Hi,

 

I have a 1998 outback wagon with grinding/vibration problem when turn right slowly with the brakes applied. Perfect example is pulling into a parking place in a shopping center. It doesn’t happen without the brakes being applied.

 

You can feel the vibration in the steering wheel and as best I can tell the source is in the driver’s side front. So I kind of thinking brakes in some form, new pads but not rotors about a year ago. But I thought I would try to get some ideas as to what it might be before I look into it tomorrow. I have read some of the other posts about grinding from wheels etc and most point to a wheel bearing but I don’t think that is what is happening here.

 

Any insight would be much appreciated

are you saying if you do the exact same thing pulling in straight that it never does it and sounds fine? that would seemingly rule out the brakes.

 

no other vibrations/noises while driving ever, just slow speed parking lots?

 

the new pads from last year could be "stuck" and dragging on the rotor. new pads can be too tight - needing to be shaved down to fit, or they can stick on the clips in the bracket. the clips are 10+ years old and prone to build up/rust/not being smooth any more.

What I meant was when you turn hard right at slow speed into a parking place with brakes applied as you are easing in you get the noise. If you do the same thing, a little risky if there is a car in the facing space, without applying the brakes you don’t get the noise.

 

I’ll have a look at the spring clips, pads etc tomorrow and see what I find.

I had something similar happen to mee a few months back. it almost sounded like metal on metal gringing. it turned out to be that the lug bolts were overtightened and the noise was coming from the bearing. it's worth a shot..

good luck!

Here is an update. I looked at the brakes on the driver’s side yesterday and found the pads in good shape; the rotors were not perfect but not bad. But when I went to remove the pads the outer pad was very tight in the upper spring guide. I managed to pry it out and cleaned everything up and it all went back together pretty smoothly with no binding.

 

Initial test went well with the condition being gone. But after driving the car about twenty miles at highway speeds when I went to part the car the grinding vibration was there again but not as bad. This morning after a short local drive the condition wasn’t there. So it seems heat related somehow.

 

Also one last thing when I had the brakes apart and the caliper was hanging from the strut my daughter pushed in the brake pedal. I noticed that only one of the pistons came out. Is that normal or should both of them come out and could that be part or all of the problem?

 

Thanks in advance for any further comments.

uhmm I think 98 Outbacks had single piston calipers? the other side is just for the sliding caliper bracket.