My xt discs are honking like a flock of angry geese with sintered pads! Seems like the only time they stop honking is in absolutely filthy conditions like Rhayader last May. I don't get any noise at all with resin pads. Anyone else found this? Some people say put copper slip on the back of the pads, but I'm not keen.

My LXs seem to be ok. The odd squeel, but not too often. Have your pads glazed over, or is your dsic warped? I've heard copper grease works too, but have never tried it.

My XT discs are fine, and I'm running them with the standard pads. My hope ones make a bloody racket, but I don't use that bike so much!

Change pad material/maker. I had that with my Hayes - fibrax were silent but Hayes own squealed like a stuck pig.

I've not had any problems with my XT's in 2 years but Goodridge pads seem to perform better than XT sintereds.

Recently had the same problem with my XT's - it was just the pad/rotor rub where mud was stopping the piston from returning.

After taking the brake off the bike, cleaning it, changing the fluid and resetting the piston position the brakes don't squeal at all. Might of been a maintenance overkill though...

I've XT's on 2 bikes and they're both fine with Goodridge/Fibrax sintered pads. If it's really dry/hot I get the odd squeal but nothing sustained or that bothers me.

Squealing is due to some vibration somewhere and often caused by some contaminant on the pad or rotor. You can try cleaning them with brake specific cleaner which might help as would roughing the pad with a file in case it's glazed. Or you could take the rotors and pads off and stick them in the oven to burn off any contamination, but that stinks the house out for a bit.

Like Adam says, it's probably overkill but cleaning and bleeding them is a piece of piss and would probably solve any problems if the above doesn't work.

The shimano sintered do squeel a bit, the goodridge ones are better.
Has your disc mount been faced? Mine used to squeel quite badly in the wet but the disc mount was quite wonky and I had to get it faced as the caliper was twisting the disc in a vertical plane which the lateral adjustment couldn't remedy, since then it's been a lot better.
I have had enough of mine though, not as much power as you'd expect, pistons get stuck quite easily with dust, delay in power as though they have to 'warm up' first and not a lot of bite. Changing it for a juicy five this month.

Just got an XT on the back with shimano sintered pads. Mostly silent but when wet they honk a bit till they dry, also on long descents where i'm on the back brake alot they start to squeel a bit but once cooled they are fine. Maybe try different pads?

I put resin pads back on and they don't squeal - just not ideal over the winter. Incidentally, I have Deore 556 on another bike and although a bit heavier than XT they are functionally the same and don't squeal much. Great brake for a great price.

There does seem to be a huge disparity between pads, and not just between brands or compounds.

I usually buy pads in sets of 5 from CRC for the discount and on my last purchase (Fibrax) the first pair wore down alarmingly quickly. The rest however are fine.

I reckon that there are some consistency issues in the manufacturing so it could just be a duff set you got.

I bought my stumpjumper expert FSR 6 weeks ago and the pads are shot already (after about 250 miles of single track). Will see how long my new pads last.

Just bought some sintereds on ebay, these were made by fibrax, will report back and see how these go....