Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting rear brakes sound like a card in bike spokes...

Hey all.

I have those fancy (cheap) cross drilled rotors from CTA.

The rear ones when I apply the brakes, make a noise very similar to that of a baseball card in the spokes of a bike.

it also doesn't look like the brakes are pressing all that hard on the rotors as they dont seem to scorn after driving. You'd think they'd be shiny and reflective, but they are not. Well this is actually after only a 5 min drive, I guess I haven't checked after a long drive. Perhaps thats natural for the rear brakes, and I haven't noticed it before.

Any ideas as to what might be going on?

I've heard that drilled rotors will make noise, maybe others can chime in with their experiences. My Dad's Toyota Avalon had a hum noise after getting new rear rotors, one rotor had curved machine marks and they were just enough to make a hum. Another new rotor fixed it. If your pads are new as well, some "breakin" is needed, like some stop and go and expressway driving. If your car was parked, there might be some rust on the rotors, too.

the rear rotors and pads are from two summers ago. I didn't have any humming until this winter.

I plan on getting rid of these crap rotors, just wondered if anyone had the card+bike spoke sounds before?

I'm going to assume that the "sorn" issue I mentioned isn't an issue as no one commented on it.

I drove it last night, and it seemed more "scorn" but still nothing major (not shiny)

If you just got the noise, inspect the brakes, you might have lost part of a pad.