I put new rotors on the rear of our 95 Lego Wagon L, AWD, auto, 150k. Used Wearever cheapo rotors from Advance with top 'o the line ThermoQuiets from Wagner for the pads. Job went okay, except one side was really tight on the pads... difficult to get over the rails..... not sure it will slide correctly. That was driver's side.

 

Took him out for a drive and the brakes worked fine, quiet, firm, no pulsating in the pedal. Then I went around a right turn and heard this scraping sound from the back passenger side. Repeated while I turned around and drove home. Nice a quiet on the straight, scraping sound in a right hand turn. Step on the brakes and then it got quiet, while on the brakes, came back when I let off.

 

Any ideas?

 

Mike

Dust shield if rotors on rear.

 

Otherwise probably just rust, and/or the rust on the outer lip of the drum is rubbing. I aways descale them a bit on that lip.

WHat he said. I did that once myself.

I scraped down the dust sheild down a bit, where it was bubbled / scaled from rust. It was actually in pretty good shape... I usually find rusty remenants of dust shields. It was the rear, and of course, with new rotors, there is no rust ring on the drum....

 

So, should this quit on it's own with some driving, or should I pull the wheels again and scrape like crazy to get it down further?

 

Since the rotors are new, is a rusty shield the only other possibility for contact, or should I be looking elsewhere?

The stainless steel clips that go between the pads and the bracket can get bent and rub. You also said you had a hard time getting the pads in, so that could have bent them.

 

Pads should slide in and out of those brackets easily. If they don't, you will get bad wear.

 

Take the stainless steel clips off and clean the bracket behind them. Rust often builds up in there, pushes out on the clips, and wedges the pads.

 

Cheapo aftermarket pads often have poorly finished ears where they fit into the clips. Sometimes you have to grind the ears to make them fit in easily. Coat with grease to keep the ears from rusting.

I, too, bought and am using the Wearever cheapo rotors with ceramic brake pads. I too, got some rubbing, when installed on my 99 OBW. I used a screw driver to bend the dust shield away from the rotor. That solved most of the problem. Once in a while, I will hear a little bit of rubbing when cornering, but nothing to worry about. Maybe the Wearever rotors are slightly thicker or slightly larger, I don't know. Performance wise, the brakes work just fine.

Pulled the back wheels again tonight and took off both new rotors and sets of pads. I then used my Dremmel to grind down the rusty bits on the caliper holder where the clips sit. Also ground down the slots a bit on the pads themselves. Pads went back on easy as pie, so I'm sure they'll move okay now.

 

Took the car for a drive and there was some grinding / scraping at first. I deliberatly pushed it hard into some turns, hoping the rotor would wear away the rust or dig a groove for itself. Surprisingly, it seemed to work. (As I type this, it sounds pretty dubious). As I went about 4 miles, the scraping became less and didn't even happen as I turned back in the drive. Here's hopin' it's done!

 

So... I think the Wearever rotors are just a smidge bigger than OEM and that, combined with a slightly rusty dust cover, resulted in scraping. Brakes work great, though!

 

Thanks for the help!

good news mike, keep it up. rusty rotors/drums can lead to various rubbing points that are annoying to get rid of. happens all the time when cars sit for a while and the rust bulids up too.

With some rotors you need to cut down that lip on the back of the rotor, I always cut it down flush with the rotor surface. The other problem is the backing plate sometimes gets bent out of shape on the bottom. If you take it back apart you will see where it was rubbing. With the plate, just take a good punch and knock it back where it should be. Also, on some of the later 90's, if the backing plate is bent out it will cause the ebrake cable to come in contact with the abs counter ring. This is also fixed by hammering the backing plate back where it should be.