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During my 8 hours of driving today, a few new handling related issues made themselves known with my 255,000 mile Dodge Ram.
1. My front driver side rim is covered in brake dust. I noticed a little bit before, but there’s alot of it now and whenever I brake, there’s a vibration and a scraping sound. Is my brake pad gone or what? The front brakes are only 8 months old. The brakes don’t feel weak.
2. When I turn the wheel far to either side while moving slowly, (not that you would do that while driving fast, lol) it binds a bit and makes a grinding noise through part of it’s range. Under any other circumstances, it’s fine. This happened once or twice in the past, but now it’s quite common.
Until my engine was fixed, these were secondary but now that it’s running properly, of course these problems got worse. Any input is greatly appreciated.
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[quote=”thisisbuod” post=40213]Just so you know, no matter what anyone tells you do not use rtv or any gasket sealant on your diff gasket. Just make sure the surfaces are clean and dry.[/quote]
YES! In his case, Dont even remove the cover because they arnt leaking, just suck the fluid with a shopvac if there is no drain plug. and then fill it up!
[quote=”LJ11194″ post=40221]I really appreciate all the information guys. My dad had the front brakes done in April. (We share this vehicle, he likes to have maintenance done professionally and I like to do it myself when possible) That was roughly 20,000 miles ago. He doesn’t know what kind of pads were used or anything. I bet they were cheap ones though. Just from the symptoms, I think I have a shim that cut through a rotor like in the video. I haven’t taken the wheel off to check since I don’t have the tools, which is why I can’t do it until Monday when I’ll have access to them. I’ll be sure to update when I know exactly what happened.[/quote]
If you can take some pictures and post them. Pull the wheel left to right with in the air and feel for play, that will test your steering linkage I previously mentioned and the source of the noise. Also up and down to test for ball joints.
Let us know! Get your eyes in there, inspect and take notes.
Good luck my friend!
I would recommend removing the covers so you can asses any damage. The gaskets are cheap and if there is damage hopefully you will see it before it becomes catastrophic.
Not sure how well the pics will turn out but I’ll try. I WILL take pics when I do the diffs though because I can do that here, outside. The brakes are being done at a friends house, in his garage, because I haven’t got a jack or jack stands.
[quote=”LJ11194″ post=40022]Well I posted a reply but it seems to have disappeared. In short, both front brakes are shot. The pads are more or less gone. Metal on metal. The calipers are sticking as well, which explains my bad mileage and the fact that they are making objectionable sounds now even when the breaks aren’t applied. Oh, and they’re getting weak! I almost had an accident and had to run a red light on the way home because I literally could not stop in time. Needless to say, I’m not driving it anymore until it has new brakes, because that seems suicidal at best. I’ll keep you guys posted.[/quote]
Did this happen recently, after the brake job? or before?
It started grinding when braking the day I made the original post. But I had a slight braking vibration for a week or two before that happened. I knew they were going out but I didn’t expect them to completely disintegrate. That particular incident you quoted happened on the day I made the post.
I replaced both pads, the front right rotor, and the front right caliper. The front left rotor and caliper were surprisingly just fine. The pads were all but gone though, and the right caliper was stuck (explains pretty much everything). The shim was not cutting the rotor, but it was so worn from the caliper scraping that it needed replaced. I still have a slight vibration in the pedal while braking, but the parts I couldn’t really afford to replace (though I’d like to have) weren’t worn really at all, could they still be the cause? I need U-joints as well, but I can’t do that yet.
And here’s the kicker. My left rim is the one that had brake dust all over it, yet it wasn’t the side with a stuck caliper…
They’re fine, yes. Also surprising IMO. My wheel isn’t binding and grinding anymore so that must have somehow been related to the brakes, though I can’t really see how that works.
When you turn (even slightly) the wheels move different speeds. If the brakes are dragging it can restrict how much the tire spins in a turn, making it harder to turn.
I guess that makes sense, I hadn’t thought of that since it really felt like it was in the steering system. Thanks for the help, I’m still puzzled about the brake dust on the rim but if the right pad wore off first from a stuck caliper, could the left pad have worn harder (doing the work of both) and caused excess dust?
You can get excess brake dust too from cheap brake pads unfortunately as well as from caliper and brake hose issues.
There are alot of possible reasons for the brake dust. Don’t forget to service those differentials too.
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