Front end noise- Bad brakes or wheel bearing?

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RyanRR

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In the past 1000 miles I've been hearing a "humming" noise coming from the front of my LR4. The noise is more noticeable on the driver side.

No odd vibrations, shaking wheel, etc..

I've suspected my wheel bearing was acting up, so I jacked up the vehicle and checked all wheels for play. I found no play in any of the wheels.

While checking the wheels I noticed my front passenger wheel had more brake dust on it than the others, by a far amount. Without taking the wheels off I noticed some irregularities on the face of the front passenger caliper.

Can anyone help diagnose what would be causing that? Sticking caliper? Caliper pins?

These are all different areas of the same rotor:

51633964160_f72fabbb70_c.jpg


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51633964140_29c7e91d1c_c.jpg
 
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ryanjl

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Sticking caliper or caliper pins. Hard to know until you take it apart.

But others here have had issues with sticking caliper pins, especially people in colder climates with a lot of road salt.
 

RyanRR

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Sticking caliper or caliper pins. Hard to know until you take it apart.

But others here have had issues with sticking caliper pins, especially people in colder climates with a lot of road salt.

I'm really hoping its the pins aka an easy fix. We get cold and enough salt to fill a small ocean..
 

ktm525

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Clean and relube pins yearly with sil glyde or you end up with this. And no stuck pins were not easy as the calipers had to be removed to work on the pins on the bench. When putting pins back remember: Bushing pin on the bottom.

IMG_3326.JPG
 

RyanRR

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Clean and relube pins yearly with sil glyde or you end up with this. And no stuck pins were not easy as the calipers had to be removed to work on the pins on the bench. When putting pins back remember: Bushing pin on the bottom.

View attachment 21022


Well shoot, I think mine were on top and I put them back where I found them...

I'll have to take things apart again and rectify that! Does anyone know why exactly they go on the bottom? I'm googling it, but it's mostly just people asking the same question, then lots of guesses and "it doesn't matter" talk.


Here's what I did yesterday, and I'm about 95% sure the noise I was hearing is gone, and now all I hear is road noise from the Toyos!

1. Inspected all 4 corners' rotors and pads - I would estimate fronts are half gone, rears about the same. Lots of rust built up
2. Took calipers off (left them attached to brake lines), and removed pads.
3. Removed pins, inspected rubber boots, and cleaned off the little bit of lube that was on there. Rubber boots were bone dry
4. Cleaned up the metal brake pad "brackets" that hold them in place.
5. Cleaned up rotors with brake cleaner
6. Checked brake shields - fronts were OK, one was a little close to the rotor which could have caused issues.
--- Rears are toast, almost completely rusted. I removed as much of them as I could without taking everything apart. They'll be replaced at some point
7. Lubed all metal contact points on brake pads, brake pad brackets, caliper pins, and put some lube in the rubber boots as well. (Sil Glyde)
8. Checked everything over again to make sure nothing was contacting rotors, cleaned up extra lube, and put everything back together.


Went for a test drive and immediately noticed that my loud humming/howling was no longer there! Now I can hear the tires which I can't fix, but that's perfectly fine with me.

I think in the near-ish future I'll likely end up doing a full brake replacement: calipers, lines, pads, and rotors. Vehicle stops well enough, but the amount of rust on the calipers and everything else it impressive and I don't want to risk getting stranded or worse (brake failure @ 75 mph).
 

RyanRR

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Ok I found this video which says that rubber piece on the pin is an "anti-rattle" mechanism, and can sometimes swell up and cause the pin to get stuck and can lead to uneven brake pad wear. Guy in video says he removes them, which I didn't (and probably wouldn't) do. If its only function is to prevent rattling (which I'm not hearing or experiencing in mine), as long as it slides freely (which mine do), I'll probably leave mine where they are until I change the rotors and pads.

 

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