Brake..... clunk/plink/click! Little help?

[DogtorM]

Hey brochachos, I need your advice on something:

I recently bought new rotors and brake pads for my '02 sport. After installation, I noticed there was a metallic scraping sound. I took everything back apart only to find that advanced auto had sold me 15" rotors instead of 16" (scraping was rotor against dust shield), and I was too dumb to check. I put the original rotors back on (because they were in acceptable condition) and kept the new pads. I returned the wrong size rotors for a refund.

Anyway, almost immediately thereafter, I noticed a "clunk" coming from the front driver brake about 2 seconds after applying the brakes. The sound is intermittent, only occurs on the driver's side rotor, can be felt in the brake pedal, and occurs about 1-2 seconds after the brakes are applied. Brakes work fine, but the sound ranges from a small click, to a louder plink that makes me feel uncomfortable about what might be happening.

Any thoughts, advice, differentials, experience, pearls of wisdom???

Thanks all!

 

[Jasonredwood]

My dust shields would always make an awful noise after doing something to the suspension or brakes. It was the dust shield that needed to be tweaked out a little.
Before I installed my lift I did notice a click or a clunk coming from my passenger side front. Turned out that my in CV was toast on my passenger axle. Not sure how you can double check to make sure though, before pulling it apart. I tore all my cv boots after lifting it so I was replacing the axles anyways.

 

[DogtorM]

Well, the sound kept getting worse, and became noticeable not just when braking, but also when shifting from forward to reverse and going over bumps. Basically, any time the weight of the car shifted.

I jacked it up and took the wheel off, and the bolt in the upper control arm had come almost completely loose! It was loose enough to turn by hand.

Easy fix, but why would it have come loose in the first place??? :wow: