I own a Fiat Punto MKII, 1.2 ELX 5-door on a W-reg plate and I replaced my brake shoes back in April 2005 for the first time, due to wear and tear. The work was done by a mobile mechanic I used before on my previous car, too.
The car developed a creaking noise coming from the rear passenger side as soon as the new shoes were installed and the handbrake has never been very efficient since. The mechanic told me to live with the noise until the shoes had bedded-in. However, the noise was there on and off until my patience ran out in December last year, when I called him to check the brakes again. He then blaimed Nationwide, where I took my car for a full service two weeks before he had a look at the problem, saying that somebody had messed around in there and charged me another =A380 for a new set of shoes. He bought this set from the same supplier and this was exactly the same as the first one (Ferodo).
The noise dissapeared for a day or two and then came back again. Once again, he said I need to let them bed-in. On the other hand he suggested that Nationwide might have bent the shoe backplate during the full service!! Sounds like he is eager to charge me more money!
I had the car checked once again at a local garage who have been trading for over 40 years, recommended by one of my mates, who used to take his Merc A-Class there. They initially blamed the mobile mechanic for having installed the wrong retaining clips and charged me =A382. But the noise was still there the following morning!
Then, they made several attempts to eliminate the noise and they were successful twice by taking all the shoes off the car and then putting them back on with brake grease etc. Everytime the noise disappeared for a day or so and then came back.
I picked the car up today from them once again and they are now telling me that it must be the brake shoe lining material which is causing the hugely creaking noise when the foot brake is applied and that this will disappear after the car had done around 4000 to 5000 miles since installation back in December '05. Apparently this is a normal noise!!!
Strange thing is that when moving along at 20 mph or so and I pull the handbrake up half way and apply the foot brake at the same time in order to stop, the noise is not there! The owner of the garage told me that by doing that I am taking the pressure off the shoes and thereby eliminating the creaking noise. He's telling me that I have to live with this until they bed-in, but I've had other cars before and I know this noise is not normal and it shouldnt' be there, it's driving me up the wall!!!
If anyone has any ideas as to what to look for, or what to try next, please help... I have already spent around =A3250 and been through months of aggrevation for something that seems to be so simple, replacing brake shoes and nobody can do anything to fix it! I would like to avoid taking it to the dealer as they will charge a lot of money and there is no guarantee they will be able to fix it.
Many thanks in advance...