Please Can Someone Diagnose This Whistling Noise!?

[Faz85 0]

Hi guys,

 

I have been living with this annoying whistling noise which comes about at about 30MPH and then dissapears at about 40MPH...I thought it had gone away but seems to be more apparent than ever. The symptoms are as follows:

 

From cold the car is fine, but once it is warm the whistling noise comes about at around 30MPH. I tried different gears at the same speed, and tried coasting along with the clutch in to eliminate the possibility of it being the gearbox, but the sound still remains. Also, when i stick my head out the window while driving, it appears to be coming from the drivers side brake. When the whistling occurs, i gave it a little bit of left foot braking whilst maintaining 30MPH, and the whistling seems to stop.

 

Does the above diagnosis seem accurate? That it must be brakes?? If so, what would be causing the whistling? Could the pad be touching the disc, causing the whistle? If so, would new pads and discs cure it? I would really appreciate if anyone could shed some light on this...

 

Many Thanks in Advance

 

Faraz

[maturin23 10]

Take the driver's side wheel off.

 

Have a look at the general state of the pads and disk - if they're suffering due to excessive wear/scoring etc you'll need to change them anyway.

 

Have a look to see if the two wire clips that hold the pads steady are in place - replace if necessary.

 

Take the pads out (remove retaining clip from the right angled metal piece that retains the pads and knock it out, pull pads out from calliper). Try winding the caliper back and forwards to see if there are any restrictions on movement.

 

Post back here if all the above draws a blank!

[Baz 421]

And while you're there perhaps apply some copper grease to the backs of the pads, just to eliminate another possible.

[Faz85 0]

Cheers for the replies maturin and baz, im going to give all your suggestions a try this week, hopefully have a look at it tomorrow. One other thing i thought to add, when i got home this afternoon, i put the palm of my hand against both the drivers side wheel and the passenger side one...surprise surprise, the drivers side wheel felt considerably hotter than the passenger side!? Does this suggest that the brake could be sticking?! How do you resolve a problem like binding brakes? it is just a case of renewing the pads and discs?

 

Many Thanks Again

 

Faraz

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

Cheers for the replies maturin and baz, im going to give all your suggestions a try this week, hopefully have a look at it tomorrow. One other thing i thought to add, when i got home this afternoon, i put the palm of my hand against both the drivers side wheel and the passenger side one...surprise surprise, the drivers side wheel felt considerably hotter than the passenger side!? Does this suggest that the brake could be sticking?! How do you resolve a problem like binding brakes? it is just a case of renewing the pads and discs?

 

Many Thanks Again

 

Faraz

 

remove the caliper and clean up the sliders and coat with a decent hi temp grease. work the piston in and out and use some 1200grit paper on the piston to clean it up . if you take the piston out you'll need to rebleed the caliper obviously.

[Faz85 0]

Guys,

 

Just to feedback on the old whistling noise...I had a butchers this morning, took the drivers side wheel off, and the disc seemed reasonably good, no major scoring or anything, so i proceeded to remove the pads and caliper as suggested, and I gave the sliders a good fresh coating of copper grease and generally gave the whole lot a thorough clean. The piston was pretty bad, so gave it a good clean too and then reassembled the whole lot...

 

the result...Seems promising, the squeal has practically disappeared entirely, there was a little hint of it this afternoon, but nothing like before so im very happy (Thanks for the help guys!)

 

However...i reckon this will probably only be a temporary solution as the rubber bellows on the sliders seem to be cracked in places, so are probably letting dust and water in over time...is there any way of changing these?? I remember there being talk of repair kits for calipers, would this be what im after?

 

Regards

 

Faraz