2005 Corolla front left wheel grinds, poor braking

[jjayww]

Hi All, our 2005 Corolla LE has been making intermittent/erratic grinding sounds from the driver's side front wheel for a while. We had our mechanic check it and he says the brakes have life left in them. Of course when he drove it the car did not make the noise at all.

Seems to happen mostly in cold weather but persists even after driving the car for a long time. Seems acutely present at low speeds. Braking or not, turning or not, no matter.

Then today a car in front of us slammed on the brakes suddenly. I had plent of time and space to stop, and we were only traveling about 25 MPH, but the Toyota labored to stop, I couldn't press the brake hard enough and the ABS went off despite dry (but cold) pavement. We nearly hit the car. I lost a lot of faith in that car today. People tout Toyota, so far I see quality issues. Functional design flaws aside.

I've seen posts from people with similar problems but nothing exactly like this one. Anyone have any experience with these issues? Are they related at all? Tires are new Michelins with 5K on them.

I don't know, my wife bought this car before we got married and I liked Toyotas enough to consider buying an SUV for myself, but after seeing all the issues and Toyota's apathetic attitude I don't think I like Toyota any longer. Accident waiting to happen if you ask me.

Any input is welcome. I just have this feeling, it's gonna be one of those tough-to-diagnose, tough-to-resolve issues.

Thanks

[aspen007]

First you need to determine if the grinding is being caused by the brake pads rubbing on the rotor, or from something else. .

Next time you hear the noise, see if the noise starts and stops, or changes sound, when you apply the brakes. If so, then you can be pretty certain the brakes are the cause of the problem.

Couple of possibilities regarding the brakes. First, you could have a sticking piston in the caliper or a sticking caliper pin. Both will cause the brake pads to rub against the rotor even when you release the brake pedal. Over time, the extra wear on the brake pads will either wear out the pads prematurely or cause the surface of the pads to become 'glazed'. When glazed, the pads will not provide the same level of braking 'grip' as before and you will feel like the brakes are just not working as well even though the brake pedal is firm.

A visual inspection of the brakes will not detect this 'glazing' problem since you can't see the surface of the pads unless you remove them. Most mechanics will check the thickness of the pads to determine if they 'still have life'. A glazed pad will have plenty of thickness, it just won't create the same level of friction as a normal pad.

I suggest you have your front pads replaced and make sure you have the caliper pins removed, cleaned and lubricated. Also make sure to replace the brake pad retaining clips. Those clips are often referred to as the brake pad 'hardware'. Often times shops will just replace the pads and not replace the hardware or clean/lubricate the caliper pins.

[gideon1331]

I had the EXACT same issue with my Corolla, except it was the right front wheel. The brakes were inspected and declared in good shape, when the pad was completely gone and the grinding was metal-on-metal grinding.

This went from a simple replace the pads deal to pads and new rotors which made it much more expensive.

I noticed that braking wasn't as good as it should be, and ABS would kick in on moderate-to-hard braking when it shouldn't have. This was the EBD (electronic brakeforce distribution) system sending more pressure to the wheel on the opposite side of the car to compensate for the fact that the wheel with no pad left was providing no braking at all. I was very close to overheating the caliper on the drivers side because of this.

NEVER trust what a mechanic tells you. I always get the feeling that they tell you something is fine for now so that it will be more expensive to replace down the road, and your safety be damned. Being a 2005 it's more than likely that the pads are due to replacement.

Have someone else check the brakes and see what they say. Glazing is certainly also possible if there is actually a decent amount of brake pad left.

[silver04rollas]

My guess is a rock chip stuck between the brake shield and the brake disk. I also had that problem once and I tried using a lot of car washes to remove the rock chip (pressure wash), but did not work. Eventually, I had to take it to Toyota and removed the brake assembly to remove the rock chip.

[jjayww]

OK all, sorry for the delay in this but Toyota Nation has the wrong (old) email address, so everyone's replies were going to a box I never check.

As for the Corolla, the whole thing culminated one day when the left front caliper seemed to be grabbing and NOT releasing. I barely made it to our shop.

I suspected a failed caliper, it wasn't that at all. Rust was building up on the pad bracket (orig with 34K) and preventing the proper operation of the pin, as I understand. So the pad was getting pushed closer and closer, failing to return to its proper resting position. He didn't mention anything about pad glazing but I suspect it's quite possible.

In any case we did a full brake job with new rotors, they cleaned everything super well and all is good once again.

Thanks to all.