Brake pad rattle.

When I swapped my tires last season, I also cleaned and greased my front brake pads and pins as they were a little tight and beginning to corrode a bit.

I guess I filed a little bit too much off of the drivers side pad ears and have had to listen to them rattle all summer on the right bumps.

It’s almost time for me to put the winter wheels back on, so while I have the wheels off I thought I would deal with the rattle. Pads still have lots of life and the anti-rattle spring is properly in place, any tricks I can pull to mitigate this rattle?

Thanks for any assistance.

 

An old trick is to gnurl the edges of the pads by roughing them up with a hammer. Only millimetres worth. It’s annoying but pad slap is better than seized pads. Personally I’d leave them

 

Not much you can do, since you filed some of the ear off. Never heard of anyone filing down pad ears. Guess there's a first for every thing. Whom told you to do that?

 

Decent, I may gently try this if I find they have very excessive slop when I get the wheel off.

My brain kinda tells me to leave them be as well so I totally get that. I know that mechanically, They are almost better off this way. I dealt with seized pads when I purchased my last vehicle (4runner) And assisted my father with them on his 2012 Taco. That’s the main reason I’ve been diligent in their maintenance on my 2018. Those were not fun jobs even with an arsenal of the right tools lol.

It will be windows-up weather here real soon so I think you are right in just leaving them be.

 

It’s a common brake maintenance practice in areas like mine with rough winters. They literally pour liquid brine on our roads. The pads and pins will seize to the calipers in short order, usually long before they actually wear out. and it’s not fun to deal with the removal. Sadly, rustproofing brakes and the exhaust is impossible.

 

I live in upper Midwest.

U.P. of MI. Same here. But it takes me all of half hour to pull wheel, pads and clean/lube them every spring. Super easy job adds 15 to 20 min to tire rotation.

 

There are pads made by NRS that are galvanized. Allegedly no rusting.
https://nrsbrakes.com/