I am having a problem I hope someone can point me in the right direction, so I don't get ripped off when I go to the mechanics. After driving a very short distance (from a previously resting car) I hear a grinding sound that sounds like my brake pads are grinding into my rotors. Fine, I can deal with that. However, as soon as I tap the brakes or turn right, the sound disappears (but reappears as soon as I let off on the brakes or go straight). It's a soft sound and with windows up you don't hear it. Driving around 30MPH close to bldgs redirects the sound back, highway I don't hear anything.
My brake lights came on a couple of time during the winter, but went away within minutes. Braking seems fine. I rotated the tires, topped off steering fluid, didn't get better. I did notice that my front driver side rotor isn't shiny from the pads like my other rotors, pads are pretty new. Back pads proably need replacing. Any ideas? Thanks.
No, no vibration. Car runs perfect except for the soft (probably get louder if I don't figure it out soon) grinding sound. Can't really tell if it's front or back, but my driver front rotor does not look right, only thing I can see wrong. I'm still looking for any ideas. Thanks.
Jack up the car. Stand perpendicular to the car like your changing the tire and see if there is any movement from the tire by moving it towards and away from you. If so, its the wheel bearings. Your gonna have to get them pushed out unless you have a press.
sounds like brake pad wear indicator to me. take your wheels off and remove the pads and check them. i'll bet you find one or more worn down. as pads wear low, more fluid leaves the brake reservoir and can cause the brake light to come on momentarily.
Tangerine, did that and absolutely no play in the wheel. As a matter of fact, when I went to rotate them, I had to kick the hell out of all 4 wheels to get them off and they didn't budge without a lot of kicking.
silverxls and sickwilly, I think you guys are right. Brake fluid was low awhile back and my rear brakes are really thin. I am going to replace the rear brake pads this weekend. Also, I had to hold 1 rear wheel in order to tighten the lugs, it just kept rotating clockqwise, even with e-brakes on. Never had that happen before. hmmm.
Thanks all! Hopefully the pads go on smooth this weekend, never did it before.
do one at a time, so you can reference the other side.
I think you are also a good candidate for trying to repalce as much of the brake fluid as you can, given it souds like you are driving with less than optimal braking ability. Get a cheap turkey baster to remove some of the fluid prior to using your c-clamp to push back in the caliper diaphram, the fluid will come back up. Pull some of this fluid out, replace with fresh fluid, pump the brakes to seat the caliper, and repeat for each brake. After you are done replacing all your pads, I would give this car a good brake bleeding, with the goal of bleeding until you get good looking fluid coming out on all four brakes.
Brake fluid really turns over time, absorbing moisture. Since these cars run so reliable, its easy to just slap pads on them and ignore the brake fluid. However, the moisture absorbed will start to corrode it from the inside out. Thus, on my cars, I try to replace most the fluid every two years -- which Toyota does not recommned it, but my Honda's does.
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1997 Avalon XLS (black, black leather, tinted windows), sold June 2009 with 183K on it, still looking and running great!
Sickwilly, I will try the turkey baster, sound like a good idea. Where exactly is the bleeder valve, and what do I use to connect to the bleeder valve? I am not planning on doing the front pads as they are pretty thick, but I will try and bleed the fluid out as best I can. Thanks for your advice, it is very much appreciated.
there's a bleeder screw on the caliper, and it should be capped off with a rubber cap. take it off, and get some clear plastic tubing that will fit on the bleeder screw. loosen, pump brakes till fluid is clear. repeat for other calipers.
Use the link below to download brake info for the Camry V6 (has rear disks). If the car has ABS suggest not squeezing the pistons as this can force debris into the system. Release the bleed valve on the caliper to let the fluid out.
Wow. Thanks man. I should really buy a Chilton, but as much as I love this car, I have a new truck and I'm dead set on maintaining the Avy on the cheap.
I appreciate everyone's help. I was thinking brake problems only occured when you applied the brakes. One of my pads was worn to the metal at one end, it wore out very unevenly, the other end was considerably thicker. Plus, I didn't really notice any issues with braking, guess I don't brake that hard. In any case, my Avy is riding smooth and quiet again - now I have to fix that blown speaker.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aigochamaloh
there's a bleeder screw on the caliper, and it should be capped off with a rubber cap. take it off, and get some clear plastic tubing that will fit on the bleeder screw. loosen, pump brakes till fluid is clear. repeat for other calipers.
aigochamaloh, thanks. I saw it and it's really easy to access. I'm going to bleed them as soon as I find the right size tubing at a hardware store.
Probably a stuck caliper slide pin causing one of the pads to drag a bit. Pull the caliper at each corner, grease the pins, make sure the pads aren't jammed/stuck in the caliper bracket.
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