too! ) Well, ok,,, The brake disc's are orriginal. Dont know about the kind of brake pads. They were the $19.95/par ones you get at Advance Auto, Did not see any shims come off the old pads, so no. Silencing gel??? First I've heard of that, so no. No gel/grease was used. I was not aware that the brake callipers had to be torque'd to anything specific. I have done lots of brake jobs on my past Ford, Chevy & Dodge's, and never ever had any problems before.But this is the first import car I have done a brake job on. Sounds to me like they are really finnicy!!! Brake pedaltravel feels perfect. Very firm, very well controlled. I did not rotate the brake rotors. I really do need to replace the ones in the back though. ( Although that is not where hte sound is coming from. They were too thin to be turned down at the machine shop, so I just re-used them for now, with full plans to replace them soon.) I may accualy have to break out the service manual and go through them again! This time I will keep everything you mentioned above in mind! Thanks for the insight!

I would like to eventually replace the brakes completly with cross-drilled slotted rotors all around and creamic "dust free" pads. But I am remodeling our house right now, so that will have to wait till next year.

RE: Front Brake's "groan"
 

Sorry, by the book, yes, you should torque down the bolts...I don't. That was my "every new guy should consider this" statement, lol. Not that you're new to cars, but there are others in here who are and I don't want those guys to skip steps that may cause them issues later.
My experiences with moaning brakes are due to good gripping pads, cold pads/discs, and during slow braking (pulling into driveway, parking spots, etc.). Similar to your issues.
What I suggest checking is the caliper, making sure that the guide pin (lower bolt) and lock pin (upper bolt) aren't mixed up. The caliper is supposed to "float" as you know, so having those two mixed up may not allow the caliper to float properly. An overlooked item is regreasing the guide pin, if that was wiped off or just dry. I'm sure you know that there really isn't much to brakes and what can cause noises from them. You sound knowledgable, so there's really not much else to suggest. After all, there's only a couple of things that will cause it and that's mechanical or product and if it is the product, there's not much you can do but swap it out with another one.
The gel that I'm referring to is an anti-squeal compound which is applied between the shims and the top of the pad. If you're missing the shims, that could be your culprit since the back of the pads are now vibrating on the caliper. In a sense, you could be getting the groan from two pieces of thick metal which may resonate a lower freq (because it happens at slower speeds) as opposed to a whine/whistle of the thin shims vibrating against the caliper which resonate a higher freq (because they happen at higher speeds).

I'm sure you have a handle on all of these, but that's the only things I can think of that will cause the groaning.

My wife's minivan does it too, but it's caused by her tires rubbing on certain street compounds such as tar. As you can imagine, it only does it while turning into our driveway and while on the street (composed of mainly of tar and not so much cement). On a cement paved road does not cause any groaning at all...only with the tar compound paved streets.
That's just a variable that could be causing the groan, although, I'm not saying that it is what's causing your issue. Just something I've noted.

RE: Front Brake's "groan"
 

get the rotors turned