Okay, I noticed a funky noise coming from my brakes yesterday and I'm not sure what the problem is. It sounds like there's some rubbing, like maybe I have a bad rotor or a stuck caliper when I'm driving, and it goes away when I hit the brakes. Odd thing is, there's no heavy pulsing when I'm braking like there would be if a rotor was bad. There's a little, but it's hardly noticeable and intermittent. I just replaced the rotors and pads back in May or June and I haven't been racing all year. Could they really be bad already?
Yeah. I drove around the block a few times and used the brakes real lightly to make sure everything was seated. But I do remember a few days after that one of the bolts that holds the driver's side caliper to the knuckle had backed out and the caliper was rubbing against the inside of the rim. I had to fix it in the parking lot at the bar we hang at but it didn't seem to have damaged anything, the rotor and the pads were fine and the caliper was working properly. Like I said this was like 6 months ago. I would have thought if there was any problems it would have showed up by now.
are you on OEM parts store replacements? Or are you running on a higher end brand such as Powerslot or Brembo.
The stock rotors, and their replacements are horrible, and get "out of spec" relatively fast.
I've been riding on Powerslots for a while now and havn't experieced any pulsing at all like I used to get with the stock rotors.
-Chris
The rotors are OE replacement. I have bought Powerslots but I wasn't going to put them on until did my suspension and the stainless lines. The pads are Morse Ceramics. A friend has them on his Conquest and they work really well, so I gave them a shot.
Ceramics are great BUT NOT ON STOCK ROTORS.
El Fuego ( the unstable ) wrote:Ceramics are great BUT NOT ON STOCK ROTORS.
Ok, so I did things a little backwards. I liked the fact they didn't turn my wheels black. So you think that's the culprit? Maybe it's time to put the powerslots on wether I got the lines or not.
Are both sides shot? Or just one? If you have a stuck caliper, it would show on one side more than the other (unless they're both shot).
Oh, and match the pads with the rotor.... no sense in using wicked ceramic pads on a stock blah rotor. Garbage.
Damn. Everyone bustin my nuts on the rotors
Consider it lesson learned. I came, I saw, I got jacked up. I'm really not sure yet if it's a caliper or not. Usually when the brakes start to go bad you hear some grinding or squealing but not here. It sounds like, i dunno, almost like the rotor blades on a chopper when they're in the air. I'm sure it's the brakes because it goes away when I step on em and it goes away when I'm not moving and the sound has a faster cadence the faster I drive. I peeked through my wheels and the calipers don't show any scoring so I'm gonna have to pull one off and see what's going on.
BTW... All I know FOR SURE is this noise is really friggin loud because I can hear it over a short ram intake and a 2.5" pipe and a racing muffler AT FULL THROTTLE! If it's the calipers, God help me. I still have to drive home to Des Moines tonight and I'm in Omaha right now.
Did you remember to lube the slide pins when your brakes were done?
And when you check your pads and rotors, check the metal Sensor clip. You might be in luck and its pushed to far down and you might have quite a bit of pad left.
Yep, I lubed the pins with a bit of brake fluid, and when I fixed the one caliper when it came loose I pulled the bolts on both of them and applied a small amount of Loctite to all of them to make sure they didn't back out. I'm stuck until I get back to Des Moines this weekend and see what's going on.
So I was going to wait until I got back to Des Moines, but on my way back to my hotel last night my passenger side rotor cracked from the edge all the way to the hat. So I drove to my boss' house borrowed some tools and fixed it in the parking lot at his apartment. I now have new rotors and pads but I think the caliper on the passenger side is the source of the problem. It's not releasing when I let off the brakes. Can these calipers be rebuilt or do I need to install a new one?
Toj Martin wrote:Yep, I lubed the pins with a bit of brake fluid, and when I fixed the one caliper when it came loose I pulled the bolts on both of them and applied a small amount of Loctite to all of them to make sure they didn't back out. I'm stuck until I get back to Des Moines this weekend and see what's going on.
Quote:
So I was going to wait until I got back to Des Moines, but on my way back to my hotel last night my passenger side rotor cracked from the edge all the way to the hat. So I drove to my boss' house borrowed some tools and fixed it in the parking lot at his apartment. I now have new rotors and pads but I think the caliper on the passenger side is the source of the problem. It's not releasing when I let off the brakes. Can these calipers be rebuilt or do I need to install a new one?
Its not letting off cause you Loctite it in place. There is a reason why they are SLIDE pins. And the another thing you did wrong is you dont lube your parts in brake fluid, you use a high temp grease.
HWere did you learn how to replace brakes?
What I put loctite on was the threads for the bolts that hold the caliper to the knuckle because they kept backing out and the caliper kept rubbing on the rim. If I was wrong to use the brake fluid, fine, but to answer your question about where I learned to do this stuff, nobody taught me. I've had to figure everything on my own because nobody in my family knows the difference between a spark plug and a socket wrench and none of my friends ever took time to teach me anything, so I've had to learn on my own and I work with what I have and I've done anything it takes to keep this p.o.s. on the road because it's my only car. I'm a driver, not a mechanic. Some things I know, some I don't.
Well now you know not to use loctite on your brakes
Sometimes you learn the hard way.
I am all that is man
man, the guy said he used it on the threads. at first i thought he did something super stupid and actually put it on the slider too but he did not. although i have not had this problem with the pins backing out at all, hey it could happen and if so i would do the same thing if needed to keep my brakes together until i replaced anything that wasn't working right.
oh and just change out that caliper if you know it's bad, it's not hard and guarantees you'll need to bleed em brakes.
Both the loctite and the brake fluid were bad ideas.
I would start by getting some real grease (high temp lithium based). Take the caliper off, pull the pins out, clean everything up real good. I wouldn't pull the piston appart unless you're sure of what you're doing (which it sounds like you're not). Clean it all off, then grease it up good as you put it back together. Pins get grease, where the piston touches the pads get just a little bit. The threads should have nothing on them. They should be very tight as well (I tighten mine to over 50ftlbs of torque, that's about the max anybody can do with an 8 to 10" allen wrench. If you're allen is shorter than 8" you probably need to get a longer one).
Ok, thanks for the help. I actually forked over the cash last night to have a shop take a look at everything because I wasn't so sure the brakes were the only problem, and they did fix the caliper for me, but they also told me I have a bad wheel bearing and that I'm lucky the thing hasn't completely fallen apart yet, because it was all sorts of messed up. So it looks like I'm not going to be driving this car for a while
