On Friday I changed my front brake pads and rotors. Just as a preface, this isn't the first time I've done it, and I consider myself to be somewhat competent at simple stuff like that.

Everything seemed to go fairly well. They're plain-jane Autozone rotors and pads... Applied brake grease between the pad/shim interfaces, and l00bed the slider pins.

The only thing that was a bit of a pain were the shims - they didn't want to stay put on the inner pads, so I had to fight with them. They seemed to go on okay though.

I took the car out to bed them in. Immediately I notice that the pads are dragging a bit. Hmm. Not too bad though.

Get done with the bedding process and on the last run I notice a scraping sound, once per rev.

Next day I get in the car and drive. Seem to work great, no more dragging. BUT - occasionally, I will get a pull to the right, AND/OR the once per rev scraping. Not everytime - just sometimes. And usually after a long duration at speed without using them, such as the freeway.

Any thoughts?

 

Hmm, I hate annoying problems like this, so I feel your pain. My thoughts:

1) did you notice uneven wear on the old pads
2) since you struggled with the shims, is it possible they are on backwards, swapped, etc? I know when I first did my brakes I think I had to look on the old pads to see which way the shims go on with the OEM pads. Maybe Autozone pads/shims are a little different and need to be repositioned.
3) How far did you push the piston in to get the new pads in
4) If you just pop the wheel off, do you notice any grooves or pad imprinting on the fresh rotors?
5) burning smell? can you tell which side makes the scraping? You said it pulls to the right, so I am guessing the right side.

I am thinking it's a sticking caliper, because of the symptoms you mentioned later. Pull the wheel off and have someone step on the brake a couple times. I would just pull the brakes apart again, leave the rotors on, and relube the caliper pin, replace the pads (maybe even switch sides to see if the problem travels), and bed them again just for fun.

 

Thanks for the reply, sound advice. I appreciate your thoughts!