Tire rotation noise on front wheels...

[owinfrey]

Hello,

I'm hearing wheel noise when traveling at low speeds. I decided to jack the front end up and I could hear the noise coming from both wheels when I turned them by hand off the ground.

I had the brakes replaced with new pads and rotors about 8 months ago with only a little over 3,000 miles.

Please see the video.

Thanks in advance!

Olin
2009 BMW Z4 sDrive30i 2dr
100,424 Miles

[paris1]

Can't hear a thing.

[owinfrey]

Thanks for letting me know. I've uploaded another video to youtube.

[paris1]

Sounds like the pads are dragging a bit which is probably normal as long as you don't see any scoring on the rotor or feel any pulsing in the pedal. You might run it by the shop that did the work and let them listen to it.

[MarinerZ4C]

Check rotor runout/wobble – the rotor or something keeping the rotor from seating square onto the hub. But to my ear, your sound is soft enough that I'm not sure I could hear it over road noise if I were driving. Maybe if your brake pads don't retract quite as fully when driving as they are in your video, then they might make more noise.

If the video seems accurate, then there might not be a real problem – BUT at 100K miles, a question I would ask is whether the calipers were rebuilt as part of your brake refresh. A sticky caliper would keep the pads closer to the rotor and make this noise even though the rotor is within spec for runout. I would check my wheel temps – if one or more wheels are getting hot after just normal drives and not much brake use, then you could have sticking calipers. I am sensitive to this because I experienced sticky front caliper issues on a 2005 325xi that I owned. The problem started out as intermittent, so it took me a while to figure it out.

You said "wheel noise at low speed", so I jumped right past a bad wheel bearing that "might" allow the rotor to wobble a little and cause a noise like this with wheel off the the ground. But a bad wheel bearing should be giving you noise and vibration at higher speeds, and you would have other symptoms. Still, give the wheels a "9 o'clock + 3 o'clock" shake to see if there's any bearing or control arm bushing play.


Good luck on tracking this down.

[owinfrey]

Originally Posted by paris1

Sounds like the pads are dragging a bit which is probably normal as long as you don't see any scoring on the rotor or feel any pulsing in the pedal. You might run it by the shop that did the work and let them listen to it.

Thanks, Paris1... The rotors are very smooth, with no scoring at all. The pedal seems good as well. I'm clueless but I will try and take it back to the shop or have someone else take a look. Thanks again for your feedback!

[owinfrey]

Originally Posted by Vert128

Check rotor runout/wobble – the rotor or something keeping the rotor from seating square onto the hub. But to my ear, your sound is soft enough that I'm not sure I could hear it over road noise if I were driving. Maybe if your brake pads don't retract quite as fully when driving as they are in your video, then they might make more noise.

If the video seems accurate, then there might not be a real problem – BUT at 100K miles, a question I would ask is whether the calipers were rebuilt as part of your brake refresh. A sticky caliper would keep the pads closer to the rotor and make this noise even though the rotor is within spec for runout. I would check my wheel temps – if one or more wheels are getting hot after just normal drives and not much brake use, then you could have sticking calipers. I am sensitive to this because I experienced sticky front caliper issues on a 2005 325xi that I owned. The problem started out as intermittent, so it took me a while to figure it out.

You said "wheel noise at low speed", so I jumped right past a bad wheel bearing that "might" allow the rotor to wobble a little and cause a noise like this with wheel off the the ground. But a bad wheel bearing should be giving you noise and vibration at higher speeds, and you would have other symptoms. Still, give the wheels a "9 o'clock + 3 o'clock" shake to see if there's any bearing or control arm bushing play.


Good luck on tracking this down.

Thank you, Vert128...
I would assume wobbling rotors would create high low spots and I'm not seeing that. I'm super sensitive about things that just don't sound right. You're correct... normal driving at 35-50 mph you cannot hear the noise. I assume the calibers were not rebuilt because it was not mentioned.

My first thought was a sticking caliber too or wheel bearing. But when I had the wheel off the ground, I did the bearing shake test, but the wheels were stiff, no play at all.

Thanks for your feedback as well.

Olin