some background: i installed the 332mm stoptech kit in may of 2003. it's been running fine since, although they seem to be lightly touching the rotors all the time, such as when i roll in neutral, the car will eventually come to an defined stop when it's slow enough, instead of just rolling smoothly. i don't know if this is normal for the kit, but it doesn't seem to be adversely affecting the pad life or anything.

anyway, my problem is that i've been getting a noise from the wheel area that can best be described as a "clicking" that would happen at every rotation of the wheel. it would do it at all speeds, but if i tapped the brakes, it would stop momentarily. it seems to usually occur from the passenger side wheel, but will occasionally be audible from the driver's side, or both.

if i brake hard and come to a complete stop, the clicking noise happens very rapidly upon moving again, not in rhythm with the rotation of the rotor/wheel. this leads me to believe it's coming from the caliper.

i removed the passenger side wheel yesterday to check it out, and there's nothing hitting the wheel or the rotor, there's nothing on the tire, and i examined the brake system and there doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. there is no scoring on the rotors that i can see, and the pads are securely in the caliper.

since doing that yesterday, the clicking has gotten louder and turned into more of a scraping, since it's longer instead of a short click. if i roll down a hill very slowly with the brakes, as it hits that one rotation in the rotor, i can hear the noise. when it's this slow, it sounds more of a "crunching" noise, although when it speeds up (a few mph), the crunching noise turns into the clicking (and now scraping) that i'm hearing.

the crunching noise i'm hearing is the same noise that is heard when i connect a vag-com to the car and enter the brake system module. i don't know if that helps explain it at all.

i'm out of ideas on what it could be and i don't really want to guess and replace every component until it stops. anyone heard of this before?


i emailed this to matt at stoptech but haven't heard back yet, just thought i'd give it a shot here.

 

not sure what it was..but nothing was wrong with the calipers, pads, or rotors so i just kind of dealt with it. do a search. just dave explained it to me pretty well

 

and they are catching the slots making some noise. Does that sound remotely familiar?

 

Chamfering the leading edge of the pads a bit can help with this.

 

1. Check first to make sure that the pad abuttment plates are THERE, and not misadjusted to allow the backing plate of the pad to hit the hat.

2. In case it is just the pad friction material hitting the slots on the rotors, you can chamfer the leading edge of the pads.

3. This occurs in a straight line as well correct? (just eliminating the possibility of a CV joint issue)

4. How worn are the rotors? Is there a ridge on the outer edge? How thick is it?

 

If its making a lot of noise, you should see some metal/metal contact.


Do your pads have a metal backing plate? are the backings secured or loose?

 

when my clip that holds the pads in place had fallen out of place and had fallen down on the pad, preventing it from moving freely

 

you can also try brake anti squeel. It is like a glue that you put on the backs of the pads which holds them to the pistons so that they don't rattle around in the caliper. You can slso call the guys at Stoptech, they have awesome customer service.

 

I just had a problem with a rotational metal to metal sound. It turned out it was the "rust ring" on the rear passenger rotor. The rust had expanded towards the pad, just enough to cause a noise when approaching a COMPLETE stop. I used a dremel bit and lightly sanded the rust off, and smoothed it all with 400 grit. The sound has disappeared. I would maybe have your calipers retracted, and put back on. They may have been installed too tighly onto the rotor. good luck.

 

everything worked but there was that rubbing/clicking that was wierd.
took the wheel off and saw that it was just the clip.

If you show me a pic of the top of the caliper I can show you exactly what I mean