Brake Squeal on our Swift Elegance 2019
Thoughts please 
. A few short weeks after purchasing our beloved Elegance 560 the brakes started to squeal very loudly when applying them. It was returned to the dealer and shoes and drums were replaced by them under our Swift Warranty. Next time we went out the squeal came back 
. Our dealer has now deglazed them and lubricated the pivot points which has had no effect. We have been told that it is not a safety issue and nothing more will be done. We are careful to ensure that we do not travel overweight and after travelling to Spain and back are pretty sure they are bedded in. Just to note this is not a minor squeak, it is an extremely loud squeal loud enough to turn heads! Are we justified in insisting that this is not acceptable after spending many thousands of pounds on a new, much loved caravan?
Comments
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Brake squeal is a common problem on Alko chassis in recent years. It IS a warranty issue for Alko and your dealer should be pursuing a claim through them. Ours was a 2017 Elddis which our dealer took a couple of attempts to fix themselves but Alko finally agreed last year and fixed the problem.
It's back to the dealer I think.
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Try and get a passenger to film and record the noise on your next trip and send to dealer and insist it is a warranty issue. You could always sent to Swift customer services as well. I have the 650 elegance and had the shoes changed after 500 mlies because of the squeal but have not tested new ones as lockdown put a stop to it.
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We had the same problem some years ago. I think it was on our Swift but that doesn't really matter as it was Alko who built the chassis and running gear.
At the time I contacted Alko who sent me a diagram of how to cut slits in the brake shoes at specific places. They obviously recognised they had a problem to have this information readily at hand.
As it happened, I didn't cut the pads as we sold the caravan soon after returning from a very squealy, head turning and embarrassing trip to France.
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We have a Coachman on an Alko chassis,same as others 400 mile in break squeal, we've had the grove treatment done. That didn't work, so the breaks replaced, that has helped a bit we still get a little noise but not as bad. Still reported it to dealer who will investigate when it goes there. Alko are now insisting on a photo of the break drums and pads.
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Yes as said. It’s a well known problem. I got it virtually straight away after towing a few miles from purchasing my swift in 2017 new.. dealer tried fixing twice until I discovered on here it was a known fault and warranty issue. I challenged the dealership who immediately accepted (admitted) it. Had one warranty repair but problem back yet again so another repair booked
A problem Is dealers don’t like warranty work as paid at peanuts. I’m told it was a factor in one caravan dealership going into liquidation.
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We have a Swift Ace Globetrotter which has the Alko chassis/breaks. We've had the same issue. The first time we took it back they cut slots in the break pads and said this is what Alko has said to do. 2nd time it went in they changed the break pads, 3rd time it went in they changed everything.
Guess what. . . . . yep still squeals. Rubbish.
We had to film the van being towed to prove the breaks were squealing.
Still no answers from dealership or Alko
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BRAKES ..... the spelling is in the title of the thread!!!!!
I've found that in general with cars, it's parts from the cheaper end of the market that squeal .... which suggests that Alko has sourced their parts as cheaply as possible 🤷♂️
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we also have had problems with noisy brakes from day 1 on our 2017 eldiss afinitty after 3 attempts and nearly 2 years at putting it right they finally fitted a new drum and linings, alko would only replace 1 as only 1 was scored as a mechanic for about 40 years it is something i would never do it solved the problem .after a service and 12 months and 1 week later the noise came back, into workshop to be checked out stripped out the old drum an lining as good as new the new parts that were fitted had failed, according to our fitter due to parts being of poor quality and no longer under warranty 450 quid later van back on the road have been in touch with alco direct and they cant even bother to reply ,Trading standards and BBC watchdog next step perhaps if a few more of us did they might sit up and take note
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We bought a Coachman 545 in January 2020 and when towing home found the brakes were squeeling . Informed the dealership when we got home and they said the brakes need bedding in (ha ha ) fast forward 500 miles and guess what ? The local dealership 10 miles away would not touch it untill next year !! ( because we did not buy it from them and reserve that right ) and suggest we take it to where we bought it . Fast forward again and the dealership where we bought it took it in under warranty and had it for a week in August brake drums removed cleaned refitted got 5 miles towards home and they started again equally as bad as before repair . That was an 80 mile trip so I rang them and said its coming back to you and their reply was there is nothing more they can do and put all the blame on Al Ko as they are not accepting warranty claims on brakes since March 2020. Now these brakes sound like an HGV that badly needs brake attention and I find it too distracting and therefore unsafe to tow. £24000 spent and the industries customer service is a joke and in need of a big shake up .
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Just as a follow on from above the caravan was brand new in January and I have given BBC watchdog the details for them hopefully to investigate and although we all buy caravans with the best of intentions with good money the industry is having a laugh at our expense !
I have seen a bulletin from Al Ko ,direct from the MD to the dealerships stating that the squeeling or screeching brakes are safe and they are not accepting any warranty repairs at the moment and my purchasing dealership say they have many unanswered claims for this issue alone . The brake fiasco is affecting thousands of caravaners and all I can hope is the Alko MD has terrible screeching brakes on his luxury car and the dealership won't touch them !!!!
This caravan will remain stored untill an answer is forthcoming and my next move is to ask Coachman to take it back as its unfit for purpose.
Coachman have a shared responsibility as they have bolted the caravan body on to the Alko chassis .
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Mine has it, 2019 Coachman. Dealer said it wasnt one with the degrading shoes (comforting!) and that it was safe. In fairness I believe them but the noise is terrible. After a long run I dropped off a fast road into a small market town, people were staring as I limped along in slow traffic, it screams!
Question, why have the club not taken Alko to task, can I suggest at least a report to DVSA on their handy website, or TUV (or whoever is responsible in Germany).
Lets face it, these are drum brakes, 120 years old design, used in millions of applications on billions of vehicles.
Question to Alko, WHY can you not get this pre-historic bit of engineering right, shame on you as an engineering company.
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These are what were taken off our caravan a week ago 2016 miles lining failure knackered drum 110 miles same problem .there was an alko autherised centre in lincoln went in and asked for advice very helpful apparently they still have lining failure cheap materials, got back home and back to our service workshop tomorrow to be stripped out again he got an e mail on thursday informing him of a batch of faulty linings see what happens tomorrow these are not safe
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We had the same problem on our 2016 Swift Conqueror 480 over the years it became worse, on its first year service our dealer Salop Leisure Shrewsbury carryout some kind of repair however the noise came back within 50 or so miles.
The second service was carried out by a swift approved mobile engineer, he thoroughly checked the brake but it still squealed.
The third year service in July 2019 the drums were now deeply scored, our mobile engineer took photographs of the brake shoes and drums, he informed us to contact Salop Leisure.
Salop Leisure carried out the warranty work in October 2019, since then we have had the lockdown, we have travelled approximately 450 miles and the squeal has not come back yet?
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back from the repair shop yet another set of brake linings 250 miles and the linings had started to brake up luckily no drum damage this time alko supplied the latest lining this time saying it is the latest compound fitted to all the latest axles built from may 2019 so axles made after that date should not suffer any warrantable brake issues, they also say that to a degree all caravan brakes make a noise of some sort so any claim where there is no visible signs of wear they will not honer the claim, this is from a directive from the warranty dept but i tried to upload it but was to small to read will have to wait and see how long these last
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