Metal grinding / ticking from passenger side front wheel?

T

TameRacingDriver

Member
 Newcastle Upon Tyne
Hi all, starting from yesterday I came to notice that my passenger side front wheel is making a grinding or ticking noise while driving along. Sounds like metal on metal, is unaffected by steering or braking and seems intermittent (although its doing it more often than not). It looks, so far as I can tell, there's plenty of life left in the pads but I've not had the wheel off to check properly.

Any ideas what that could be?
 
As above, normally happens if the cars been sitting for a while. A garage can easily free the caliper with a wind back tool. It can easily be purchased and done yourself.
 
Cheers guys. I did try to see if the disc was giving off more heat but it was hard to tell. I also tried a few emergency stops to see if that helped (it has on some previous cars) but it made no difference.

I guess this is the sort of thing I would need?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Laser-3940-Brake-Caliper-Rewind/dp/B0012M9JYS (obviously this one is for a Mini, but its the first one that came up)

Edit I might add the car gets used almost daily so I don't suppose it's because the car hasn't been used?
 
TameRacingDriver said:
Hi all, starting from yesterday I came to notice that my passenger side front wheel is making a grinding or ticking noise while driving along. Sounds like metal on metal, is unaffected by steering or braking and seems intermittent (although its doing it more often than not). It looks, so far as I can tell, there's plenty of life left in the pads but I've not had the wheel off to check properly.

Any ideas what that could be?
Click to expand...


Maybe something trapped behind the head shield? I have a stone once and it made a horrid sound
 
TameRacingDriver said:
Cheers guys. I did try to see if the disc was giving off more heat but it was hard to tell. I also tried a few emergency stops to see if that helped (it has on some previous cars) but it made no difference.

I guess this is the sort of thing I would need?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Laser-3940-Brake-Caliper-Rewind/dp/B0012M9JYS (obviously this one is for a Mini, but its the first one that came up)
Click to expand...
yes thats the one i have :thumbsup:
 
synthedup said:
TameRacingDriver said:
Hi all, starting from yesterday I came to notice that my passenger side front wheel is making a grinding or ticking noise while driving along. Sounds like metal on metal, is unaffected by steering or braking and seems intermittent (although its doing it more often than not). It looks, so far as I can tell, there's plenty of life left in the pads but I've not had the wheel off to check properly.

Any ideas what that could be?
Click to expand...


Maybe something trapped behind the head shield? I have a stone once and it made a horrid sound
Click to expand...

I got to be honest, that did cross my mind. At one point I did go over a road with loose stones on it.

Might be an idea just to whip the wheel off first and check. I also just looked at a video on youtube where there was a metal shield thing behind the brake disc that was touching it, and they just bent it back with a screwdriver to stop it touching. This was a different type of car though so not sure if it will be there on a BMW.
 
I don't bother with a tool - release the brake reservoir cap and use a screwdriver to back the pads off, they don't need unwinding. You have to do that to start off with if there is a lip anyway.
 
synthedup said:
TameRacingDriver said:
Hi all, starting from yesterday I came to notice that my passenger side front wheel is making a grinding or ticking noise while driving along. Sounds like metal on metal, is unaffected by steering or braking and seems intermittent (although its doing it more often than not). It looks, so far as I can tell, there's plenty of life left in the pads but I've not had the wheel off to check properly.

Any ideas what that could be?
Click to expand...


Maybe something trapped behind the head shield? I have a stone once and it made a horrid sound
Click to expand...
This ^

tiny stones/grit can do exactly this. Take wheel off and have a good rake around with something, I used a wooden kebab skewer last time.
 
GreyZed said:
synthedup said:
TameRacingDriver said:
Hi all, starting from yesterday I came to notice that my passenger side front wheel is making a grinding or ticking noise while driving along. Sounds like metal on metal, is unaffected by steering or braking and seems intermittent (although its doing it more often than not). It looks, so far as I can tell, there's plenty of life left in the pads but I've not had the wheel off to check properly.

Any ideas what that could be?
Click to expand...


Maybe something trapped behind the head shield? I have a stone once and it made a horrid sound
Click to expand...
This ^

tiny stones/grit can do exactly this. Take wheel off and have a good rake around with something, I used a wooden kebab skewer last time.
Click to expand...

Also agree as a first step. You might even bend the heat shield back just a little.
HTH.
Stevo
 
I've had a look, and I can see that the metal shield behind the brake disc is touching the disc itself, and has even left score marks on shield, so that explains the noise.

Unfortunately I don't have a jack so I have not been able to jack the car up but I have tried forcing the shield back slightly using a small hammer and brute force, but I can't seem to get it to not touch the brake disc.

I read elsewhere that BMW do not recommend them anyway, but they appear to be standard equipment?

http://www.unofficialbmw.com/images/dustshields.jpg (though this is from 1988 lol)

Anyway, not sure what to do, do they need to just come off? Replace them?
 
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