Clunking noise coming from brake pads

[65val]

Originally Posted by scubacat

Did a shop ever replace the rear pads in the past? Perhaps the pins were corroded and they replaced them with the wrong size. Just a thought.

According to rockauto.com, it's Dorman part # HW5066. Might be worth a shot for 5 bucks...

Front
$5.68

Its a good thought! The pins above are the same ones I have. There is a rubber/plastic sleeve that goes onto the gold colored one in the recess there.

The van has just 100,000kilometers(about 60,000 miles) on it. I bought it from my Dad and he says he never had the brakes done since new, so I'm assuming everything is/was factory installed (pads had Ford part numbers on them).

I think I will try new pins and new rubber parts for them.

Caliper bushings.....these might fix it.....



Thanks.

[scubacat]

It looks like those bushings in your photo could be worn down. I'm not a big fan of randomly throwing parts at a problem, but usually if it's like $10 or less I'll just do it anyway just to rule those out. New pins wouldn't hurt, anyway, and that's a pretty cheap gamble. (Heck, you can lose more than that in one hand of cards at a casino easily..)

[65val]

OK...installed new pins and new rubber bushings....can you believe it's actually worse!!!...The new pins are looser than the original ones!!!...So, I reinstalled the old pins, and, on the parts store guys recommendation, I bought some disc brake pad glue. I figured out, to get the pads glued in properly, you have to remove the caliper bracket, install the caliper in the bracket with the pads glued to the caliper, THEN install the whole thing onto the spindle. I'll take for a test drive tomorrow on my way to work and see if this fixes the clunk. Man, what a lousy design...never had these problems with other makes I've owned.

[scubacat]

Something's wrong. Were those calipers replaced before? Perhaps the wrong part was used. You might want to go to the parts store and pick up a couple of rebuilt calipers and compare them to what you have on the vehicle now and see.

How can you possibly glue the pads to the caliper? They need to be able to move back and forth along the shims to engage/disengage and also move closer as the pad material wears down. I've never ever heard of using glue on a brake caliper.

I've done plenty of disc brake jobs and these calipers are completely standard, like all the others, and there is nothing special or unusual about how they are mounted or configured. Admittedly I have drums on the rear so I don't know what those calipers look like exactly, but something is clearly out of whack in your configuration and I'd seriously consider replacing them if you can't get to the bottom of it any other way. (At least compare a parts store rebuilt caliper to what you have and see what's different...)

[65val]

Originally Posted by scubacat

Something's wrong. Were those calipers replaced before? Perhaps the wrong part was used. You might want to go to the parts store and pick up a couple of rebuilt calipers and compare them to what you have on the vehicle now and see.

Nope...this is the first brake job for this vehicle. My Dad hardly drove it...sat in the U/G garage mostly.

How can you possibly glue the pads to the caliper? They need to be able to move back and forth along the shims to engage/disengage and also move closer as the pad material wears down. I've never ever heard of using glue on a brake caliper.

The whole caliper slides in the intermediate bracket. The inner pad moves closer as that pad wears with the pistons that its glued to. The outer pad stays stationary as its glued to the caliper. The original pads were glued in place...they just came loose with time and mileage. You can see residue of the original glue (factory)

I've done plenty of disc brake jobs and these calipers are completely standard, like all the others, and there is nothing special or unusual about how they are mounted or configured. Admittedly I have drums on the rear so I don't know what those calipers look like exactly, but something is clearly out of whack in your configuration and I'd seriously consider replacing them if you can't get to the bottom of it any other way. (At least compare a parts store rebuilt caliper to what you have and see what's different...)

Well, I've done a few over the years as well, and they are nothing like whats used on earlier Ford pickups...that was a much better design...no intermediate bracket.

I wish I could post a video to show whats happening and the sound thats made....sounds like the whole front end's gonna fall out on bumpy roads, until you gently apply the pedal...then it's all quiet.

[scubacat]

Can you at least post a few photos of the caliper and brake pads and how they're glued on? I still think something's corroded internally. If this is the first brake job in 15 years and it sat in the same brake fluid for that long, surely the pistons have corroded in the bores by now. Brake fluid is hygroscopic, meaning that it attracts/absorbs water over time. After 15 years, you very likely need to overhaul that thing. I'd replace the calipers and flexible lines that connect to them, and flush out all that old fluid. A rebuilt caliper isn't super expensive and those lines are like $8 or so. It's a lot cheaper than the current one failing at a bad time, at least!