I was replacing my strut bearings today, due to annoying noise coming from a worn out one in the passenger side tower. Easy enough, I thought, since I've been doing my own springs and just put in an AGX/Sprint combo in not too long ago. Installation went ok, besides a wheel bolt that I cross-threaded and ruined - but that is the least of my worries right now. After everything was tighted up, I took the car off the jack and took it for a spin. Not a peep from the steering, and the wheel spun smoothly. Operation seemed like a complete success... until I got about 3 blocks away, when I noticed a click-click-click-click sound coming from my front driver's side wheel well. And as I slowed down, that clicking noise turned into a steady grinding, as if there was a point on the brake disc scraping across the caliper/pad or something... or maybe a loose line that I forgot to reclip onto the strut that was being dragged? So I pulled back into my driveway to re-inspect, but all my lines were secure and no part of the plate behind the disc seemed to be touching. I remembered that me and my bro had to do a bunch of stomping on the brake disc to get the bolts onto the strut... could that have knocked something loose? I had my full weight on the disc/caliper at one point so that he could push the bolt through. I was under the impression that the assembly was sturdy enough to withstand that kind of weight... even though when I do this type of thing I try to keep my foot on the disc itself. And when I look at the brake pad, it seems as if it is touching the disc - but even if it was, it wouldn't be making that noise would it? That noise is pretty scary, it sounds like a really loud scraping/grinding when I slow it down. Anyone have any ideas on what it could be? Is it possible that I could have bent the caliper down onto the disc? And for all of you who have done their own springs/struts - is there a better way to line up the bolts besides getting someone to stand/stomp on the disc? I find that the hardest part of the process... actually getting those bolts to line up - the bottom of the assembly is always mashing up against the CV boot before we can get it low enough to line up the bolts.

 

uh stoping on your brake assembly is no way to change your suspension...I can't even picture needing to do this??! Why would you be touching the brake assembly at all, except to gently move it up or down to fit the bolts for the struts, I have no idea. There is no mashing or stomping; gently manuevering the bottom of the shock assembly and lifting the brake assembly by hand should be sufficient to fit the end bolts.

 

Lime is correct. There is no reason to fiddle with your brakes when doing syspension work. The bolts should have lined up easily as you moved your hub up, down, and in BY HAND. If you had to stomp on the hub to make the bottom bolts line up with the strut, something was obviously holding the hub assembly.

Here's what I think happened.

There is a clip inside your CV joint that holds the CV joint onto the splined shaft of the axel. If that clip isn't seated correctly the splin shaft falls out of the CV joint. The rotor falls a bit more then it should twards you. Did you happen to notice that your CV joint looked extenede when the hub was taken off the strut?

When you were putting the assembly back together were you pushing inwards very hard to get the bolts lined up? If so, then your CV joint has fallen apart internally. The clicking your hearing is the splined shaft spinning around. I'm very suprised your CV boot hasn't been distroyed by this. (If this is indeed whats happeded)

Take the assembly apart again, just remove the 2 lower bolts from the strut and move the hub back. Now check your CV joint, is it lose? Does the Boot hyper extend? Can you move the shaft up and down? If so, you need to get the axel shaft back into the joint.

Take the boot off, and you'll see what has happened. It's a messey job and you'll need to get new bands in place when your all done.

Good luck!

Tom

 

Could it just be the dust cover behind the rotor? You could have bent that enough that it rubs on the rotor...

Just my cheaper $0.02

 

Thanx for responses... but OMG you people can do this by "gently" moving the disc up and down?!? I have never seen that kind of flexibility there. The arm is always so stiff that when I take off the strut the whole thing pops up, and it takes the force of at least one heavy foot to keep it down while its being taken out and being put back in. Someone PLEASE back me up on this... I've never seen it done that easily.

njmaxseltd - i totally see what you're getting at but I highly doubt that's the case... I checked the CV boot area and there's no hyperextension anywhere... too bad I'm at work now and I can't go home and take a closer look... but last night when I checked it out there didn't seem to be any deformities around that area... which is why I was assuming it was coming from the brake assembly. Also, if it was coming from underneath the CV boot, wouldn't the sound be sort of muffled? The sound i'm hearing is really loud, and seems to be amplified by the rim/wheelwell - it sounds as if something somewhere is scraping, which turns to a click when going at a decent speed.

 

Sounds familiar...

 

Did you check that cover that is behind the rotor?

 

I think I know why your having troubles. When you did your suspension work, were BOTH wheels off the ground? You cannot do one side while the other side is on the ground. The anti-sway bar will work against you and try to bring the hub your working on UP.

You must have BOTH front wheels off the ground when you take your suspension apart. Even if your only working on one side.

And yes, it's all done by hand, you can move the hub/rotor assy up and down a few inches very easily when both wheels are off the ground.

 

ahh.... both wheels off... it really makes that much of a difference??
wow... if only I had known that sooner, it would have saved so much time aligning the bolts. when i do this i'm always working with only one wheel off the ground. duh. expensive lesson... i just hope my CV is ok.

 

Noise after strut/spring modifications are usually caused by something bent of place (in this case, I would suspect the dust shield for the rotor), or undertorqued bolts.

I recently did some strut work on a Camry, and Toyota specs for torquing down the front bolts is 154lb/ft. For my Maxima, the fronts are like 105 or something like that, so I figure, good enough for MAxima, good enough for Camry. Wrong. Until I torqued it to 150+, there was a loose feeling going over bumps.

 

madmax and eric - we can definetly rule out the dust shield... that was the first thing I checked... there is good distance between that and the rotor. But to get an idea of what this noise is like - it sounds exactly like a part of the dust shield is touching at one point... like a scrape scrape scraping noise that turns into a clicking or knocking when going faster.

 

Maybe the wear indicator on the pads was bent in??

 

Most of the problems relating to brake parts rubbing etc. you should be able to spot by putting the car up on jackstands taking the wheel off and rotating the hub by hand.

If you have done this and don't see or hear anything rubbing then I agree with Tom, you probably want to take a closer look at the driveshaft/CV joint.

Maybe you somehow overstressed a weak part by putting so much pressure on the hub assembly.

 

THANKS iwannabmw... your post gave me an idea. I left work early today to work on my poor manhandled max... When I got home I took off my wheel and examined the brackets on the break pad. I jiggled it a little and felt some resistance... and wouldn't you know it, I had bent in the pad bracket so that the very edge of it was close enough to scrape the disc at one point. I guess in my mad stomping fury to get the bolts lined up, my foot somehow shoved that thing in. I took a pair of pliers to it and bent that **** back out. Now my steering is smooth as butta... with no scary noises .

njmaxseltd - I also realized today that my hydraulic sucks... it doesn't raise the car high enough to get both wheels off the ground. Actually I think it barely has the minimum height to do this, but since i'm on sprints in order for me to get it under the middle jackpoint I have to drive up on a 2x4, thus raising it a little too high. This is how I work under the front of the car, but I could never actually get both wheels completely off the ground.

 

That's what jack stands are for...

 

yep I have jack stands, but I want to be able to do this by just raising the center jackpoint. Which leads me to another question... How do you guys jack up one side of the car and then switch it over to the jackstand? Before I used to put the jack a little to the right and then put the stand right under the jackpoint, but now I can see that spot is starting to bend. How can I use the jackstand without bending my frame?

 

No problem. Glad it was something simple.