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I had pad gunk causing an annoying squeeling in the rears of my Jeep SRT8. They were Brembo pads and calipers and a very common problem. The dealers would often swap pads and the obnoxious squeal would return. I didn't want to spend the money on aftermarket pads so I decided I'd dissassemble to see if I could find the root cause. After a very good cleaning my squeal went away for about 15k miles then started to creep back. I was cool with adding "brake cleaning" to the maintenance list.
A good way of getting rid of pad deposits without going through the Z method would be to take the rotors and pads off. Place a piece of sand paper on the ground and lightly rub the pad face down. Maybe 5-10 full circles and you'll see pad material on the sand paper. The surface of the pad should be smooth (you're not usings lots of pressure, just some abrasive to return the pad to factory flat and smooth). Spray with brake cleaner and wipe dry. The pad should be smooth and factory looking clean.
Then use some brake cleaner and metal scour pad to clean the rotors very thoroughly. If they're lightly grooved that's fine. A scour pad won't get the grooves out, but you're trying to get to bare metal and get any deposits out of the surface. Spray with brake cleaner and wipe clean with a rag or shop towel.
Lube and reassemble then re-bed. If it works you know it was the pad build up or the stealers not bedding correctly. I've never had to bed aggressively, I just drive VERY gingerly for 300-400 miles and from VERY gentle use (driving grandma slow for a few days) the pads and rotors are happy. It's like bedding process but without all the crazy heat.
I was thinking it could also be a bent caliper, caliper bolt too tight, or rotor not seated. But those symtoms would show with one corner, not all four.
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