Hello,

I worked on my front disk brakes in my '95 DX two weeks ago. I replaced the pads and had to also replace the caliper and mounting bracket on the passenger side. It seemed that everything was fine for these last two weeks, but then today I started hearing a rubbing noise from the front passenger side (seemingly from the wheels for sure) when I was just about to come to a stop when braking. If I coasted to a stop, I did not hear this. It is simply a rubbing noise (like lightly running sandpaper across a piece of metal), not squeeking, whining, anything like that. I only hear it toward the end of stopping, when the road noise is minimized. My best guess is that the pads are not contacting the rotor fully and hence making noise from lack of gripping. I also guess that this is likely due to the caliper that I replaced not working correctly at this point (I thought perhaps it was lack of brake fluid pressure, but it is only on one side and the pedal is not mushy at all). So, my question are:
1) Do you think that my thinking on this is sound?
2) Will this cause any damage other than uneven pad wear if I do not get it corrected right away?
3) Do I just need to take the caliper back to Advanced and get it replaced (if my thinking is correct) or is there something else I can try to correct this first?
Thanks for the help guys, this is a great site.

Andy

 

I hear the same noise from my ceramic pads. Is that what you have too?

 

I know what you mean Ron. They put new pads on my girlfriend's Jetta and they do make a rubbing sound all the time. They said this is normal and not to worry. With my car, though, it did not do this until yesterday and it is only on one side, so I don't think it is normal in this case. Also, they are the Wearever Gold pads, which are not ceramic. I'm pretty sure that my brakes should not be doing this. Thanks,

Andy

 

This might be a dumb question, but did you properly bleed the brake system? My CRX did this because the pressure was uneven, also did you replace the rotors? Depending on the condition of your breaks before you changed them your rotor could be warped or rough textured. Did you have them machined?

 

I did not do anything with the rotors. It seems that for that to be the scenario, though, it should have shown up right away, doesn't it? My brakes actually have not been making the noise today, so I'm hoping that it was some kind of a fluke. I remembered last night that shortly before I started to hear the noises I had run off the road into some grass and briars sticking out right near the road. I don't know what that means exactly, but I have a hunch that it has something to do with the noise> Who knows? Hopefully it was just a one day thing. Also, for the brake fluid, I did have my dad press the brakes several times while I watched to make sure that a jet shot out from the little bleeder valve (and it did seem to be OK). Plus, the brake peadl is not mushy at all, so that's a good sign for the fluid to be OK, I think. Thanks again guys, and I'll let you know if I hear the sound again.

Andy

 

Try a test where you drive in a straight line about 40 mph then apply the brakes hard (but not hard enough to skid the wheels). The car should stop in a straight line. If it wants to "pull" to one side, a brake on the other side is not working properly.

If that test is OK I wouldn't worry much about the noise. It could be something with the sheet metal guard behind the rotor. Also when you put the caliper on, were the slide pins greased?