I have only had my Elise for a little over a month. It has 1535 miles on it. I noticed yesterday while pushing it into the garage a rubbing noise coming from the brakes both front and back. Zero brakes were being applied yet there was this sound of rubbing coming from the brakes.:huh: Anyone experienced anything like this. I jacked the car up and spun both front and back righthand side wheels and both sounded like the pads were touching the rotor. Could it be that I haven't bedded the brakes properly. Any help would be appreciated. I bought the car with 214 miles on it and the remaining miles I put on have been 95% interstate with minimal braking.
Brakes rubbing?!
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Did the car sit for a while(Many days) before you pushed it? Are you sure the ebrake was all the way down?
Rust can build up just enough to cause this if your pads are still real thick.
Rust can build up just enough to cause this if your pads are still real thick.
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You havent driven it spiritedly(Hard on the brakes) in the rain, or washed the car immediately after hard driving/braking, have you?
Water on red hot rotors can warp them, resurfacing(Turning) the rotors may fix this, and its cheap(50-80 bucks for all 4)
Water on red hot rotors can warp them, resurfacing(Turning) the rotors may fix this, and its cheap(50-80 bucks for all 4)
None of that. The rubbing sound is uniform so that leads me to believe that the rotors aren't warped. I am going to take it out in the morning if its not raining and do a series of hard stops 60-10mph with cool downs in between and then check it again. If the dealer wasn't a blasted 230 miles away I would just run it by there for a looksey.
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Are the brakes dragging (doesn't sound like if you are pushing the car)? If not, it's normal for disk brake pads to always remain in light contact with the brake rotors, you just don't notice it on other cars. As long as they aren't applying pressure (dragging) there should be no problem.
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is it a squeak sound? Happens to my passenger front. It's material build-up from the pad that rolls up on the edge and touches the rotor. The first time it happened took it to the dealer and he cleaned it up. Took the pads out and that's what it was. Once all of it was cleaned, no sound for a while until recently came back. Must be time for a cleanin. I will try different pads when these need replacing.
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Well, there is no spring retracting the brake piston (as there are with drum brakes), the only thing pulling the piston "back" is the springiness of the rubber seal. So, when you let off the brakes, the piston is no longer squeezing the rotor, but once it's not applying pressure, there is nothing retracting it farther. If the piston did retract, then when you applied the brakes, much of the movement of the pedal would be to just take up the space between the pad and the rotor.
Now, understand, the pads shouldn't be "dragging" and preventing the rotor from turning, but it will be a slight drag and a "scraping" noise under normal conditions. That slight drag is enough to keep the wheel from spinning freely if you give it a spin (wheel off the ground of course), but not enough to actually generate any noticeable heat.
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I agree with Tim - very light contact of pad and rotor are to be expected in all disk brake vehicles, unless there are spring retractors (for example, the Miata has springs that retract the pads). When you spin the wheels do they turn freely with just a light noise? If so, all is fine and get used to one of the many sounds the Elise makes.
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