So I recently upgraded my stock, rusty, worn out brakes on my '94 Accord EX to 11" cross-drilled rotors, wagon/v6 calipers and brackets, and Hawkhead Carbomet brake pads. (top right kit on this page from T.A.S.) Actually ordered the non cross-drilled rotors and they sent me the wrong ones but that's besides the point...

So my brother takes the car to the garage where he works to do the work only to find out the rotors need to be removed by machine and I have to take it to a dealership. From doing some research beforehand it seemed the best thing to do is just remove the dust shield as upgrading the size of the rotor is going to cause some rubbing. I informed the mechanic at the dealership of this. 2 days later I get my car back with a bill for 6 hours of labor costing $491, make the first right out of the dealership and I hear the delightful sound of metal scraping metal. They said they wouldn't get the car into the garage again till tomorrow so I just drove it home for the night. Get home take the wheels off, sure enough there are the dust shields still on the car. Take the car in the next day, tell them again, get the car back later that night... same noise, same problem. Long story short, they cut a notch out of the dust shield but didn't remove it. Even that they didn't do well because it was not cut cleanly and a piece of pointed metal was up against the rotor which looked like a needle to a record player.
I bent that back along with trying to bend the dust shield away from the rotor on both sides. This works for a few days but then I start hearing the familiar metal noise of the dust shield rubbing again. It's to the point where just driving straight causes them to rub.

Is there anything that can be done to stop this without having to go back to the dealership who will charge me $300-$400 to remove them? Is there maybe a way to remove the rotors without a machine?

 

Probably should have read the Accord FAQ on how to change the rotors. Could've saved a few hundred bucks.

FWIW I upgrade to the 11" Wagon rotors and had no rubbing issues with the dust shield. I used the V6 brackets and definitely had a larger caliper than the V6 (I had NSX) find out where it's rubbing and just bend it back?

*edit* saw you said you tried to bend it, are you sure your wheels are clearing correctly and the caliper/bracket aren't riding on the rotor or something?

 

The caliper bracket is just barely clearing the wheel so there's a good chance that might be the problem. Thanks for the insight. Going to take a look at that this evening because as the car sits now the dust shield is close but not actually touching rotor.

Also just discovered that if I rock the car side to side while parked I can hear a metal pinging sound coming from the same area.

 

man, i'll take your dust sheilds off for half what the stealership will. why not just take them off yourself?

 

It might be the bracket hitting the wheel. You may want to toss a 3mm spacer (just get a cheap $5 ebay one) and see if it solves the problem. I'm wondering if it's a chance your original dust shield was already bent or out of shape.

 

Update time...

For starters the dealership had cut the dust shield in half so the integrity was lost and had become somewhat flimsier. Also noticed that it wasn't rubbing at the top of the rotor but closer to the bottom (err middle). Just took a screwdriver and put a circular dent in the dust shield all the way round where it was rubbing then folded the outer edge of the back over itself to give it a bit of strength back.

After a week of driving saw that the wheel was nicking the caliper, wearing away the paint at the same spot on both sides. Ordering spacers to sort that out.

As I made those fixes, saw that the bushings on the front swaybar end link were completely shot. One bushing had basically disintegrated which was causing the metal sound I heard when I rocked the car back and forth. So replacing those.


Hope that solves it all.

Thanks for the quick help.



Edit: Since MuffinMan pointed out changing the rotors is in the Accord FAQ, won't have to go through that again.

 

Haha, sounds like you had a combination of all the problems and then some! Hopefully that sorts it all out for you.

 

I just bent my shields out of conatct from rotor.