New rear brake rotors and pads noise

[fcobob78]

Hello,

I just installed all brand new rotors and pads rear and front, all discs on a Town and Country 2005 Chrysler.

The brakes are working fine, I did Bleed off lines and all works good. However, there is a noise coming from the rear wheels like a rubbing metal noise. Seems like the pads are rubbing with the rotors. The sound is more noticeable at low speed while the car is decelerating (with no brakes been applied).

So I went back took the caliper and pads off and noticed the rotors were slightly rubbing with what appears to be the emergency brake (EB)drum. This car has the drum type EB. So I adjusted the star wheel until did not hear rubbing with the drum. Put it all back on and still have the annoying noise 🙁 plus my EB seems to be not tight enough now.

Pads and caliper seem to be OK i.e. in this type of car there is no way to put it backwards in the rear due to the clipping system.

Does anyone have any troubleshooting ideas for this noise? Could it be a bad caliper?

Help is much appreciated.

Topic

[EndSupremacy]

You probably should’ve replaced the shoes too. If they are self adjusting then you need to drive it around. If they are not self adjusting then you need to adjust them again by hand.

[fcobob78]

I believe these are self adjusting. So could it be that the noise is due to the shoes? I don’t want to replace the shoes if I don’t have to. How can I asess if the shoes are due for replacement?

[EndSupremacy]

If I were you, I would remove the shoes and inspect them like you would with pads. Get a new hardware kit and put them back on. Let the self adjusting do its job. Drive it around and it should go away. However, if when inspecting the shoes, they look worn down or cracked, you need to replace them. Find out the throw away thickness.

[fcobob78]

One other thing I have been wondering is if the rotors are defective? I know I had to return one, because it wasn’t fitting properly. The holes for the lug nuts were a little bit off. I have been considering turning the new rotors, but I don’t know if this would make sense.

[John B Kobberstad]

They should work right out of the box. If you’re thinking about turning them find your receipt and re-turn them. My guess is that the box said “Made In China”. Have your old ones turned if they’re still able to be.

[dreamer2355]

You will also have brake noise if you use low quality parts unfortunately.

I would also make sure that the backing plates are not interfearing with the rotor in any way.

Did you make sure you cleaned the hub surface with a wire brush or a angle die grinder to make sure there is no rust present causing any type of runout?

[fcobob78]

Well that sucks 🙁 Hopefully I would be able to re-turn them as they are in place already. Not driven for very long though.

No I did not clean the hub, I should probably do that. I have to admit over here the salt used on the roads on the winter made the old rotors pretty rusty.

[fcobob78]

Hello, I have been thinking. Could it be that the caliper is bad and the piston is not fully retracting?

[EricTheCarGuy]

You may want to readjust the shoes to get the ebrake to work again. As for the noise see if there is contact between the rotor and backing plate. I often see this when new rotors are installed, a little bit of rust gets disturbed and get caught in there or the metal itself gets slightly bent and causes the problem. One other thing to note is that you may not hear the noise till the wheels are bolted on due to the stress this puts on the hub which creates just a little distortion, perhaps just enough to cause the noise. There are some tips in these videos that might also help.

Finding noises

Suspension noises

[EndSupremacy]

You may also want o torque the wheels down to the proper torque specification.

[fcobob78]

Thanks Eric. I will check out the video. But you are right, I adjusted the star wheel of the EB shoe and the noise was gone. Put the wheel on tighthen the lug nuts and the sound came. I will review to see if there are any distortions that might be causing this and post back updates.

[fcobob78]

Thanks for the input. I always torque my lug nuts to the manufactures specs. Im pretty keen on this.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Torquing the wheels is good advice and I agree it’s good practice however I think in your case it’s normal deformation, I’ve run into this a time or 2 and it’s a pain in the butt but easy enough to fix. It would be best if you have the wheel on while you try to bend the backing plate to eliminate the noise.

[fcobob78]

Thanks. When you mention the backing plate, Are you talking about the metal plate on the wheel hub that seats behind the rotor?

[EricTheCarGuy]

Yes I am. In fact it’s really not called a backing plate in that application, it’s actually called a ‘splash shield’.

[Author]

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