Front brakes rattling

[Mad Cow]

Ever since I did a brake job my front brakes have been rattling really badly over even the tiniest bump or imperfection. It only happens when I'm not pressing the pedal and goes away completely with even a light touch. I figured it was the clips and replaced them, which make it much quieter for a while but now the noise seems to be back in full force. What else could be causing the noise? Everything seems solid and tight.

[OGBULLYLOCDAWG]

Assuming B5's use the same style front pads as us C5 guys:

^make sure those tabs are spread out far enough so that they sit inside the brake piston firmly.


Another thing that helps is to put some CRC Disc Brake Quiet on the back on the pads (caliper side of course)

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...er=348169_0_0_

And make sure to re-install the anti-rattle springs.

That should take care of any pad rattle after that.

GL

[walky_talky20]

I just took care of this the other day. The rattling is annoying for me in the summer time because I can hear it so well with the windows down. I replaced the front pads with Akebono ceramic pads (come with new pad shims) and used CRC Disc Brake Quiet on the outside pads. Kept the same retaining springs. The horrible jangly noise over bumps is now completely gone.

In lieu of changing pads, definitely do what OgBully said: make sure the clips on the inside pads are nice and tight, bend them out if needed, and definitely use some of that red goo on the pad backs.

[Mad Cow]

I did my front brakes about 2 months ago now, so pads are basically new, and I remember the clips being strong when I put them in. I used brake grease on the back of the pads, which has always kept squealing away, but these don't squeal at all anyway. Again I put in brand new retaining springs less than a month ago, which lessened the noise for a while, then it came back again.

What do the pad shims do? I remember the pads I bought specifically said without shims and I don't remember seeing anything that looks like a shim on the pads that I replaced.

[walky_talky20]

Here are the pads I got - Akebono EUR840's:



You'll see on the 2 outer pads (top left and top right) there are clip-on shims installed. The shims go between the pad and caliper and dampen the contact so it isn't metal on metal. The shims on these seemed very high quality and even have some texture to them. The inner pads also have a shim, but it is riveted to the pad and not removable. I also applied some disc brake quiet between the shim and the caliper, on the outer pads. That stuff does the same sort of thing, and also sort of glues the pad in place to the caliper, so it can't rattle around. So far I haven't heard another sound from the front brakes. The rears, on the other hand, give a nice clank when I back up. I will be addressing those soon. I think I might be upgrading to a vented rotor back there.

[Scientist]

I'm guessing the wires holding the calipers in place were bent when uninstalling and were not bent back to shape.

[walky_talky20]

I don't know. Mine were rattling like it was their job, and now they are perfectly quiet. And I reused the same wire retaining clips without re-bending anything. But having those things tightly sprung is certainly an important part of the equation.

It is *so* nice that I don't have to listen to those dang things rattle anymore. It makes it sound like I'm driving a piece of crap. People on the sidewalk would literally turn and stare at me as I rolled across a bumpy section of road.

[alpergumussu]

i had the exact same problem after changing my brakes and rotors couple of weeks ago and it was sounding like a tin can rolling down the road. i first retightened all the bolts but they were good and tight. What OGBULLY said seemed to be the problem i had. The inner pad was rattling because the flanges were not sitting right inside the piston so i bent them outward a little and the rattle is gone for now and seems to have fixed it. i changed the retaining spring on the outside of the caliper first and the new one was alot tighter but it didn't fix it for me so look at the inner pads first i'd say!