lastnight I painted my brake calipers. When I was jacking the right side of the car up to get the front tire off. I heard a pop sound from the front tire when I had all the bolts off and was taking th tire off. I ended up swapping the two front tires, changing sides... Now while I'm driving I hear a grinding sound. Like if I'm going at idle speed in a parking lot i'll hear the grinding. Its not a continuous grinding sound but sounds like as the wheel is turning it's rubbing on a part. When I press the brakes. the sound goes away completely. If I have my foot on the brake really lightly. i'll hear a pop sound. I dont know what this is but I can hear it very clearly all the way up to about 50 mph. After that it gets covered up by road noise. Anyone know what it could be? When I go home tonight im going to switch the tires back to how they were before and see if that might change it. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks.

 

check to see if your rotors are being eaten into.... sounds like the pads are out and are grinding at your rotors. You probably put the pads on wrong or something if they are new pads.

also you might want to re-install your wheels... maybe they are kinked and so are wobbling. either way, be careful, sounds like it could be a serious problem..... give us more details and we'll figure it out.

 

Check Your Brake Backing Plate.

 

I never took the calipers off I just covered the rotors with a rag and spray painted most of the caliper then I ended up just filling a little cup with the spray paint and painting it with a small paint brush to get all the detail in. I'm going to switch the wheels back to the sides they were originally on. The grinding sound is still there and it seems like the brakes are just grinding on one part of something. Whenever I press the brakes the sound goes away completely.

 

How much brake pad did you have left on each pad? I believe the OEM pads and most aftermarket pads have a wear indicator, which is a soft metal tab on one side of the pad. This indicator is designed to touch the rotor when the pad material wears to a certain level. The touching generates a squeal or light grind while moving and stops when you hit the brakes. It is very possible that you bent one while painting.

Another possiblity is that dried paint is binding a pin causing a pad to constantly rub the rotor. I would think that the heat generated would melt the paint.

Good luck...

Neil

 

On a different car I had a similar problem once. The caliper on the right front had a small bump on it from some kind of manufacturing defect, none of the other calipers had this. Stock wheels cleared with no problems, but the aftermarket wheels hit that bump creating a terrible grinding noise. Took a hand grinder to the bump and smoothed it out, no more problems. This probably isn't your problem, but worth a look.

 

could be the thin metal brake shield...you could have bent it while removing or installing a wheel and if it touches the wheel it makes a grinding noise...look on the inside of your wheels for scraping marks. this has happened to me before.

 

why dont you just pay attention to your rotor and see if we're right... I'm willing to bet there's metal to metal.

 

I put the car back on the jack and took off the wheels. my Rotor was being scraped by the rim. The red paint was scraped off. I switched the rims and the grinding noise is completely gone. Thanks for all the posts. One thing I don't get is why would the same rim grind on one side but not the other. Oh well, luckily it wasn't anything serious.

 

Are these OEM rims? Are you sure they are the same size? If so, you need to investigate.

Neil

 

Rotor or caliper? This sounds likes the same scenario I mentioned earlier, maybe not a bump but a small defect in the casting of caliper. If it is the caliper and now that you have identified the area that was scraping, you could have it ground down for clearance, repainted and you'll never know the difference. Rotating of the front wheels will never be an issue again.

 

how the hell is your RIM grinding on your Rotors???? that is extremely odd...... maybe you didn't have the wheel on straight on the hub.

 

The Rim was rubbing on the Caliper. I had painted them red and when I took the wheel off paint was scraped off of only one part. it was like a long area that was scrapped. I guess the rim was touching that part of the caliper. I switched the rims back to the orignal sides they were on. Everything is fine now.

 

OK...this is odd. Assuming that one caliper has a casting defect, switching rims should make no difference. Neither rim should touch the caliper. Now, switching rims from side to side causes one rim to contact the caliper ??

This suggests that either one caliper has a casting defect and rubbed the original rim(s) prior to your ownership or you noticing or one rim has a casting defect and rubbed a caliper down prior to being switched from side to side. In either case, I'd look into this. It could also be a warning sign of excessive bearing play, etc.

Are your rims OEM? If not, any hub centric rings or other factors?


Neil

 

100% agreement here, something isn't quite right and should be investigated further. Rim or caliper isn't as it should be and shouldn't be ignored.