greg235 Posted August 27, 2004 Share Posted August 27, 2004 EDIT: Sorry, wrong forum- didn't notice until I hit submit. Could a moderator please move this post to the new gen forum? Car in question is a 2000 Subaru Legacy L. When I go to brake I hear what I can only describe as a single click. It only happens when I start to brake, and seems to happen only after driving a while since last using the brakes. It seems to come from both sides of the car, sometimes I will hear one side "click" just before the other. Does anyone have any idea what this is? The brakes (and everything else except the heat shield) seems to work great dispite the noise it makes. I'm not really setup to do any work on this car in my current location, but if it's something simple I may be up to it. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saeble Posted August 28, 2004 Share Posted August 28, 2004 you may have the beginnings of CV joint death. Constant velocity joints are the universal joint type suckers which allow the axles to transfer power through a variable bend, you've got 8 on board your soobie, (sorry if you know this, it just for clarity), theres one at each end of your axle shafts. I don't know which ones tend to go first on Soobies but basically every front wheel drive and four/all wheel drive has CV joints. When they start to die, they click in a repetitive fashion. It's usually first noticed when you go around a corner under alot of power. As it gets progressivly worse it will click under lighter and lighter loads, and lesser and lesser degrees of turn, until it finally shirts itself and scares the crepe out of you when it lets go and locks up a wheel or something equally hideous. Some people are crazy. I've seen a small FWD making more din from rotten CV's than a car witha broken conrod... and they wonder why they have to stop driving it and fix it ! I digress... your clicking noise may be the same sort of deal. When the axles are loading up from braking it may be popping the CV's as they change from driving/coasting/braking. I'd suggest you find a nice parking lot and put on full lock in each direction and go round and round in circles under power to see if you get a 'click click click'. If you do, you probably need rebuilt axle shaft/CV's. Fitting them is easy enough if you have a decent jack, axle stands and a few simple tools. I just replaced the rear diff on my car and I was mightily impressed with how easy it is to extract bits of Subaru from the rest of it. Given the year of your car it may be a manufacturing fault if it is CV's. You should have many miles left before you get problems like the above. Outside of that I'd check your brake calipers and discs for anything unusal. Big tracks cut in your discs, or loose stuff. There may also be something in the suspension which is acting up under load. It may pay to climb under the car when its safely on ramps or something similar and get someobody to bounce you car up and down to simulate weight transfer like you'd get under braking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg235 Posted August 28, 2004 Author Share Posted August 28, 2004 Yes, my first thought was CV joint as well, but I have yet to notice it in turns. If I can find a place to work on it I'll check the rotors and calipers. Would CV joints be covered by the subaru 5 yr / 60k warranty? This car only has 35k miles on it so it's hard to believe it could be something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rweddy Posted August 28, 2004 Share Posted August 28, 2004 EDIT: Sorry, wrong forum- didn't notice until I hit submit. Could a moderator please move this post to the new gen forum? Car in question is a 2000 Subaru Legacy L. When I go to brake I hear what I can only describe as a single click. It only happens when I start to brake, and seems to happen only after driving a while since last using the brakes. It seems to come from both sides of the car, sometimes I will hear one side "click" just before the other. Does anyone have any idea what this is? The brakes (and everything else except the heat shield) seems to work great dispite the noise it makes. I'm not really setup to do any work on this car in my current location, but if it's something simple I may be up to it. Thanks. I think if might just be the float of the calipers. Most newer style brakes are floating style so after driving a bit, they tend to move up ever so much, making a single click now and then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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