Switched to ceramic pads, now a grinding noise.....

Liberty02sport · **Posted:** Tue Nov 22, 2011 8:57 pm

Just swapped out the front pads on my '02 with some ceramic units from carquest yesterday, and while making a run into town today sometimes when I come to a complete stop I can hear a grinding noise coming from what seems like the driver's side front wheel. Doesn't do it all the time, it seems as if when I make a stop requiring hard braking then the next light braking stop gives me the grinding noise. Sounds crazy but that what seems to be going on.

Road conditions were wet at the time. Tires are brand new and just aired them up to corrrect PSI (40). Never did this with the old pads though they were almost worn out. Rotors looked good too. Any ideas ????

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:21 am

New rotors?
Or
Turned down the old ones?
did you replace the hardware or reuse the old?

Liberty02sport · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:41 am

Rotors were the same and not turned (my guy that I trust to do it was gone for the holiday already) they looked in great shape, surface was smooth with no grooves or scoring that I could detect. Reused the old hardware, hit it with a brass bristle toothbrush to make sure it was clean and checked to make sure everything moved freely. Nothing was binding or loose and it all went back together smoothly. Only thing out of the ordinary was that the driver's side inboard pad was worn more than the others, so I went over it a little closer but couldn't find any obvious cause.

Possible that the pads being ceramic maybe they are "resurfacing" the rotor to suit them ??

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 9:04 am

You need a good mating surface on both pads and rotors, a good brake job includes replacing all of the hardware, either replacing or resurfacing the rotors, etc, not doing all of the above results in a poor job and problems.
If one side was already wearing off center before you had an issue you ignored then. Brake pads do no resurface the rotor to suit them.
If you have ran it very much at all you may have already ruined your new pads since they now will have small grooves in them.
Its like everything else there is a right way and a wrong way, problem is most do it the wrong way and slap a set of pads on and call it done.

irunmiles · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 9:47 am

Did your old pads wear evenly because it sounds like a possible caliper problem.

Liberty02sport · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:31 am

irunmiles wrote:

Did your old pads wear evenly because it sounds like a possible caliper problem.

Driver's side inboard pad was more worn than the rest. I paid particular attention to the caliper on that side but couldn't seem to find anything wrong with it. When compressing the caliper piston I watched to see if it seemed to want to get crooked or stick while compressing it but it seemed OK.

Liberty02sport · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:37 am

Tom... Just changed the pads , this was literally it's first trip with the new ceramics (about 60 mi. round trip, highway miles with not a lot of braking). I'll pull everything back apart and get the rotors turned when my buddy gets back.

irunmiles · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:42 pm

The calipers usually fail by not retracting. Your test by watching them compress will not detect a bad caliper. If your pads wore uneven, and you're now hearing the pads drag, then its time to replace the calipers (about $30 each for remanufactured).

Switched to ceramic pads, now a grinding noise.....

Who is online