Humming noise at 40mph+ brake caliper seized maybe?

[Olimee]

Hi guys

Bit of an issue, From 40mph upwards I hear a noticeable humming.

I have jacked all 4 corners up and all wheel bearings feel good, bar the rear passenger side.

It is very stiff to turn, I think the caliper has seized and is not releasing completely, the disk also has some discoloration as if it's getting very hot.

I don't think it's the wheel bearings as they are pretty new and there doesn't seem to be any play atall.

I have just had a new gearbox put in, i certainly hope it's not that.

 

[MartinR]

Drop the pads out the rear caliper then try and wind the piston back and check for left to right movement in the caliper slider and rotate the disc

 

[Cupman29]

Sounds like the bearing to me. Remove the caliper and spin the wheel and see if it sounds rough. Maybe the seal to the rear of the bearing is missing or not seated correctly and has let water in causing it to fail.

 

[Andyk1801]

sounds like a baring to me also. however if it is the brakes not releasing, one way to test would be to drive it around for ten minutes let them warm up nicely, then touch each wheel in turn and if that particular one feels hotter than the rest it would suggest a sticking caliper. happened on my old e46 bmw and the wheel in question was noticably hotter than the rest.

good luck

 

[Cupman29]

sounds like a baring to me also. however if it is the brakes not releasing, one way to test would be to drive it around for ten minutes let them warm up nicely, then touch each wheel in turn and if that particular one feels hotter than the rest it would suggest a sticking caliper. happened on my old e46 bmw and the wheel in question was noticably hotter than the rest.

good luck

A duff bearing will cause a lot of heat to build up on the hub and disc as well.

 

[Dominic172]

As said before, its most likely the wheel bearing that's causing it. I had the same happen on my previous clio

 

[Andyk1801]

A duff bearing will cause a lot of heat to build up on the hub and disc as well.

Fair enough, but would it cause as much as a sticking calliper? When my BMW was doing it the wheel in question was really hot.... Another thing you could also feel the car slowing down more aggressively when just moving in slow traffic, instead of coasting to a slow stop it would slow much faster.. If that makes sense... But I do agree the humming noise will probably be a bearing.. It was with mine on my clio, had it done a few months back now.. Was a loud droning sound.

 

[Cupman29]

If you try to spin the wheel with the jacked up a bearing issue would make the wheel spin rough but it wouldn't stop immediately unless the bearing was completely goosed and if that was the case you would feel movement in the wheel when pulling from side to side.

With a caliper sticking, the wheel would stop spinning quickly when free wheeling.

 

[Olimee]

The troublesome disk is getting noticeably hotter than the other.

I'm going to give what martin suggests a go first. Will I have to remove the disk to wind the piston back?

 

[MJRacing]

I had the same problem not so long ago, turns out the caliper was siezed. The garaged cleaned and freed up the caliper and fitted new disks. A few weeks later the humming noise came back. The caliper had been sticking again, disk got hot and wrecked the bearing.

I fitted a second hand caliper and disk brought off here for £45 and havent had a problem since.

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

The troublesome disk is getting noticeably hotter than the other.

I'm going to give what martin suggests a go first. Will I have to remove the disk to wind the piston back?

Yes, I don't think it would be possible otherwise!

 

[Cupman29]

Just remove the caliper to wind the piston back. Spin the wheel when it's off to see how it spins on its own.

 

[Madmike34]

you need a new caliper , i have same problem at the moment, cleaned mine up 2 weeks later started again, new caliper should solve problem

 

[Olimee]

Right so I removed the caliper and found that the piston gasket sleeve had come away leaving the piston exposed and has developed some 'white rust' so it was completely jammed. I used a bit of penetrating lube and gave it a bit of a clean before winding it back a bit, this freed it up nicely. I used a spoon handle to wind the piston back and didn't have to remove the brake disk.

Tip for people struggling when winding back brake pistons, there's a slot on the back of the pads that fits into the grooves of the piston- As i had low visibility I couldn't work out why there was suddenly less room.

I also noticed quite a caking of brake dust and rust on the caliper which was restricting movement of the pads.

For the time being it's hunky doory! and the humming has greatly reduced.

However I doo believe the bearings still could do with replacing as the seal on the bearing had worn.

Cheers guys!

 

[Andyk1801]

Looks like you will need new pads soon as well..

 

[Olimee]

Problem solved!

My front drivers side bearing had packed in (literally)..

Got myself a replacement swivel hub with bearing in for £15 from a breakers.

Wapped it out myself using this hard to find guide by G_F -Added a chunk at the end.

Front Swivel Hub Removal.
​

I have assumed you have removed the brake calliper/front brake disk and axel nut.

First undo the nut on the track-rod end, use a ball-joint splitter, else you risk damaging the top of the nut. DON’T use the cheaper versions (pullers) get something similar to this >> http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product...2&r=2076&g=111



Second undo the nut and clamp on the suspension arm to hub and use the ball-joint splitter again, be careful not to damage the rubber gaiter.



I find doing the above awkward, so I usually undo the bolts on the lower arm (wishbone) and keep the lower arm ball-joint inplace.(see bottom)



Finally undo the strut to swivel hub bolts.



Now that everything is undone, all that is needed to do to remove the hub is a ‘gentle’ pull; it can be quite tough because thread locking fluid is applied to the splines, in that case get a rubber mallet and give it a bash. When done it will look like this>



….and the hub (with attached bottom ball joint)



Personally, I use new nut and bolts and thread lock everything where possible, you don’t need to though.

Good luck


(Above guide was done on a MK1 Clio)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lower ball joint removal

In order to remove the pin on the lower ball joint from the hub, Undo the clamping nut and bolt and remove.

After undoing the strut and steering pinon I jacked up the hub slightly and gave the wishbone a couple of light wacks with a hammer. This applies an even force to the ball joint which should cause less damage the the crowbar i was planning on using.

I did this on my non-cup 182. The hubs are identical to this guide. The only extra thing to account for is the ABS sensor which simply unplugs with a bit of screw driver leaverige.

 

[Elliott85]

I seem to be having this problem at the moment with my front passenger side, noticed the piston was very stiff while fitting new pads and disks recently but applied some grease and hoped it would be okay but following a longish drive today the wheel in question is clearly getting considerably hotter than the other side. Will try regressing and compressing the piston again, hope this works!

 

[HarvB]

Probably needs the caliper taking off and rebuilding if it's stuck again, just greasing won't help. Are the dust boots around the pistons in good nick?

 

[Elliott85]

Took the calliper off and managed to compress the piston although it was extremely stiff and took some doing but all of a sudden it seemed to free up, heat build up seems to be greatly reduced now so hoping its helped. Dust boots seem in pretty good condition although it has worked loose in one place! Will most likely take the calliper apart and do a refurb/bleed next week to be sure.