Glazing Axles..

[zulu]

As some of you may recall, a few months ago, I complained about a loud noise coming from my wheels. It wasnt a full time problem but when it came on, it was LOUD and would coincide with the rotation of the tires. The stealership said that I needed to "glaze my axles" which generated a few chuckles from the forum. A buddy of mine who ran a shop insisted that it was my brakes. But whenever I brought the rig in, the sound could not be replicated..typical! We changed the rear rotors (worn right down - 05 HSE.) and changed all four pads.. but the sound would still persist. Finally, last week, on my 4th visit to my buddy's shop, the sound kicked in and everyone in the shop stopped to look at the rig.. even people in the office heard it. They were able to replicate the sound manually when it was on the lift. In short, the brake drum was not perfectly round. My buddy said that this was common when drums heat up. It wasnt warped but enough to cause metal to rub on the hub. So they machined it down. A simple fix. No cost. The stealership was going to charge me $150 to "glaze my axles".... fyi, in case you get a similar sound.

 

[LR3GuyJoe]

The LR3 doesn't have brake drums. They have a drum inside the rear brake disc for the e-brake. This sounds more like the dreaded sticking of the EPB (electronic parking brake). I doubt that it was out of round, my bet is your epb was sticking and when they resurfaced the drum part, it took away enough material to patch the problem. It may still come back. But thats just my take.

 

[Houm_WA]

....seems like the dealership should've easily recognized the symptoms of the EPB actuator going out.

 

[LR3GuyJoe]

maybe but his dealership did recommend him to get his axles "glazed" sounds like the sort who would recommend someone needing a new muffler bearing ;-)

 

[zulu]

LR3GuyJoe..yeah, that's the drum I was referring to in my noobie talk. And that was how the mechanic who worked on it described it to me. My buddy who is the owner of the shock did mention that it was part of the whole ebrake system...thanks for the warning that the noise may come back..

 

[Houm_WA]

If it's the EPB actuator, the sound is a very loud screeching grinding noise. It will continue until the car is turned off and then the red and amber brake lights are illuminated and the "Parking Brake Fault" lit up in the info screen. It's a fairly cheap 'n easy fix.

Oh...and yes it can come and then go and then come back. I don't think it'll fix itself though, unfortunately.

 

[zulu]

your sound descriptor was bang on..but no warning lights ever came on. And the noise only came on intermittently.. that was the fustrating part, hard to reproduce for the mechanics to hear..

 

[Houm_WA]

Hmmm....surprising that there were no lights. It will most likely become more consistent overe time and easy to replicate. I remember hoping it would "re-calibrate itself" after it went away, and within months it became something that happened 85% of the time. I made a video of it to show to the LR service rep. That way I didn't have to replicate it again.

 

[zulu]

that's funny. i actually did the same thing. I drove around with my camcorder in the slight chance that the noise came back. But in the 4 days that I had my camcorder with me, nothing happened. On my drive to my buddy's shop, there was a slight squeak and I managed to capture it. But they heard the real thing so my recording was futile anyways

 

[zulu]

so i encoutered another noise. fortunatetly, i was able to reprouce this one, it came out of my front passenger side. the noise was a loud chirp on rotation with the wheel. especially when turning or doing a u-turn. the mechanic isolated the noise coming from a metal hardware "bracket" that was part of the brake pad assembly. the metal tabs were actually rubbing into the rotors. the mechanic said that there was some flex in this hardware so that when the car turned, the tabs would touch the rotors. he was able to demo that to me..interesting stuff...