please help, my training buddies are about to kill me. these are some very old look carbo pros, gray body style. Any ideas? can I treat the surface of the pedal with something?
take them off and regrease the threads
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I had that with my Shimano pedals. Gave 'em a quick spritz with WD-40 as a temporary fix ~1000 miles ago and haven’t touched 'em since. (I actually may have sprayed the cleats and not the pedals)

The white bits prevent the cleats from wearing for a long time (it’s the worn cleats that squeak).
I’m not sure b/c the cleats aren’t very old and have been doing it from the get go. How often do these need to be replaced?
I’ve sprayed my older cleats with a little bit of Boeshield T-9 (chain lube).
While using the cleats that Ken shows, I’ve never had a squeak.
jaretj