While still on the lift, after mounting them, they looked like they cleared the front calipers by ~3mm (guesstimate - will measure with ruler later, but basically plenty of clearance). While backing off the lift (straight), I heard/felt a rubbing sound, not constant, but cyclic, almost like one of the arms of one of the rims was slightly rubbing against the caliper (guessing once per revolution). Naturally, freak out a bit, stop the car and get out, take a look, and don't see any obvious signs (the somewhat dusty caliper didn't have any obvious marks, no metal shavings lying on the inside of the wheel). Get back in the car, drive slowly around the parking lot, hear it again, get out and don't see anything again. Drive around a bit more and it goes away. Make a sharper turn and hear it again, then make another sharp turn and don't hear it anymore. Drive around for a few miles, seems fine. Drive to a big empty parking lot, make full lock turns, hear it 3-5 times, then don't hear it anymore. Drive home uneventfully (~20miles). 2-3 days later, drive the car again, and hear the sound right after moving (straight, from a stop), but just twice, then it's all normal again.

Doesn't quite make sense for just one (of 6) arms to be rubbing the caliper (or anything else), and since it happened while the wheels were straight, shouldn't be tire rubbing (stock suspension, same rolling diameter, same width). And may only happen when cold.

 

I had a set of wheels that were close to the calipers and only rubbed in hard corners. Tire Rack exchanged them for me and removed that wheel from their S4 fitment list.

 

Check the back of the tires and see if it is the sidewall rubbing on the suspension.

 

as mentioned in my x-post on the s4 forum, it might be a wheel lug bolt / lock that's too long

 

do you have wheel locks?

 

Check for balancing weights rubbing against calipers...

 

What's on the other side of where the bolts screw in?

<img src="http://www.funkadelic.org/albums/apr_brakes_install/aag.jpg">

Just wondering if it's a "don't drive the car anymore or you'll eff it up more" type of things....

 

only on front wheels ... the wheel locks, even though the proper size for that application, were about 1mm longer than other bolts, and were rubbing against whatever there was behind the hubs. I would only hear the rubbing when making sharp turns.

I trimmed the two front wheel locks - it's OK now. No such issue in the back - the holes seem to be deeper in the back.

 

Do you remember roughly how much you had to trim off?

 

All I had at home was a cordless drill (18 volt). So I picked up one of those fly-wheels / sand-wheels at a hardware store, the one that mounts on the cordless drill (you'll need an adaptor mount for it), and one that's hard enough to use on metal. And then I just started trimming off the top. It was a long process (about 30 minutes for both wheel locks), and I took off about 1 mm.

You have to be careful not to mess up the tread, or you'll not be able to screw the wheel lock back in. No car shop wanted to do it for me because they said the tread would get messed up, that's why I did it myself.

Maybe a dremel tool would do the job too, but it has to be powerful enough (none of those 3.6V or 9V tools).

First of all though, pull out your wheel locks from the front wheels and see if part of their tops are scraped (they'll look like they were machined), to determine that this is in fact the problem. Put on back regular lugbolts and drive the car and see if the noise is gone.


I suppose if you drive long enough, they would trim themselves by rubbing against whatever they're rubbing, but I'm not sure what it is that they're rubbing against and don't know if it could get damaged. I drove on my wheel locks for about 40 miles before I realized something was wrong...