Hi - 1st post on the forums for me - hope someone can give me a clue what might be going on with my Impreza.

 

It is a 2001 2.0 GX estate - automatic with about 47K on the clock. It had a full dealer service with front pads about 5K ago. I've had the car for about 15K since last March. It gets a fair bit of hammer from the windy bouncy single track roads up here.

 

A couple of days ago it started making a low pitched creak from what seems to be the front near side brake. This is only audible at slow speeds, say 10mph & below.

 

• Only seems to happen when the car has been run for a bit, not when cold.
  
• The creak is rhythmic, ie in time with the wheel rotation.
  
• It isn't a pad wear indicator squeal type noise and sounds almost more like a suspension type creaking, however...
  
• No suspension creak can be heard if the car is bounced, stopped with the handbrake, or in reverse.
  
• I have had the wheel off and poked about a bit but cant see anything suspicious (wouldn't say I was an expert though :-\ )
  
• The vibration from this can be felt through the steering wheel
  
• There's still loads of meat on the pads, though the discs look slightly worn.
  

So, I'm coming up to a junction, brake to a crawl & then creak, creak ,creak, creak, stop.

 

I'm wondering if it might be the discs are the cause, but would be very grateful if anyone has any ideas or experienced anything similar.

 

Thanks

 

S

Does it seem like the pedal pulses a bit with each creak? Its a possibility your rotors need to be milled/replaced...just a thought

Hi - thanks for the suggestion.

 

You can definitely feel a faint vibration in time with the sound, both through the pedal and the steering wheel. This seems to get worse, the slower the car is going, with the noise getting correspondingly louder - it's louder still if you wind the windows down !

 

S

do you have rear drums? mine make a similar noise, because the shoes are super-low. If not that, it sounds like you might have a warped rotor... try taking the wheels off, and re-torqueing the lug nuts evenly.

It's discs on the back too. I think the rotor is sounding favourite, either warped or just generally worn out. I'll follow your suggestion & re torque it up to see if that makes any difference. Other than that, if it's still doing it in a week or so I might have to look at new ones.

 

Thanks for the input.

 

S

Sounds like they may have turned the rotors at the dealer, and then they warped. Sometimes its better to spend the 30-40 on new rotors then to machine them. I dont remebeer Subaru rotors being thin to begin with, i know GMs are.

 

 

nipper