Metallic scraping noise turning right (???)

[slipkid]

My '99 GSX has a weird problem that I've been unable to get solved by mechanic despite 3 trips there so far in 3 weeks.

Am looking for any clues before I go back to the shop....have researched things up here but not sure I've hit on anything concrete. I think this is brake related but I dunno.

Sometimes when I make right turns - whether brakes are on or not - I can hear a metallic scraping noise. Sounds to me like it is the front driver side wheel, but I cannot say that for sure.

To complicate diagnosis, it doesn't do it after car has been stopped for a few minutes. So everytime I go to the mechanic, or stop by to tell him IT'S DOING IT NOW CHECK IT OUT RIGHT NOW, when he then gets in the car - it doesn't do it. It doesn't seem to start doing it until I drive a couple miles then it does it. Strangely it does NOT make the noise on left hand turns/curves, just right.

There are several things that make me think this is brake related:

(1) About 50% of the time when the noise is occuring on right hand turns, if I press the brakes, whether turning right or not, I get the roughly same noise, louder.

(2) Sometimes after braking when it is squealing, I can continue to hear the scraping noise, regardless of turning the wheel or keeping it straight, and it definitely gets louder/stops with brakes on or off - and I can hear the noise slow down in tempo and pitch as I slow down, or get faster and higher in pitch as I speed up (like it is a wheel rotating grinding something). And also, sometimes I can hear it just starting up and going after coming to a stop even going straight, no brakes on.

(3) About 1 year ago my front brakes were replaced after the calipers locked up and ground the pads down to nothing/damaged the rotors - everything was replaced (rotors, pads, calipers)....and directly afterwards I noticed a scraping sound (like I am getting now) even when the brakes were NOT on. I had to go back to that shop & make them take a look, and they found that the "clip" on one of the new calipers on the driver side was broken and that was doing the scraping. So I told this to the mechanic I am using now and he pulled that wheel and saw some interesting things. First, the way the rotor is contained in the caliper it has practically no clearance on one side in relation to the other side of the disc (?is that normal??). And that one of the caliper clips was all rubbed on one side, and in theory was probably rubbing now assuming the wheel causes more pressure on that side when turned - so he did something to that clip some to give it more clearance. That seemed to clear things up for about one day - but now it is screeching again, quite often.

The latest mechanic hasn't pulled all the wheels and checked ALL the brakes but I guess that is the next step? Or should he be looking at something else? Anyone have a problem like this?

Thanks for any hints.

 

[pitt97gsx]

Either your shims or calipers sticking. I had similar problem couple months ago.

 

[hardcorandy]

I Dont think you're that far from me. Ill be more then happy to take a look at it for you. I have a garage as well if you'd like to use it. PM me if you would like.

 

[Colt4G63 also]

If your rotors are moving too close to the middle of the car, check the large inside snap ring that retains the wheel bearing into the steering knuckle.

I have worked on a DSM that had those clips missing and the bearings/hubs were walking toward the middle of the car.

The way they fixed it was so amazing to me that I took a picture before I fixed it the right way.

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I don't know what was more amazing; the way they fixed it, or the fact that they only fixed it 4/5ths of the way. On both sides too.

 

[cwriley]

first off make sure the hardwareI(little cheap metal pieces brakes slide on) are not bent, and check the screamer on the pads to make sure its not bent. and for clearances could you take a picture or be more specific on """""""the First, the way the rotor is contained in the caliper it has practically no clearance on one side in relation to the other side of the disc (?is that normal??).""""

 

[slipkid]

first off make sure the hardwareI(little cheap metal pieces brakes slide on) are not bent, and check the screamer on the pads to make sure its not bent. and for clearances could you take a picture or be more specific on """""""the First, the way the rotor is contained in the caliper it has practically no clearance on one side in relation to the other side of the disc (?is that normal??).""""

Thanks....not possible for me to take a photo but will try to describe it better.

The gaps between the caliper and the rotor/disc on the wheel that the mechanic took apart, that space - or rather spaces - on the outside part of the wheel it was like 5-10 times greater than on the inside of the wheel. The gap on the inside part was extremely small in comparison (if I am remembering right, my brain my be mixing up the inner side of the wheel vs. the outer side).

[P.S. I put another response up with a general THANKS for all the posts but that doesn't seem to be showing up??????]

 

[ChillinGST]

Mine is doing the exact same thing. Been to 3 different mechanic shops and stumped them all. I'm interested to see what you find out.

 

[slipkid]

Mine is doing the exact same thing. Been to 3 different mechanic shops and stumped them all. I'm interested to see what you find out.

Guess misery loves company (not!). I'm still guessing something related to brakes but guess it could be some kind of wheel bearing thing too. I am going to have to figure a way to at least try to identify for sure what wheel the screeching is to narrow things down. Sounds like driver side front to me but very hard to say for sure. I had my cousin stand in a parking lot to listen for it while I drove around but of course it didn't do it then....

 

[Slow91Laser]

Hmmm i had the same problem on mine since i replaced both axles, turned out to be the dust shield might not work but you never know!

 

[Ghost_92TSi]

I get the same thing too once I swapped out my rotors. Mine sounds like its only the driver rear. I think it was one of the shims and or the part of the pad that slides into the shim was sticking it toward the rotor.

 

[lilrob2069]

I found that it was the bottom portion of the Backing plate had rusted and was scraping on around the axle. But i have a 94 so i don't know what the difference would be with the 2g.

 

[ChillinGST]

Mine started some time after i did the awd brake upgrade. So i'm guessing its brake related, but been to busy lately to tear into it to see whats up. Dust sheild could be the problem with the larger rotar...

 

[slipkid]

Big thanks to hardcorandy, looks like my screeching problem is fixed!

He took the brakes apart for the driver front side and noticed pretty much the same thing that the mechanic I mentioned earlier was talking about - very little clearance between the rotor and the outside part of the brakes/wheel/whatchamacallit. The clips for the brakes definitely looked like they were rubbing. Andy bent the clips slightly to give their edges a little more clearance, and I have not had a screeching/grinding noise since (been a little over a week).

 

[Talipse96]

Earlier in the post you were thinking that it MIGHT have been a wheel bearing.
To test this even know this is not your problem all you have to do is raise that wheel off the ground. Once it is off the ground grab the tire in the 9 O'clock and 3 O'clock and shake it side to side, if it has a slight shimmy its the tie rod end. If you grab it at the 12 and 6 and shake it back and fourth and it shimmy that tells you its the wheel bearing.

A little off subject but helpfull if you don't know.

 

[turbo tim1]

Earlier in the post you were thinking that it MIGHT have been a wheel bearing.
To test this even know this is not your problem all you have to do is raise that wheel off the ground. Once it is off the ground grab the tire in the 9 O'clock and 3 O'clock and shake it side to side, if it has a slight shimmy its the tie rod end. If you grab it at the 12 and 6 and shake it back and fourth and it shimmy that tells you its the wheel bearing.

A little off subject but helpfull if you don't know.

+1 also check the dust shields some times when brakes get done at a shop the dust shields gets bent by accident and rub on the rotor slightly when turning corners.

 

[slipkid]

Earlier in the post you were thinking that it MIGHT have been a wheel bearing.
To test this even know this is not your problem all you have to do is raise that wheel off the ground. Once it is off the ground grab the tire in the 9 O'clock and 3 O'clock and shake it side to side, if it has a slight shimmy its the tie rod end. If you grab it at the 12 and 6 and shake it back and fourth and it shimmy that tells you its the wheel bearing.

A little off subject but helpfull if you don't know.

Thanks! Andy did do something like that, he said my tie rod was wearing down (or something like that) but showed me that there was no shimmi-ing going on, doing what you said about shaking the wheel.

+1 also check the dust shields some times when brakes get done at a shop the dust shields gets bent by accident and rub on the rotor slightly when turning corners.

Thanks, we looked at that & it looked ok.

 

[lastshark08]

glad to see you fixed your problem ya 90 percent of the time its something stupid causing the noise. as a hyundai tech i find that the backing plates seem to rust out and grind into the rotor. and as the hyundai and mitsu stuff is not so far apart that could cause annoying grinding sounds. sounds like the guy who did your brakes in the first place was careless and threw them on. he would have found that just a simple spin of the rotor assembly would have caused that noise after install. and as for all the responses talking about wheel bearings they are all true. the best way to find which side has the bad bearing is to whip the car around a turn to have a lot of force on that assembly. if you take a right and the noise worsens its the left assembly and vise versa.

 

[Talipse96]

I don't know if I would want to take a turn really fast knowing that I might have a bad wheel bearing. I think putting the car on jack stands, a lift, or even on a jack just to shake the wheel a little is a little bit more on the safe side. Don't want to damage my money pit.

 

[XiKeiyaZI]

I had the same issue on my very first DSM. When it did that, though, my alignment fell out of place and if I stomped on the brakes, my steering wheel would jerk to the left and the car would drive straight with the steering wheel turned in the wrong direction. When this grinding event would happen, the steering wheel would be straight and the car would pull hard to the right.

;3 Food for thought.

 

[lastshark08]

ha ha ya no one wants to damage their money pit .