Okay, so I had my car in for the emissions recall recently, and while there, I had the dealer paint my rotors. Great. All seemed fine when I picked up the car. Except, I realized the next day that when I put the car in reverse and back up at an angle (as when you pull out of a parking spot), there is a loud, groaning metallic sound coming from the right front wheel. I'm not on the brakes while this is happening, although if I stomp on them, it does seem to stop it. I took the car back, they yanked off the pads again and said they couldn't find a problem. The service writer then tried to feed me some BS about how the rotors will get scuffed by the semi-metallic pads and they make noise. I know this may cause typical squealing, but this is something different. Plus, this was not happening before they painted the rotors.

So, I sat in the car with one of them and let them hear the sound. He agreed that something didn't sound quite right and so they decided to install the newer pads on the front brakes. I knew this wouldn't fix the problem, but I got new pads, so what the hell. So sure enough, the same thing is happening when I back up, and also occurs sometimes when the car is moving forward slowly. The dealer told me they didn't hear the problem any longer, which either a lie, or they didn't know how to re-create it again. If anyone else has experienced this particular problem, or knows what might be causing it, I'd really appreciate any thoughts or feedback.

Thanks!

 

Bump for any help!

It's kinda embarrassing when I get into this beautiful car, and I back out of a parking spot and everyone hears, screeeeeeeeeeeech... like it's an old clunker.

I checked the brakes myself, and everything seems to be installed correctly. Not sure why just removing the pads would cause this problem.

 

sounds like one of the outer sheilds is touching the rotor . Thing to do is remove wheels & rotate hubs by hand . Get a torch & see if there is anything really close to the disc as you turn it .

 

Are you turning the wheel at a specific angle or is it only when the front end loads up more, like backing up a hill? Just trying to understand more specifics on your problem.

 

Mine does the same thing ever time i leave for work in the morning, and im backing up from a slight incline from my drive way. I hear some wear *** noise

 

my car does the same thing. i think its normal. i know its a loud *** noise. its friction between the rotor and the pads. it only happens when the brakes are cold. i also noticed that they rust together after i wash the car and let it sit. i guess that is the price to pay when using semi metallic pads. but i dont complain because the braking performance is excellent. i feel that the oem components are good stuff. i work on hondas and their rotor and pad combination dont hold up to agressive driving. rotors warp and pads glaze and score the rotors very quickly.

 

Is it only when the car is cold and only in the driveway? does it happen when you are running errands and backing out of a parking space when its warmed up? It might be that your pads are shimmed a little tight and they are touching the rotor and grinding. I don't know if you can mis-align the calipers on this car. You might ask them to just take apart your calipers, check them/clean them up and reassemble to see if it goes away.

 

Yeah, I get the same sound whether the brakes are cold or warmed up. And it seems to happen when I'm turning the wheel, backing out of a spot... not necessarily on an incline or decline. I also thought that maybe the pads might be "shimmed" too tightly... but I thought they would have had to adjust the pistons on the calipers when they fit the new pads.

Also keep in mind that before they removed the pads initially, all I experienced was occasional light squealing when I applied the brakes. Now it actually does sound as if something like the rotor shield is scraping the rotor, as Brettus suggested, but I don't see how it's possible.

Thanks for all the feedback!

 

My advice then is have them tear down your calipers, check everything and put it back together. They're not particularly complicated but if something wasn't assembled properly it could be a problem. They shouldn't have any heartburn about doing that and most likely they will find out what's wrong. Or they'll be careful putting it back together this time and the noise will go away.

 

My car also makes the same noice when backing up at an angle in the morning coming down my driveway...I usually pump the brakes few times as I'm rolling straight before I turn the wheel and that seems to avoid the noise...a little

 

Well, it turned out that it was the dust shield touching the rotor at certain angles. I was ready to tear off the brakes myself, but when I looked inside the wheel, it took me 2 seconds to notice that the shield was out of place. I just bent it back a little and voilà! ... problem solved. Gotta love those "Master technicians" at some Mazda dealerships. After two tries, they couldn't figure this out.

 

Good god. Makes you think they never even took the wheels off the car...

Glad you are back up and smiling when you drive again!

 

Oh yeah, I'm definitely smiling again... not in Mazda's direction though. And btw, they did replace my pads, which makes the fact that they didn't see the shield even worse.

Thanks for all the feeback, guys.