squeeling rear wheel?

[timaishu]

Well ####. Torque wrench snapped the caliper bolt! I checked the manual for proper torque settings and for whatever reason, the bolt snapped before the torque wrench clicked...

Guess Im getting my car towed to the mechanics now. Sheesh what rotten luck..

Very aggravating to say the least. I wonder what happened.. Now they are going to have to either drill it out or extract it.. Out of a car until Monday now..

[brettS4]

He'll be looking for that for a long time on the back of his Maxima.

What? Aren't all cars awd?

[DaveT435]

When the wheel was on did you grab the top and bottom of the tire, or each side and check to see if it had any wobble? Is there any of the bolt that broke sticking out? I don't know how much you feel comfortable doing yourself, but there are ways to get the broken bolt out...assuming it isn't cross threaded...

I see now my first question was already asked.

[timaishu]

When the wheel was on did you grab the top and bottom of the tire, or each side and check to see if it had any wobble? Is there any of the bolt that broke sticking out? I don't know how much you feel comfortable doing yourself, but there are ways to get the broken bolt out...assuming it isn't cross threaded...

I see now my first question was already asked.

Im a novice for sure. I try to do what I can, of which includes exhaust work, belts, oil, and suspension. All of which I have done myself.

Im more frustrated I guess. I would be comfortable extracting the bolt, its not cross threaded. I don't own a kit and would have to buy one. To me, the joy of getting the bolt out myself isn't worth the time to go buy the kit and find a new bolt. Rather enjoy my weekend at this point haha. Still though, the initial issue is not making itself obvious to me (from what I can tell), and I was going to drop it off anyways for a proper diagnosis. So I might as well have him fix my mistake if I am taking it anyways. I don't want to waste my weekend fussing with this.

I did forget to check for wobble when I put it all back together.

[brettS4]

Just jack the wheel up off the ground an inch or two and try wiggling it. Only takes a few minutes to check that.

[timaishu]

Got my car back and I am even more confused now.

They took it in, pulled out the bolt I snapped, and drove it around and they told me they weren't really able to hear what I was describing. I told him what I did to cause it and still nothing note worthy. They put it on their rack to take a closer look and told me that I was possibly hearing the wear markers on the front. Told me my front brakes are low on pad and the rotors or too thin to resurface. I declined the front brake job as I would like to try it myself. But I was still mystified by the rear as I am positive that's where the sound is..

Drove it home and no noise. Only thing they said they did was adjust the parking break, but I don't see how that could cause all the combinations of noises I was hearing.

Im not holding my breath yet, but Im gonna go to school with no radio and see if I hear the same noises. If not, GREAT! But it so freaking weird I have no explanation, and neither does he really as he never really heard what I heard. Maybe putting the new bolt in and whatever they did during that time fixed it.. I mean it was getting real obnoxious what I took it in. Now its seemingly silent from the short drive from the mechanic home.

[Setec Astronomy]

You know, after you posted those pictures of the rear pad, I was thinking about how difficult it really is to tell where those audible wear indicator noises are coming from when you are in the car, and I wondered if it was the other side or more likely the front because the fronts should go first (usually).

Sometimes it helps to have someone standing outside the car and roll the car up and down the driveway or street and see if they can isolate which wheel(s) the sound is coming from.

If you've got 50K miles on the fronts, it's likely time to change them. Rotors are so cheap today it's frequently hard to make the case to cut them (even if you have enough thickness) especially once you factor in an extra trip to a machine shop, whether you have to leave them, etc.

Do you have a friend who had done brakes before? Probably worth buying him a six or a pizza to get another set of eyes on what you're doing, I realized after you snapped that bolt that sometimes what seems simple to those of us who have been doing these things for decades is not that simple to someone doing it for the first time.

I remember my friend who took auto shop helping me on my car when I was in high school.

[swanicyouth]

If the noise comes back (and likely it will - noises simply don't fix themselves); simply jack up the rear of the car and spin the wheel(s) with your hand. You likely will be able to pinpoint where it's coming from - assuming this noise is not occurring when you apply the brakes only.

A couple of thoughts if it's coming from the rear:

1. Crappy brake pads. Yes, crappy brake pads can make all sorts of noises when applied or not. I just tossed a new pair of Advance Autos finest (yes I know - garbage - but it's all I could get that day I needed them ASAP) - because they made horrible intermittent noises. I replaced them with some Wagner Thermo Quiets - noise fixed 100%. When you buy brake pads - always buy high quality - you will likely have to order online. No, in this instance I didn't follow my own advice.

2. Dust shield / brake hardware rubbing the rotor

3. If your emergency brake setup is internal to the rotor hat (looks like it is ) - something could have broken in there & is rubbing inside the E braking surface of the rotor.

4. Rear wheel bearing bad or going bad.

It should be fairly easy to tell if the noise is coming from the back or the front. Usually your gut instinct is right here - no need to overthink it. If it's brake related, the noise will likely change if the brakes are applied very gently. If it's a wheel bearing issue, you likely will hear it at certain speeds but not others. If it's the backing plate, it will likely be quite random or more likely cold.

Luckily on what appears to be a FWD Nissan - pinpointing a rotational noise from the rear shouldn't be to difficult. If it's a rotation noise, just jacking up the vehicle from the rear (not removing the wheel), and slowly spinning the wheel likely will duplicate the noise.

[timaishu]

So far the noise is gone. And I cannot hear what they were hearing with the fronts. They told me I was likely hearing the front wear markers but I hear nothing from the front at all.

I am 10000000000% sure it was the rear right wheel area. No debate.. How they were not able to hear it after fixing my mistake is confusing. And the fact they fixed the noise without seemingly realizing it is even more confusing. I have no idea what to think. Its gone, everything that caused it before is not causing it now. Whatever they did during the process of adjusting the ebrake and yanking the bolt and putting a new one in, and whatever else they did back there fixed it.

I will report back if the noise does return. But for now, I am going to shop around for new pads and rotors for the front.

I don't have any car buddies unfortunately. But there are a couple of logs people have made for now car on how to do the job.

Such as:

2005 Nissan Altima 2

[FUNX650]

^^^^^^

Schedule: Test and Tune this Friday night?


Bob