406oc.co.uk

Hiya dudes,

I often get a bit of noise from the rear brakes if I park the car up on a wet day then leave it for a couple of days (i.e. the weekend - the Wife's car does all the running around ), this noise is only there when the brakes are applied and is speed related, like something's on only one part of the disc, but it usually clears after the brakes have been applied a couple of times. I always ascribed it to the discs growing a bit of surface rust, maybe more where they're adjacent to the pads when parked.

However this week I've done about 400 miles and there's still a noise there when I brake. Reminds me a bit of a wheel bearing noise, but it's only there when the brakes are applied .

The only think I did different last week was took it to the carwash Friday afternoon before driving it straight home (only about half a mile all uphill so hardly any braking) and parking it up until Monday morning, so it would still have been pretty wet when parked.

I'll whip the wheels off on the weekend for a look, but any ideas?

I wonder whether the caliper is sticking? Copper slip on the sliding pins maybe?
Might also be worth whipping the discs off and checking the handbrake shoes to make sure they're not breaking up; I had a very similar sound on mine and it turned out the friction material had peeled away from the shoes

teamster1975 wrote:Might also be worth whipping the discs off and checking the handbrake shoes to make sure they're not breaking up; I had a very similar sound on mine and it turned out the friction material had peeled away from the shoes

Wouldn't that be there all the time though, not just when the footbrake's applied?

EDIT: Forgot to say I never park with the handbrake on if it's going to be left for any considerable length of time for exactly that reason...

DaiRees wrote:Wouldn't that be there all the time though, not just when the footbrake's applied?

EDIT: Forgot to say I never park with the handbrake on if it's going to be left for any considerable length of time for exactly that reason...

That's very true, I just thought I'd mention it anyway

Yes mine all do exactly the same, never found any fault, just put it down to rust on discs.

teamster1975 wrote:

DaiRees wrote:Wouldn't that be there all the time though, not just when the footbrake's applied?

EDIT: Forgot to say I never park with the handbrake on if it's going to be left for any considerable length of time for exactly that reason...

That's very true, I just thought I'd mention it anyway

Cheers mate, it's all aobut webshowering eh? Coming to think about it the handbrake has been pretty shyte this week (even shyter than usual..... ).

I can feel one of those full back brake replacement jobs coming on..

djp30djp wrote:Yes mine all do exactly the same

Even after lots of miles??

The handbrake shoes are completely seperate from the footbrake (rear brake pads), the only thing working is the brake caliper and pads under normal braking.

To check the handbrake shoes, gently apply the handbrake whilst moving, any noise will be there when you do this, noise on footbraking is discs and pads related.

It's very common to have rust buildup overnight or when stood, this goes fairly quickly under first time braking.I did a VW Golf GTI timing belt and water pump yesterday, the discs were rusty just by leaving it out in the rain for an hour.

Wouldn't hurt to take off the wheels and handbrake drums to have a look, but if I was presented with a noise on the rear brakes, I would follow the above...pull on the handbrake gently whilst moving and then brake normally.Then I would have a good look.

jasper5 wrote:The handbrake shoes are completely seperate from the footbrake (rear brake pads)

I think some early poverty spec models had discs up front but pure drums behind,

mjb wrote:

jasper5 wrote:The handbrake shoes are completely seperate from the footbrake (rear brake pads)

I think some early poverty spec models had discs up front but pure drums behind,

Yep, my old LX 1.8 had drum rears, but the hand brake was a hell of a lot better than the tubby! New cables this weekend!!

Sounds like a problem I had on my 6 around 3 yrs ago you could only here it when braking and more noticable going around roundabouts and braking. It was the o/s/r/ caliper sticking. I think it cost around £120 for a new one

Mine does it for a few miles after a wash / heavy rain /snow but it usually clears after a few miles. During recent MOT, got an 'advisory' front pads low - replaced them & discovered mild disc wear and one spot of metal to metal contact despite and average friction material thickness of about 4mm, (no pad wear light either). Now I'm thinking circumstances like these, with rust on the unused part of disc surface could give you longer lasting 'rust noise'.
A small stone etc. lodged in there could do it too.

It's probably siezed sliding pins, one side of one rear disk was quite rusty on my D9, I had to take the caliper off to get it moving (and incidentally tore a hole in the tiny sliding pin boot which is as thin as a cheap bleedin' condom, you have been warned...)

DaiRees wrote:

djp30djp wrote:Yes mine all do exactly the same

Even after lots of miles??

Even after a compete brake overhaul, within a couple of days it was doing it again, despite new discs pads & cables.
The noise stops after the first few uses of the brakes each day, until the next day." Just turn the radio up"

mjb wrote:

jasper5 wrote:The handbrake shoes are completely seperate from the footbrake (rear brake pads)

I think some early poverty spec models had discs up front but pure drums behind,

Yeah, that's right, my brother's 97 406 TD has rear drums, I was just going off the reference to discs, and my own 406.

I guess the only thing to do is to have a good look, as I wrote elsewhere, yesterday I replaced the rear shoes and cylinders on a C3, the linings had seprerated from the shoes, this made lots of horrible noises.