95 740i brakes squealing like a pig/+ Lazerwash 4000 car wash thoughts

["Stephen Robinson" <stever500@xxxxxxxx>]

My brakes have been sounding like the soundtrack to "Deliverance" (squealing
like a pig at every braking - really obnoxious) for the past 3 months now,
so I finally got around to calling the BMW repair shop to find out what it
could be as I just had all new brake pads and other pertinent brake stuff
done a year ago.  He said since it's only been a year, most likely the
squealing is due to rust on the rotor (?) as I do lots/mostly city driving.
He said I should drive the car for an hour on the highway to heat everything
up (if I'm remembering correctly) and then brake really hard to a stop a few
times from a highish speed.  He said this will fix the problem.

The trouble is, I hardly ever have an opportunity to do that much highway
driving in my busy schedule and this just sounded sort of unbelievable, and
an unlikely solution.  Is this right???  I would have thought the first
words out of his mouth would have been "Bring the car in and we'll take a
look at it - it might be this or this, but we'd really need to see it to
diagnose the problem."  This is the answer I would have been most
confortable with, too (I'm very lazy in terms of fixing things on my car).
This way, they could have even made a few bucks off me!  What do you all
think?

Lastly, I had foot surgery last week so I'm unable to wash my car (or do
much of anything) and it's covered in salt, sand, and muck from the snow we
barely had the other day.  I decided to take it to a "touchless" car wash -
the Lazerwash 4000 at my Mobil dealer.  After waiting forever in line,
behind only 5 other cars, it was my turn.  I was amazed at the technology,
glad that no disgusting, harmful "soft" brushes were damaging my car's
finish,  and then pulled out to inspect the job.  I wiped it down with a
large terry cotton towel as it was still a bit wet, and noticed that the
wheels were of course still dirty as hell.  Nothing like that BMW brake
dust.

I really wanted to take it to the full serve Flagship Carwash in Rockville,
Md, but the line was soooooo long, and I'm guessing those brushes aren't
really great for the car's finish, and I doubt they would get the brake dust
off the inside part of the complicated star spoke 70 wheel design on the
car, though I'm sure it would look alot better when it was finished.  Just
HOW BAD are those full serve car washes for a 100,000 mile 740i???   The
Lazerwash 4000 was $6 vs $12-$16 for the full service place.  They both are
last resorts of course, for times when I am basically an invalid.  I was
sort of surprised how little brake dust the Lazerwash could remove for my 6
bucks...  oh well - it's the lesser of the 2 evils.

Car Wash or brake squeal comments?
Thanks  ;o)
Steve - Silver Spring, Md
95 740i
88 911
99 XK8 her's (about to go to Manhattan Auto Body shop after her smashed in
bumper accident from last week - boo hoo, there goes the resale value)

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