[MoneyPitN54]

Hey everyone. Usually I'm pretty good figuring these things out, but I just don't have time to mess with 4 different calipers. Drivetrain wise my car is finally sorted out, but the new brakes I put on when I bought the car always made an uneven chattering sound even when I'm all the way off the brake. There's a few ideas I have about why this happens, but first I'll explain the entire actual problem.

When the brakes get up to operating temperature, they are plenty powerful, but slowing down is terrifying because the is such a strong pulsing power from the brakes. It almost feels like the rotors are wobbling in the calipers. There are hot spots on the rotors too.

I just finished replacing all brake and clutch fluid and bleeding all systems til the fluid runs clean with no air. The options for cause of issues include.


Wheel stud kit worn out.

Garbage curbed stock wheels (put on the car because previous owner couldn't sell the car with the expensive wheels on it) don't compress the rotors adequately to the hub.

Hubcentric aluminum wheel spacers (one seems to be seized on the hub pretty good, but the other I was able to get off. I'd try harder, but I don't want to off-balance the spacer. Spamming pb blaster for now. And yes I used anti seize.)

Caliper slide pins were greased, but maybe they need to be cleaned and regreased.

Anti-rattle clips need replacement? I bought replacements anyways since somebody painted the calipers in a lazy way and they need to be "unpainted" for lack of a better term. I'm not comfortable sanding the clips as they are thin and bend easily. I wouldn't want to affect the functionality in that way.

This is all I could come up with at this time. I have more brake fluid if these need rebuilding, I'm cool with that. But this job wasn't really on the priority list because the brakes are warrantied and I was more worried about oil pan gasket, rod bearings, and clutch/flywheel replacement.

Lmk what y'all think 🤔

[AshwinLB]

it’s very likely that it could be the front thrust arms too. It causes a shutter during braking when the bushing is bad since this arm bears a majority of the forces that the wheel experiences when braking.

Regarding the spacers what size are you running? If it’s below 10mm, it’s impossible to have a spacer that’s properly hubcentric and that’s likely the problem. You would need hub extenders to use a spacer below 10mm

[MoneyPitN54]

That's a good idea. I'll check those control arm bushings. That's likely a bit part of the problem. Earlier today I found out the rear camber arms had torn bushings, so while the car is clean and relatively low miles, I'll have to do a better inspection of the rest of the bushings. They can be so hard to see sometimes 😭.

As far as the spacers are concerned, they are quite thick. I doubt they are inadequate in the hubcentric department. Still possible though. Soon I'll grab some legit wheels and I won't need any spacers, but wheels can be so expensive! 💀

[scotthilly]

Yeah, check the bushings of the control arms. I had the exact same problem and replaced all rotors / pads… nope. Replaced the control arms and it went away!

While you’re at it you could get m3 control arms (genuine or TRW) if you’d like to add 20% steering feel at the cost of about 20% harshness increase.