SyncdLancer

About 4 months ago I moved to NYC to accept a new job and I left my car in the garage. I haven't driven my car for a few months so I assume the brake pressure went down and thats where I think the problem lies but someone please correct me if im wrong.
On my drivers side front brake; my caliper is scraping on my rotor and leaving behind 2 circles about a half inch wide in the middle of the rotor. I looked closer at the caliper to see where it is scraping on the rotor and I see that there are 2 points on the caliper that are scraping and leaving behind the circles. I had a wheel bearing go bad so I changed it assuming it would fix the problem but its still there. It has improved but now the caliper scrapes on the rotor when only making right turns. The harder I turn louder it sounds too. It doesn't scrape or make the sound when I go straight or left, just when I turn to the right. My pads look like they could be changed but deffnitley not enough to let the rotor touch the caliper at all. And before this I never had an issue with my brakes. Maybe if I bleed my brakes the pistons will extend the pads to stay away from the caliper but I haven't tried this yet. The caliper doesn't scrape on the rotor on the inboard side, just the outboard side. If my wheel bearing is good and the wheel is torqued to the hub correctly what could be causing my caliper to gently scrape on my rotor? The pad is recessed a bit too far into the caliper so perhaps I damaged something by putting a screw driver into the rotor to stop the hub from spinning so I can remove the axle? Im not sure. And I changed the axle with the wheel bearing because it needed to be changed but I dont think one thing has to do with the other. I correctly torqued everything down on the knuckle too. Please help.

MinusPrevious

iTrader: (3)

If the caliper is properly torqued & the rotor is seated correctly, not sure how the caliper contacts the rotor ?


A picture w/arrows showing the contact points would do a lot to explain the issue

SyncdLancer

I wish I was able to take a picture and post it on here but im already back in NYC to work. Ill take a picture this weekend or the next and post it as soon as I can when I get back to Tampa. This is driving me crazy.

All I can think of is the rotor perhaps might not be seating on the hub properly but its funny how I change the damn knuckle/ hub assembly and the rotor still touches the caliper. God please help me figure out whats causing this phenomenon! lol

SyncdLancer

this guy has a similar problem with brembos on a civic

http://www.b15u.com/threads/28843-br...-rubbing-rotor

heel2toe

iTrader: (41)

Unless there is some sort of crap in between the rotor and the hub which isnt allowing it to fully seat the only other thing that it could be is a warped hub. Wheel bearing on our car come as a complete assembly so Im guessing that's what you swapped when you did the bearing, correct?

If so I'd put $ on the fact that the hub is somehow warped and that's where your contact is coming from...

SyncdLancer

I just realized this and I cant believe I didnt think about this until now but... the new axle I replaced didn't come with the washer, or at least I forgot to put it in. It was a new axle from Rockauto.com and I triple checked the part number with my application (06 Evolution IX SE) so I know its the right axle however... I cant recall installing the washer that goes behind the nut. Im not sure if it came with it but without that washer wouldn't the hub not sit properly flush inside the wheel well? I torqued the axle nut to 125 ft-lbs but the washer that goes behind it isnt present so would that deprive the hub from not recessing all the way in? I physically need the rotor to recess in the hub more because its the outboard face of the rotor that needs to set in the wheel well a bit more to stay away from the caliper. I cant wait to fly down to Tampa to work on this.

SyncdLancer

Yeah I ordered a complete knuckle with the hub/bearing off of ebay from a reputable seller. It came all assembled and it was definitley pulled off of a used evo 8/9 so I assumed I could just change the entire knuckle/hub instead of trying to separate the wheel bearing from the knuckle so I went that route. I carefully examined the part for damage and bends and did a side by side comparison with my old knuckle. The knuckle/ hub and all looked good so I did the swap of the entire assembly instead of just changing the bearing. The car behaves much better because the old bearing was definitely bad and made a much worse sound that was substantially louder.

SyncdLancer

Funny how my old axle pretty much came apart little by little for no reason. For months I kept hearing a slight random rattle when driving during a span of 6 months. The sound only came from the drivers side. Then one day I was pulling into the drive way and the car didn't move at all. The axle shaft was spinning in the hub making a wicked sound lol so I immediately recognized the issue and ordered the new axle from Rockauto.com the next day. Perhaps this happened because the axle washer was never present and since the axle never seated properly in the hub, the bearings and shaft were constantly separating and eventually taking out the bearing and race inside the outer CV. Not to mention a cotter pin was never present either.

heel2toe

iTrader: (41)

Not having the washer could certainly have something to do with it. My concern is that maybe when you snugged down the axle nut it didn't center or seat properly and thus warped the hub. That or for all you know the used bearing already had a warped hub like I mentioned before and that's your issue.

I'd rip it back apart and carefully inspect to see if anything looks out of place. I doubt its the knuckle though unless the ears that mount the caliper are somehow off. The chances are a bent knuckle would f with you wheel alignment but not so much the alignment of your caliper relative to the rotor.

SyncdLancer

Your absolutely right. Ill rip it all apart and carefully compare the new knuckle/hub with the old one. If I see any slight differences, Ill look into removing and replacing that damaged component such as the hub/bearing. Hopefully the new knuckle/hub assembly I installed doesn't have any damage and I didn't further mess anything up taking the test drive I took around my neighborhood after the install of that new knuckle/hub. I didn't go fast as hell and the turns I took were slow and careful. My old hub/bearing had obvious play so I immediately noticed a big improvement. It just amazed me that the caliper and rotor were still contacting!

The material that is grinding off of the rotor is so small that its pretty aparent I need only the slightest amount of clearance to get the rotor away from the caliper. As I sit here thinking back when I removed the old axle, I think about how the absense of that washer could have contributed to the old axle coming apart after months of driving. (Feb 2014 - October 2014, Adding 7k miles to the car from 97k to 104k, including driving it to Tampa from North Carolina when purchasing the vehicle) I never launch my car or drive it like an *******. I feel like without that washer, the axle was only working harder because it was elongated from its normal operating position so It was only a matter of time before the bearings and race completely came apart (I removed the axle as 2 pieces!) Im praying to God that axle washer is the center of my problem. Literally lol.

SyncdLancer

Just wanted to post an update about my issue with my rotors scraping on my caliper. Over the weekend I installed my axle washer to see if my issue would be resolved and it did not. I decided to pull off the caliper and investigate what was causing my rotor to touch my caliper. Below are some pics of the scraped rotor. One of the pistons are leaking and I believe the brake pad was so dirty and packed with brake dust it could not travel up and down the guide pins. The inboard pad was extending out further than it should have because the outboard side had no pad to push down on. The outboard pad would sit out too far from the pistons range and not move whatsoever because it was extremely dirty. But I still don't get how the inboard side of the caliper could have the strength to push the rotor outboard and contact the caliper. I removed the pads and cleaned the caliper with brake cleaner and reinstalled everything. Now it doesn't scrape! There is still very little clearance from the caliper where it was scraping on the rotor but now I can work on the brakes and go from here. Below are some pics for your viewing pleasure. My advice is to keep your breaks clean. I am going to have to remove and replace the seals and boots before I can rest again.


The rings! :O

Inboard side of caliper

Inboard side of rotor. No damage!

evanwest94

when the wheel is on and the car is jacked up you should shake the wheel up and down and feel if there is any bearing play. also if the hub isn't fully pressed into the bearing you will have less rotor to caliper clearance. also while the wheel is up and on spin the wheel and put your hand on the spring to feel for any grinding, and compare to the other side.