Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting brake light flicker, vibrations, and scraping.....

So, a few weeks ago my brake light came on while going around corners fast...usually just during left turns. I work 80 hours a week and don't have time to fool with much, so me being a dumbass kept driving it because the brakes still seemed to work fine.

A week later..
I start getting random knocking from the front passenger-side wheel that sounds kinda like a helicopter (don't laugh). I'm like crap, but being my only car and working 80 hours a week I keep driving it because it's just random it seems (yes I'm an idiot).

Now..
It does this knocking thing a lot, the brake light stays on more often, and when turning left slowly or fast, but especially slowly like in a parking lot, it sounds like something is scraping, but it's not constant it fades in and out (think warped rotor or something along those lines).

I have also noticed sometimes on the highway the noise only comes when I get into the gas, and sometimes that actually makes the noise go away.

So what's wrong? Give me an idea before I go take the wheels off on the passenger-side. I feel a day off coming and a visit to a shop like I should have done a while ago. Bad caliper? Broken axle? POS car..jk.

Thanks for any help and take care.

~Paul

brake light is low fluid, etc, or E-BRAKE being pulled up..


the scraping noise, on the passenger side, exaggerated by left turns tends to point to wheelbearings.

I will go out on a limb here, and tell you why it could affect your brakes..

My wheel bearing went out, so badly in fact, that the weight of the car made the entire assembly no longer stay vertical.. it would "lean" outwards (the top of the rotor would lean away from the car...) this caused scraping of the caliper on the rotor, and scarred my rotor, around the edge.

Upon FIRST pedal push, it would feel.. spongy.. like air was in the system... in fact, it felt this way because there was now so much extra room between the caliper and the rotor surface, that when I pushed the pedal, it would actually "force" the rotor back in to an upright position (but felt spongy while doing so..).

Second press was ROCK hard, since the caliper was extended enough to pull that rotor back up, now it was RIGHT ON the rotor for the next push...

as soon as I turned the wheel, or shifted the weight of the car.. repeat the whole thing again.

Sounded horrible, and FELT horrible in the pedal. this caused the brake light to illuminate, too, since it had to extend the caliper so far, that I ran low on fluid, while it was out that far.


Just a little lesson learned, is all.. Check your rotors for a scar around the outer edge, and check your pads to make sure you have any (INSIDE PAD TOO.. remove the wheel and look...)


Ray

Thanks for the info Ray. I went out and took off my wheel. I didn't see any metal shavings so that's always good. The rotor doesn't have any really definite scars, but the rotor has a little bit of play in it. It moves back and forth a tiny bit, that's not normal is it? I didn't have time to take off other wheels and compare, almost time to go to work. The sound it makes would make sense if the rotor moved back and forth ever so slightly while driving, but there aren't any really bad vibrations. My brake fluid was a little low and I added some. During the test drive the brake light didn't come on at all so that helped. There is still some scraping, so I am going to get both front rotors turned or replaced and put on new brake pads and see if that fixes it. Also, the spongy feel and then firm feel after braking a few times in a row seems to be there. So wheel bearings might be on the way too.

Thanks,
Paul

any play in the rotor itself while the car is raise, is the wheel bearing.

Replace the side that wiggled (as opposed to the other side.. yah, yah... someone would have said it!!)


That will give you the pedal feel... the scraping, and the slight vibrations...

There's your culprit!!!


Ray

I don't know what kind of car you have, but that would be nice to know from now on, whenever you have problems (this particular problem didn't matter, but you never know when it will.


year/make/model/miles.

Also.. If you have an SVT it is of particular importance, as you can save 50% of all your dealership purchases through Tousla Ford in MN (Steve's number is in a thread somewhere)

and Bill Jenkins can save ~33% for non-svt owners at Signature Lincoln Mercury (oops.. Steve Mullins, now, not to be confused with Steve at Tousla)


Ray