Womp Womp Womp and some clues

Hello everybody! I replaced the front brakes and rotors after my wife reported a grinding when she braked. Got the truck for me but she took it the day we got it and said we were going to "share" it. Ha! So the drivers side outer brake pad was worn down to the metal, through rivets and all and that rotor was heavily grooved. The passenger side was totally fine, around 50% left on pads and smooth rotor. After putting the new rotor on that bad drivers side I turned it by hand and noticed a dull rub sound on each rotation. The passengers die did not make any sound when turning it. So after getting everything back on I drove it and listened to the rubbing sound. You can hear it really womp womp on a slow roll. It doesn't go away at higher speeds, just gets too fast to hear clearly. It goes away when I apply the brakes. I took it in to a shop and they checked it all out and could not figure out what was making the sound, said everything was tight and safe. It is getting worse and is now sounding a little more like a steady grinding more than the dull rubbing sound. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! '04 4x4, automatic, no lift, all factory...

 

When one rotor/pad is worn, and the other isn't, that's probably a stuck caliper. Does it veer to one side under braking?

You should at least rebuild the calipers, if not replace them (both).

If something is grinding, you should easily be able to see what's rubbing, unless it's maybe a bearing.

 

It doesn't veer when braking. It might be a bearing but does that make sense that it stops making the sound when braking? When I was turning the rotor by hand I hadn't remounted the calipers yet, so they weren't part of that scenario. It seems like it would be the same sound I heard when turning the rotor manually, but maybe that isn't related to the current sound or the worn rotor/pads. Thanks for your response.

 

If the caliper wasn’t on then I would think bearing has gone bad as well. Put the wheel on and check for excessive play in the bearing.

 

i would also say wheel bearing. The reason the sound goes away when you hit the brakes is the brakes squeeze the wheel back into alignment reducing the side load on the bearing.

 

Thanks. I jacked up both sides and no play that I could tell. No sound when turning the wheels. Nothing loose, but man is it a noticeable sound when driving. Thanks for your input.

 

Took it to a shop that told me they thought it was the passenger side caliper sticking, wanted $500. That isn't the side that had the worn out pad and rotor. I checked on calipers, $55. I opted to not have it done and pulled off and the sound is gone! It was a loud sound for a couple months. I don't know if they did something super simple and then tried to get me for a caliper or maybe, more likely loosed up a stuck caliper when they were checking it out. I got home and checked the rotors for heat and they were cool, not even warm, nothing rubbing on them. Anyway, thanks for the tips. I'll keep my ear on it.

 

Dull rub could have also been the dust shield on the rotor. It's easy to bend them just enough that they rub.

Though I had an intermittent whomp whomp sound on mine that would come and go depending on the week. Didn't get louder when turning, have any play in the wheel anything else that made me really suspect a wheel bearing. Wasn't till I was 400 miles from home at the end of a 2 week trip that it really started making grinding noises and causing problems. Didn't realize how bad it was till I pulled it apart. The cage had fallen apart and the balls were free to move in and out of the race. They trashed the ABS tone wheel and rolled a grove into the axle. The whole time it had sounded like the noise was from the front, didn't realize it was the rear till the seal let go and it dumped all my gear oil.

 

Wow! That's too bad! It seems like it was something pretty simple as the shop I took it too seems to have "fixed" (at least temporarily) the problem accidentally while checking it out. They might have been right about the caliper sticking, but just in poking around (which I'm not even sure they did much poking in there) they got it unstuck? Anyway, feeling good about it for now, keeping an eye on the pads and obsessively listening. I plan on replacing the calipers to make me feel better. I don't like it when I don't understand why something fixes itself.