Disc Brake Rotor free play

bowtie67

New member
Joined
Feb 8, 2012
Messages
2
Age
46
Location
Wisconsin
03 SX Viper with 5500 miles - I recently started hearing a grinding noise when I would hit my brakes. I popped the hood and looked at the brake pads and they look fine, a lot of life yet. I did notice the disc brake rotor seems to have about an 1/4" of play when I rock it back and forth on the shaft.

Does this free play seem normal?

Any other ideas what would cause a grinding noise only when I hit the brakes if its not the pads? I put about 15miles on it before it started the grinding.

Thanks
Tim
 

there is supposed to br some free play side to side as it should float on the key.You should take everything apart and check.When mine was grinding and making noise I knew something was wrong.Ended up my rotor was slightly out of wack and 1 of my callipers were stuck and only 1 brake cyl. was working.It was a bad bad noise.Once I changed the rotor and replaced the calliper with working cyl., it works like normal now.

If your rotor is warped..it should be changed and you can remove the cups that push the pads and clean everything out and test it on the bench.I used air from compressor to push the cyl. and they moved nicely.Dig into it and do it the right way.
 
Thanks for the info!

Its not a side to side free play...its in direction of rotation free play, like the key or the hub is getting worn allowing it to rotate more then what I would have guessed, but might be wrong? I don't want to tear it all the way down to the hub to replace the key/hub if its within spec. I will take the calipers and start looking there in the meantime.

Anyone know the free play spec or limit?

Thanks
Tim
 
There should be no freeplay rotating on shaft but it normal to see some .Yes the keyway gets worn and will ruin the shaft if left untouched ushally before the hub on the rotor.If the inner pad is ok i would say chain is loose or the bearings on one of the shafts is bad.

.
 
Last edited:
My break rotor was doing that pretty bad, the key had worn away but it didn't wear the shaft at all which was lucky. I ended up replacing the key and it stopped 95% of the movement. no clank on acceleration of stopping now.
 


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