Rubbing noise

[mckrishes]

Hello. I have a 2007 Honda Odyssey EX. When I am driving down the road and I can hear a soft rubbing noise that sounds like it is coming from the front of the car. The noise is constant and occurs at variable speeds. It does not sound like grinding. The noise goes away when I start pressing on the brakes. There is no pulsation with regular braking, but there is pulsation when braking harder at higher speeds. I have:

1. Inspected the brake pads and appear in good condition.
2. Inspected the rotors. I don’t notice any pits or grooves. I can’t tell if they are warped.

Here is some history of the vehicle.

1. Cap, modulator replaced at 33k miles (due to recall)
2. pcm updated due to judder, all brake pads installed and all rotors machined at 50k miles
3. Master cylinder kit installed and o-ring replaced at 61k miles (due to recall)
4. All rotors machined again at 69k miles due to brake pulsation (pads not replaced)

I just recently bought the vehicle with 96k miles. It currently has 99k miles and this problem just started a few days ago. The vehicle was inspected by the previous owner at 90k miles, and at that time, the front brake pads were at 6mm and the rear brake pads were at 5mm.

Where do I need to go from here? Thanks for your help.

Topic

[Wayne]

I’d probably just jack the whole front end up, run it and track it down.

Similar, with similar warnings:

[mckrishes]

Sounds good. I think I will spray some brake cleaner on them and take it for a drive. If I still here the noise, I will jack it up and see if I can find anything.

[EricTheCarGuy]

The most likely cause is cheap brake pads. It could also be tires. I have a list of things in this article.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car

Keep us posted on what you find.

[mckrishes]

Thanks for you help.

I cleaned the brakes using brake cleaner and that didn’t help. I watched the video above and attempted to put the van on a jack and let the wheels run, but was unsuccessful. Honda Odyssey apparently has a safety feature that will not let the wheels run if the car is jacked up of the ground. I drove around and attempted to press the emergency brake to see if I could hear any changes in the noise, but that was useless, because a loud dinging noise would come on alerting me that the e-brake was on.

So I decided to take a chance and change the pads. The old pads looked real good. Probably had about 50-60% left on them, but when I was changing the pads, I noticed that the inner pads on each side had two shims on them of the same size and style. I’ve changed brakes before and have never seen this. Not sure if this is normal. And these old pads are honda pads. I bought the waggoner thermoquiet ceramic pads. They didn’t come with shims. I put the old shims on the new pads, but I only put one shim per pad. Took it for a test drive and the noise is gone. There is very minimal noise, but hardly noticeable. Brakes work good. Stops good without problems. The only thing that caught me off guard was the two shims on the inner pad. I hope I did everything right. Please correct me if I didn’t.

[EricTheCarGuy]

The 2 shims on the inner pad is normal with Honda pads. I’m surprised you were getting noise from them. Perhaps all you really needed was a brake service.

That said, changing the pads was not a bad move. Especially since it seems to have addressed the issue.

As stated in the video, you need to disable traction control when doing the test. On the Odyssey, you press the TCS button on the dash and that should do the trick. I realize that doesn’t help you now, but if you need to do that in the future you’ll know what to do.

Thanks for the update and let is know if there are any changes in the future.

[mckrishes]

The noise is back.

Thank you Eric for your response. I have watched your videos and taken your advice. I cleaned the brakes with brake cleaner and wipe everything down. I removed the old shims. The new pads have shims built into them (I wasn’t aware of this). I put a light coat of silicone paste on the back side of the pads where the built in shim is. I put anti seize on the very ends of the pads (not the pad itself). I removed the caliper pins and wiped them off and applied new silicone paste to the pins.

No success. The rubbing noise is still there and disappears immediately when applying a fair amount of brake power. No noise at low speeds, but only above 20 mph. I jacked the car up off the ground and put it in drive. I ran it above 20 mph. No noise when doing this.

What direction do I need to go in now? Is it possible that the rotors are an issue? They have been machined twice already. I didn’t notice any pits or grooves. I will try to rotate the tires and see if this helps. I will update accordingly. Thanks for the help.

[mckrishes]

After further investigation, I believe my rotors are warped. I jacked the car up and spun the tires by hand and I could hear certain spots in both rotors where they were rubbing. I couldn’t hear the rubbing over the engine noise earlier. And the noise is worse with weight on the wheels and slightly higher speeds for reasons I am not sure.

Anyway, I am going to replace the rotors and give an update. Thanks.

[mckrishes]

I changed the rotors with no success, but further examination tells me they were warped, so I am good with it. I can still hear this rubbing noise. This noise has been there from the beginning, and before I made any repairs. I changed the pads first with no success, then I changed the rotors with no success. I greased all the contact points and caliper pins. The car brakes wonderful. Better than before. No squeals or anything, but I still hear this rubbing noise that starts around 20-30 mph. And I only hear it when the car is on the ground and driving, not when jacked up in the air. I also checked the dust shields, and they are fine. The old pads looked fine. Good padding and even wear throughout. But what I don’t understand is why the noise goes away when I step on the brakes. This to me doesn’t seem like a tire issue, but maybe it is. Should I rotate the tires? Or is there something else I am missing? Thanks for the help.

[mckrishes]

Well, I have had no success. I have a rubbing noise that starts at about 20 mph and goes away with light pressure to the brakes. I removed the old OEM honda pads and put waggoner thermo quiet pads with no luck. There was slight improvement immediately after the change, but then came back to normal the next day. I inspected the old OEM honda pads. They were about 50 percent with even wear on all pads. I followed all the recommendations on the disc brake service video. Changed the rotors, and finally rotated the tires. All with no success. I am unable to reproduce the sound with the van jacked up off the ground. The only symptom I have is a very light scrubbing/rubbing of the brake pads when I spin the tires by hand and when the van is jacked up off the ground. But I believe this is normal based on what I watched in the videos. I am all out of ideas. Should I try a different brand of pad? Thanks.

[EricTheCarGuy]

First, silicone does not belong on the back of the brake pads. It’s possible it can melt off and contaminate the brake pads. It can also attract dirt. This was not recommended in the video I posted for you. In fact, I don’t recommend putting anything on the bak side of brake pads. A little moly grease between shims if equipped, but nothing else. If you’ve checked the splash shields and they aren’t making contact, rotated the tires and you still have the noise, I suppose there’s little else we can offer. Especially without hearing the noise. The article I posted for you has several methods of finding noises that you can employ. At this point I’m at a loss as to what to suggest next. One possibility that I thought of was the rear brakes. Have you checked them at all? Please keep us updated if you find anything.

[mckrishes]

Update. I never did find out where the noise was coming from. For the past several years, I changed out all 4 rotors and brake pads as needed. The only thing I noticed was the brake pad on the front passenger side had some uneven wear and sometimes the caliper would spring back a little when pressing them in. I had cleaned the caliper pins and lubed them accordingly the entire time, but still the same result. They weren’t damaged or rusted. I ended up selling the van at 250k miles. At that the point, the noise was reduced, but still there.

[Author]

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