Stumped: New brakes now odd "clunk" at wheel?

[aparker81]

I am currently experiencing this as well. It occurred after I performed the 2010 T4R brake upgrade with new rotors and calipers. At first the thought was the parking brakes were grabbing the painted surface inside the rotor where the parking brake shoes engage the rotor. With that thought, I drove short distances with the parking brake engaged to rub and burn off the paint. This helped the issue while in drive. While in reverse, there still exists a clunk. I thought there was a piece of the parking brake hardware that may have been disturbed during the process of replacing the rotor and caliper so I purchased some closeout parking brake shoes and a hardware kit from RockAuto in anticipation of changing the parking brakes and the hardware to alleviate this issue.

Recently, I had the tires balanced and rotated and found the sound returned in drive as it was before I performed my band-aid procedure. Driving with the parking brake applied to the first click seemed to help resolve the matter.
However, just this past weekend, I was going to inspect and address this but ran out of daylight. I simply broke loose the lugnuts then tighten them back up to spec some time later and found the clunk returned.

My thought is it's something related to the parking brake as the condition does not exist with the parking brake engaged to the first click. If not engaged, the clunk exists in drive. The clunk exists in reverse no matter the parking brake engaged or not.

So, as of yet, I have no resolution, but wanted to commiserate. I hope to resolve this before the weather gets too cold or I have to pay a shop to do it.

 

[DMX512]

I had a similar issue when I changed all 4 rotors and pads. I never tried slightly engaging the e-brake though. I ended up having to loosen and re-tighten the rear lug nuts several times. I could definitely feel the "catch" while up on jack stands with either the wheel on or off. Easier to do with wheel on in order to get several revolutions. I can not explain why it worked for me but that is by far the most time I have ever spent putting a couple of wheels back on a vehicle.

 

[aparker81]

I am currently experiencing this as well. It occurred after I performed the 2010 T4R brake upgrade with new rotors and calipers. At first the thought was the parking brakes were grabbing the painted surface inside the rotor where the parking brake shoes engage the rotor. With that thought, I drove short distances with the parking brake engaged to rub and burn off the paint. This helped the issue while in drive. While in reverse, there still exists a clunk. I thought there was a piece of the parking brake hardware that may have been disturbed during the process of replacing the rotor and caliper so I purchased some closeout parking brake shoes and a hardware kit from RockAuto in anticipation of changing the parking brakes and the hardware to alleviate this issue.

Recently, I had the tires balanced and rotated and found the sound returned in drive as it was before I performed my band-aid procedure. Driving with the parking brake applied to the first click seemed to help resolve the matter.
However, just this past weekend, I was going to inspect and address this but ran out of daylight. I simply broke loose the lugnuts then tighten them back up to spec some time later and found the clunk returned.

My thought is it's something related to the parking brake as the condition does not exist with the parking brake engaged to the first click. If not engaged, the clunk exists in drive. The clunk exists in reverse no matter the parking brake engaged or not.

So, as of yet, I have no resolution, but wanted to commiserate. I hope to resolve this before the weather gets too cold or I have to pay a shop to do it.

I ended up having a mechanic replace the parking brake shoes and hardware. He stated the sound/condition still existed. In my case, it turned out to be a rotor out of spec. It was more oblong than circular. Both rear rotors were replaced and the condition no longer exists.