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Does this sound right? (Break Issues)
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GameGeek
Anonymous Poster
Mar 4, 2008, 11:33 AM
Post #1 of 2
(1256 views)
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Does this sound right? (Break Issues)
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I'm trying to figure out whether an issue with my car might have been caused by something my mechanic did.
I have a 2000 Camry with 80,000 miles. About 3000 miles (and 5 months) ago, I had the front breaks overhauled (they were worn, and needed it) and, at the same time, my mechanic adjusted the rear breaks. Recently, the rear breaks started making an intermittent cyclical noise on breaking, that slowed down as I slowed, "erk"ing every 360 degrees. I took it back to my mechanic, who said he drove it and heard the noise. Then he said that when he took off the lug nuts, they were seriously overtightened, "twice as tight as they should have been." He said that this could warp the rotors, although in this case he did not think it had done so. He had cleaned the breaks, and thought that the noise was gone.
I then told him that he was the last person to tighten the lug nuts. At first, he seemed incredulous, because he said his air wrench was calibrated to tighten only to a certain tightness. But, he said, the wrench was due for service, and knowing this, he would definitely send it out right away. He also said if there were any problems related to the over-tightening, he would cover them.
When I drove out, the car started making the breaking noise again after about 5 minutes. I drove it back so that he could ride with me and hear it. He said that it was definitely break noise, and that the rear breaks would have to be replaced, and also that he had not heard the noise when he drove it the first time. (Which does raise the question of what noise he might have heard, but anyway.) He said that he would apply the credit the cost for today's repair toward replacing the breaks. I asked if the problem might be related to the over-tightening, and he assured me that it was not.
Does this sound right? I don't know exactly what is causing the cyclical noise, but it sounds to me exactly like the sound you hear when, say, a bicycle tire is out of shape and you are breaking. I would have thought that that might be caused by the overtightened lug nuts. He said that a problem with overtightened lug nuts would have manifested itself in different ways--I would have felt the vibration in the break pedal, etc (I do not feel such vibration).
What do you think? I like this mechanic, I have trusted him in the past, and I would like to continue to be able to go to his shop, but this certainly gives me pause.
Incidentally, I know very little about cars myself, and thus it is possible that there are mistakes in my narrative above--I may have gotten a term or two wrong.
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dmac0923
Enthusiast
Mar 4, 2008, 7:01 PM
Post #2 of 2
(1242 views)
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Re: Does this sound right? (Break Issues)
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the first thing that stands out to me is, you cant "adjust" disc brakes. at first i thought you had rear drums (which you can adjust) but then he stated "warping rotors"
so if you have drums in the rear he could have adjusted them
if you have rear discs hes blowing smoke up you know where.
if you have never replaced your rear brakes at your mileage then the noise you are hearing is probably the brake pad/shoes backing plate scraping against the drum/rotor.
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2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee
2002 Ford Ranger
2004 Toyota Corolla
1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1
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