Odd noise when first braking...

"BaconSandwich is tasty." (baconsandwich) 05/16/2016 at 21:42 • Filed to: None

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What makes it even more odd, is that it happens only the first or second time I press firmly on the brake pedal almost each time I drive. The car in question is a 2001 Civic (4 door).

The noise seems to come from the driver’s side front brake area, as near as I can figure. I push on the brake, roll backwards down the driveway with the brake partly pressed, come to a complete stop, change gears. Then, after getting up to speed (30 km/h), I have to slow down for the first intersection of my commute. When I first press the brakes, I hear a faint pop/faint clunk noise. It does it once, and that’s it - no more noise the rest of my commute. It’s fairly consistent when it does this, and it’s been doing it for at least a little while. The noise is also quite subtle. I usually listen to music during my commute, but since this first happened, I’ve been just driving in silence, hoping to figure out what the noise is.

I had the wheel off to poke around just this evening, and couldn’t spot anything off. Suspension parts look fine, no missing bolts, CV boot looks fine, strut looks fine, control arm bushings look fine, pads are fine (replaced last fall). The disk looks a bit worn, and I’ll probably replace them this fall. Other than that, I have no idea what else could be doing it. I’m wondering if this could be related to the much bigger noise that I heard a while back.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Judging from the comments, the tie rod end is fine).

I’ve got to take my car in for an air bag inspection (Takata recall) tomorrow, so maybe I’ll have them take a look at it as well. But until then, anyone want to take a guess on what it might be?

Zip-McBump > BaconSandwich is tasty. 05/16/2016 at 21:52

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I’m not saying I’m right, but I had an RSX-S back in the days of the 7th gen Civic. I remember this being an issue on a bunch of cars.

Questions:

1. Does the noise occur when you press the brake pedal, or when you let off (or both)?

2. Have you messed with your brakes lately?

MM54 > BaconSandwich is tasty. 05/16/2016 at 21:57

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Without knowing much about the brakes/suspension on that particular car, gut is saying there’s a slightly loose bolt, clip, or similar in the pad/caliper assembly. You load it up the first time you stop, and it doesn’t move back unless you brake in reverse.

wafflesnfalafel > BaconSandwich is tasty. 05/16/2016 at 22:04

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I had an 2001 coupe - did something very similar once the pads were worn down a bit. I chocked it up to more play in the calipers with the worn pads. I never had an issue with it, but I got rid of it back in 2009..

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Zip-McBump 05/16/2016 at 22:40

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1. When I press.
2. Nope. Only changes I made recently was swapping out the winter tires. I replaced the pads last fall. Other than that, nothing.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > wafflesnfalafel 05/16/2016 at 22:41

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Pads are quite new, with tons of material left on them. I wonder if the calipers are worn enough that it’d be similar, but with worn disks making the space rather than worn pads.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > BaconSandwich is tasty. 05/17/2016 at 08:50

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Like MM54 says, you’ve probably got a loose bolt on your caliper. As you are pressing the brakes while going backward the caliper rocks back a little. Then when you try to stop after driving forward the caliper rocks forward making a slight clunk. Once it is forward after stopping once it won’t make the clunk anymore until you use the brakes the next time you reverse.

On the picture below the blue circled bolts hold the caliper to the spindle. Make sure those are tightened to the proper torque. I have no idea what the proper torque is, but you should be able to find it with a little Googling.

brianbrannon > BaconSandwich is tasty. 05/17/2016 at 10:41

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Known Honda feature. It’s called . shift. It’s just the pads getting pushed all the way back to the standard position after you moved them by braking in reverse. If you hard brake from drive to reverse or reverse to drive it’s east to recreate. There’s no fix it’s normal operation