brake squeaking and rubbing after strut replacement
Brought my '06 Mazda3 into the dealership yesterday to have a flogged out shock/strut replaced.
Now I'm noticing a slight squeaking and some steering wheel vibration when driving, which gets worst when I apply the brakes. Note that there is no pulsing/vibration or anything unusual in the feel and effectiveness of the brake pedal.
I've also noticed the brake rotor is significantly hotter than the other 3 rotors, and slightly reduced fuel mileage.
I do intend to call the dealership tomorrow and see what they have to say about it, but in the meantime I was wondering if anyone here had any ideas what may be causing this? Initially I thought maybe they had inadvertently sprayed some kind of product on the brake rotor, causing it to grab and squeak, but it doesn't seem to be going away after repeated hard brake applications.
Too hot to keep finger on but not hot enough to sizzle when I dab some water on it.
Take it back ASAP to have your concerns addressed. You could have a sticking caliper or a going bad brake hose that's holding pressure in the caliper.
Brake rotors can glow red under medium use so if you can touch it and it doesn't burn your skin leaving a white upper layer skin burn they are not that hot.
Too hot to keep finger on but not hot enough to sizzle when I dab some water on it.
Take it back ASAP to have your concerns addressed.
Unfortunately that is now 12 hours drive away to nearest Mazda dealership (where I had the strut replaced)...
To preserve any rights you have to have possible comeback work under warranty or just warranty on the previous work performed you would have to call the Dealer, express your concerns and explain your distance issue. They may authorize a closer Dealer to perform an inspection to make sure there isn't a safety issue.
To preserve any rights you have to have possible comeback work under warranty or just warranty on the previous work performed you would have to call the Dealer, express your concerns and explain your distance issue. They may authorize a closer Dealer to perform an inspection to make sure there isn't a safety issue.
I gave them a call today and that is what they offered. Gotta find a reputable garage locally to diagnose the issue, and if there is suspicion that the problem may have been caused by the work that was done (strut replacement), the dealership will cover the cost to rectify the problem.
All of the symptoms do seem to correspond with excessive rotor and wheel run-out. The squeaking/creaking is from the brake caliper, I jacked up the car and with the tranny in neutral spun the wheel by hand, and I do hear the creaking with every revolution as the pads rub against the rotor (creaking turns into a squeaking at higher speeds).
Will know for sure once I get a garage to look at it. If that's what it is, should be fairly simple for them to fix.
Well, I think that's exactly what it is. Visually while manually spinning the wheel I can see at least 1/16" runout on the rotor, and with the wheel on, I can also visually see some noticeable runout on the wheel too, which would account for the steering wheel vibration.
The bolts holding the caliper in place have significant rust which would indicate they did not remove the brake while replacing the strut (as I had first suspected).
My theory now is that while the wheel was off, all the banging necessary to remove the old rusty strut disturbed some of the rust between the rotor and the hub, causing them to seat unevenly.
So the solution could be to remove the brake and remove the rotor, clean up all mating surfaces between the hub, rotor, and wheel until they are free of rust and dirt. Put everything back together and should be good to go.
Re: brake squeaking and rubbing after strut replacement
Well, if anyone's wondering how this turned out:
Mechanics were trying to blame the problem on a warped rotor and bent wheel. ~$500 quoted to repair (not including new wheel, which would have been extra). Of course, the dealership would not pay anything since they found this diagnosis to be unrelated to the strut replacement job.
So how does a wheel get bent from replacing a strut? Nonsense.
I decided to cut my losses and fix the problem myself. Removed the brake and removed the rotor. BINGO! Exactly what I first suspected, a significant amount of loose rust dust and flakes had gotten wedged between the hub and rotor mating surfaces.
So I used a steel wire brush to clean away any loose rust from the surfaces of the hub and rotor. Unfortunately, driving a significant distance with this problem had excessively worn one of the brake pads, to the point where it needed to be replaced. So I picked up a new set of brake pads and installed them, put everything back together (yes, I used a torque wrench and tightened everything to spec, as well as lubed up the caliper pins/slides).
Spun the wheel by hand: no visible runout of the rotor or wheel anymore (ah, progress!).
Took it for a spin, no more vibrations, no more rubbing, no more noises, no pulsing. Success!
Lessons learned:
1) Don't always believe what a car mechanic tells you.
2) If you hear unusual noises after having work performed on your vehicle, TURN AROUND ASAP, don't keep on driving hoping it will go away (I'm still kicking myself for this, all of this could have been avoided if I had turned around immediately).
Due to an impending thunderstorm and not having a garage, I had initially only replaced the right side brake pads (the side that had the strut replaced).
Today I got around to replacing the pads on the front left brake. To my surprise, the inner pad had the SAME amount of wear as the other wheel did!
So apparently, driving 1200km with the rotor wobbling and rubbing is NOT what caused the inner brake pad to wear out, since the other wheel was the same.
The dealership told me their mechanics always check brake wear when doing work on a car. Apparently they only look at the outer pads cause they never flagged this when I had the vehicle in, which they should have, because the inner pads only had about 1/8" of material left!
Anyways, now to determine WHY the pads wore so unevenly, but that merits another thread I think.
Today I got around to replacing the pads on the front left brake. To my surprise, the inner pad had the SAME amount of wear as the other wheel did!
So apparently, driving 1200km with the rotor wobbling and rubbing is NOT what caused the inner brake pad to wear out, since the other wheel was the same.
the inner pads only had about 1/8" of material left!
Anyways, now to determine WHY the pads wore so unevenly,
Most likely from sticking caliper slides or sticking caliper guide pins. Clean any rust and corrosion from pins and caliper slide/contact points. Apply brake lubricant sparingly but evenly to all contact surfaces.
Use a high temp brake lubricant like this (don't get any on the pads friction side or rotor friction surfaces):
Start losing money if you need to check the inner pads too haha...
Well not really cause on this car when you have the wheel off it's easy to inspect the thickness of both inner and outer pads. Heck, with a little mirror could easily be inspected without even taking the wheels off (factory mags).
Clean any rust and corrosion from pins and caliper slide/contact points. Apply brake lubricant sparingly but evenly to all contact surfaces.
Use a high temp brake lubricant like this (don't get any on the pads friction side or rotor friction surfaces):
I did exactly that when I replaced the pads, so hopefully it won't be a problem going forward.
Actually I wouldn't be surprised if the inner pads were binding in their guide slots, as there was quite a bit of corrosion there compared to the outer pads. The car is after all nearly 9 years old and these were the original brake pads.
I wonder of surface rust on the rotor also plays a part in uneven wear? The car does sit for 1 week or more, several times per year, and there is usually rust on the rotors when I start driving it again (hear it scrape off with the first few brake applications).
I had similar problems with a Civic with 200k miles. Had the dealer replace a strut. Then a wheel bearing went bad. Then brake pads started rubbing/wearing. (Don't remember if these were all on the same wheel.) Dealer was never able to fix the brake problem, and I eventually got rid of the car.
If the caliper had gotten very hot, shouldn't the hose connecting to the caliper be replaced too?
Heat transferred from the caliper through the metal end connector on the hose could have softened the hose, creating the possibility of the hose separating or collapsing in the future.
If the caliper had gotten very hot, shouldn't the hose connecting to the caliper be replaced too?
It hasn't gotten that hot. There was a noticeable difference in temperature between the left and right side, but still not that hot, as it was not hot enough to sizzle water.
The rubbing/dragging was actually only just enough to cause a bit of noise, and heat up the rotor just a touch, but nothing serious.
As I understand it, brakes can get more than hot enough to boil water under normal somewhat aggressive city driving conditions. In this case, they didn't even get to that point.
Oh, and the calipers were only slightly warm to the touch. It was only the rotors that had a noticeable difference in temperatures between the right and left side.
Well, if the caliper never got too hot, you should be good to go. I replaced the hoses on my '90 Aero star when I replaced the calipers after one stuck on me. They were relatively inexpensive and easy to replace.