bmylez

iTrader: (3)

This **** is starting to **** me off. About 9 months ago, my front driver side caliper/rotor starting making a grinding/scraping noise. I removed the caliper and inspected it along with the pads and rotor. Nothing stood out as being obviously wrong. The grinding/scraping would pop up randomly, so it was very hard to diagnose. Some days, it would grind all day. Other days, not grind at all...

I upgraded to braided brake lines and I noticed that it fixed the problem.....temporarily. After a couple months, the grinding/scraping came back, but it would only last for a week, then go away for a couple weeks, then come back, etc.

I finally decided in November to try to rebuild the caliper. When I got it apart, it appeared that there was a small amount of pitting in one of the pistons and its cylinder. I decided not to chance it, so I bought a new caliper. Since then, it hasn't made a peep.

Fast forward to Sunday, when I did some adjustments to my coilovers...that was it. Go to work Monday morning and my front **passenger** caliper/rotor is grinding/scraping/screeching up a fuqqing storm. I wasn't super alarmed since I had already experienced it before, so I went about my way, but was very embarrassed when rolling through the parking lot, hah.

I got home and bled the caliper, and it didn't grind/scrape on the way to work this morning...but then it started lightly scraping on the way home. I pulled the pads and compressed the pistons all the way, then bled the caliper again...after pumping the brakes up and spinning the rotor, I can still hear the pad grinding against the rotor.

What in the bloody hell is going on???

Fweasel

iTrader: (6)

If your driver caliper Pistons were pitted and dragging, it stands to reason your passenger caliper might be there as well. Your last round of troubleshooting doesn't tell you much, from my personal experience. When pads are compressed against a rotor while the car is in the air, they won't release completely and will always drag to some degree. You just don't have the wheel speed to knock the pads back into the caliper like you would while driving, especially on a fixed caliper where the pads don't have return springs.

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

It would be extremely bizarre to me if my passenger caliper suffered the same fate as my other caliper. What are the chances of a set of high quality Brembos having the same issue less than a year apart? I realize it's a logical conclusion, but the odds seem hard to believe.

ryridesmotox

Our calipers are getting a bit old. All the heat involved in braking can speed up the deterioration of metal. Could be that it suffered the same fate as the drivers side.

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

Only 82k miles and only been to the strip once. I don't recall seeing a lot of other people complaining about caliper failure, just the shitty lines that I have already upgraded.

ryridesmotox

Yea the lines are garbage. I have steel braided line going in mine. Maybe you got a bad set. Or maybe the fluid wasn't changed for like YEARS before you got it or something. My brake fluid looked terrible when I flushed it out. Probably hasn't been done since they put brake fluid in it in 2004

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

I'm going to attempt a caliper rebuild since I already have the kit from before. If that doesn't work, I will begrudgingly cough up another $135...the annoying part is it doesn't affect the performance of the car at all...it just sounds fuqqing HORRIBLE and it's so embarrassing in traffic.

isis

iTrader: (1)

Probably a dumb question but are you sure it's not the hub/bearing?

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

As stated in my first post, the driver side had the same symptoms and the solution was new caliper. It hasn' t made a peep since then. When I bleed the caliper, the grinding subsides for about 10 miles then slowly comes back.

isis

iTrader: (1)

Right but you said it was sometimes intermittent so I figured quiet doesn't always mean fixed. If it's that simple and definitive, then why question the solution that worked so clearly?

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

I am more curious about why calipers would do this. And why did it do it after adjusting my coilovers. It's just very bizarre and I would prefer for this not to keep happening. Doesn't break the bank but it's a pain in the dick and seems like it shouldn't be happening.

isis

iTrader: (1)

Did you take off your wheels to adjust the suspension?

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

Yes. I always snug up the lug nuts in a star pattern hand tight before lowering the car.

isis

iTrader: (1)

Any chance the center bore on the rotors and around the wheel studs have enough play that they shift slightly?

What brand rotors are they?

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

As far as I can tell they are the original rotors. Perhaps OEM replacement, but most likely original.

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

I went ahead and threw on a spare rotor that I didn't put on when solving the driver side last year. Took a video of it.

Apologies for shaking around, but it's difficult to film and get a good spin on the rotor. Look real close at where the rotor contacts the pad. There is a definite wobble to it. You can see the gap opening and closing as it spins. I also can hear a slight clicking from what I assume is the hub. Nothing really else there to click.


Trying not to just throw money at this problem. I guess I will rebuild the caliper this weekend and if that doesn't help...it's either get a new hub for $90 or a new caliper...bloody hell.

Becker

iTrader: (4)

warped rotor....? fixed caliper....can only be one thing did I miss something in the above statements?

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

It's a brand new rotor and the original rotor does the same thing.

Becker

iTrader: (4)

ah, sorry I missed that. HMm new rotor and new caliper. Wtf... New pads too I assume?

ls1247

iTrader: (2)

You can put a dial indicator on the hub to see if its causing your problem but I've seen new rotors out of the box do that.