Hi all,
This might not be a Challenger specific issue, but I wanted to see if I could maybe be pointed in the right direction by some of the more knowledgeable members of the forum. On my Scat Pack I am sporting a 275 all around setup. Lately I have been hearing a high pitched noise from the wheels during slow movement, most likely from the front left wheel that is at times even stronger during turn of the wheel. Today I could hear it even while in stop and go traffic on the freeway. Does anyone happen to know if this is a common thing with my setup, i.e. is it rubbing of some sort, is it something with the brakes, etc?
Thanks for the help in advance.
Thanks,
Tim
As someone else offered there's the possibility of pad wear. If the pads have a wear feeler that is intended to rub against the rotor that could explain the noise.
If pad wear not the problem another explanation is there can be something caught between the rotor and splash shield. I've had this happen two times -- a twig one time and a small rock the 2nd time. However in both cases the noise was horrific.
The twig fall out when I backed the car up and cut the steering sharply in both directions. The small rock required I jack up the corner of the car and remove the wheel and pry the splash shield a bit to let the rock fall out.
If not the pads being worn or something caught my WAG is the pads, one at least, is remaining in light contact with the rotor at low speed and that accounts for the noise.
Every once in a while I hear this from my Hellcat. I've heard it with my other cars too, except maybe the JCW.
In the case of my cars it has always been "dirty" brakes. The piston dust covers get loaded with brake dust -- you think dust only gets on the wheels? -- and this interferes with the piston's natural tendency to slightly retract when the brake pedal is released. This leaves the pads in slight contact with the rotors and the pads (and maybe the rotors too) develop a bit of a glaze. The light squealing is the result.
My cure for this -- albeit a temporary one -- is to wash the brakes. I visit a DIY car wash and use the wand soap setting and spray down the wheels/brakes then visit each wheel in turn on the rinse setting then finish up with the no spot rinse. This last setting results in much reduced spray and I can get the wand nozzle closer aiming at at the pads.
If you hit the brakes with the just rinse setting you can see the brake dust in the water. The water is tinged black.
Be sure after you wash the brakes you take the car out and use the brakes hard enough to dry not only the pads/rotors but the parking brake hardware.
If you want to perform a mini brake bedding in procedure do so. In my experience this appears to remove the light glaze.