pluckman4

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Hey guys i'm new to the Honda world as i just bought an old 96 Accord EX. The brakes on it were in horribe condition and we replaced all pads and rotors and a front passenger side caliper. After test driving it, there's a grinding noise while driving that fades and goes away the further i turn the wheel left. It doesn't seem to pull to either side and there's some play in the steering wheel. The noise seems to be coming from the front and checking the passenger side wheel after driving it's a bit warmer than the others. My buddies did lube the bearings but maybe not good enough? Being that the caliper and all the parts were new perhaps there should be lubrication on caliper/pads/and rotor? Maybe the axle nut is not tight enough or too tight? The guy that sold it to me said he noticed the noise after he rotated the tires front to back ( the tires in general aren't in good condition so it's a suspect too) So my question is how to diagnose? Of course I'm hoping it's not a bearing but where should i go from here?

holmesnmanny

check the caliper backing plate it's probably rubbing/bent into the rotor...also you can't lube any bearings on a honda so I'm curious how he did just that

MAD_MIKE

Rotate tires back to front and see if the noise goes away. Also check the lug nuts are snug to the appropriate torque and not loose or overtightened.

pluckman4

Thanks for the replies guys. Unfortunately I haven't found anything rubbing against the caliper or anything like that. And I rotated the tires and that didn't solve the issue. I think it's bearing but I'm gonna have a guy look at it.
I do have another question though:
After putting a brand new caliper on, how are you supposed to properly lubricate it? The front passenger wheel with new caliper, rotor, and pads, still gets warmer than the others after driving it a bit.

92 civic ex 4dr

They are sealed bearing. Your not supposed to "lubricate" them. Not to mention there are lots of stupid people (i know a few) who use wd-40 to lubricate the bearings.


Posted from Honda-tech.com App for Android

pluckman4

ok after pulling the hub and rotor, the bearing is right there with the axle in the center , and you're not supposed to pack it with grease?

And with my last post i meant to ask how to lubricate the caliper?*

92 civic ex 4dr

You lubricate the caliper slide arm bolts. in my opinion (everyone has they're own) you don't lubricate or mess with sealed bearings, just replace them.


Posted from Honda-tech.com App for Android

pluckman4

ok so you don't lubricate the piston or the rubber seal but you do the bolts. i'm not sure the bolts were lubricated when installed, but if not i guess they could be causing overheating on that wheel. so can i use pb blaster or white lithium grease to lube them?

and would lubing the wheel bearing harm it at all? just curious about that one.

92 civic ex 4dr

No not the piston or seal. Remove the slide arm bolts and clean them and use high temp white lithium grease on them. I'm not sure about greasing the bearings. I don't mess with factory ****. As long as you use the proper wheel bearing grease it should be good


Posted from Honda-tech.com App for Android

pluckman4

i'll use the lithium then. And they did use bearing grease so the bearing was probably already bad if indeed that's the culprit. thanks guys.

Shmallow

you want a high temp grease for the caliper slides. i prefer silicone based grease. the auto parts store sells "caliper grease" which is a sure bet in most cases.

theoretically the sealed bearings could be re-greased, but in practice you run into a few issues. for one you need to remove the seal to gain access for adding the grease. you cannot reuse the seal so you'll have to find a new one (may not be available) and install it properly. also the amount of grease is very specific and critical to the life of the bearing.

the real reason to forgoe greaseing sealed, non-servicible bearings is that fresh grease won't fix the damage to the rolling element (usually *****) or the raceways they ride in. this is what causes noise and looseness in bearings, not a lack of grease.

sounds like you understand that already, but I assume many reading this thread don't.

andyz

Worn bushings or ball joints causing something to be rubbing?

pluckman4

Well I took it to a guy and he thought the bearings might be okbecau se there was no play in the wheel vertically. He did find that the play in the wheel horizontally was due to a lose rack and pinion.
However, back to the caliper, it has been getting worse, even though i greased the slides. It likes to smoke now! So is caliper seized? And could that cause grinding noises?

I should also mention after greasing the slides, i didn't compress the piston back since my c clamp is broke. Not sure if this really matters.

Shmallow

it sure seems like a caliper problem. when you dissassemble to add grease to the caliper is it easy to move around and slide off of the pins?

if you're reassembling with the same pads and rotor you don't need to compress the piston. this only needs to be done when new (thicker, un-worn) pads and rotor are installed.

pluckman4

Hmm it seemed to come off pretty easy last night but I will troubleshoot some more on Thursday when I have time. I was looking around on the 'net and some have suggested that the brake hose to that caliper could be the culprit. That would make sense to me because if so, it could have caused the previous caliper that i replaced to fail.

pluckman4

Ok guys so here's what I found out:
The wheel would not turn so I was going to open the bleed valve to release pressure to see if the piston would retract but the caliper must have gotten so hot that the valve would not budge. I was then going to remove the caliper to take it somewhere to remove the bleed screw and when I loosened the bolt holding the brake hose, it relieved pressure that way and i was able to turn the wheel/rotor. i then tightened it back, pumped the brakes to maximize pressure, and of course i couldn't budge the rotor. I released pressure one more time and repeated the test with the same result.
So it appears the piston is working and I now suspect the brake hose as not relieving pressure as it should so I think it needs replaced. Any thoughts?