Hi folks, I just replaced pads and rotors on my 2001 Camry, LE, 15 inch wheels. All went well, except I occasionally hear a snap or pop coming from the front. I happens only occasionally and when I'm driving slow like in a parking lot, and usually when moving from reverse to drive. the car stops fine, plenty of pedal, no pulling or squealing.

My question is, when installing the new pads, I lubed the brackets, slide pins, and back side of the pads. But might this popping noise be from the slide pins? All instructions and videos I watched show additional lube being added. I'm wondering if I might have not lubed enough. Does anyone take brake clean and hose out the tubes the slide pins go in and apply all new grease?

thanks for the advice.

Ben

 

Was the snap/pop present before the brake change?
It really should not take a lot of lube for the pins, brackets where the pad tabs ride. I have never lubed the back of the brake pads but I can't imagine that it would be bad so long as there is not a ton of lube.
I think I would start with jacking up one side of the car and spin the wheel, and check for bearing play. Basically start to rule things out.
Then double check your bolts on everything you touched. Maybe something is just loose?

 

One pop or snap or many?

 

Hi, snap/pop was not there with the old pads. I'll jack it up and recheck torque on all the bolts for sure, though I am pretty sure they are correct. And the noise did not appear until the new pads/rotors were installed, so I'm thinking the pads might be just a touch smaller. They are Duralast and I've had good luck with their parts in the past, though I've not done brakes from them before.

Ben

 

The pads may be shifting position with forward/reverse as has happened.

Did you reinstall all the brake hardware such as shims, retainers, and apply brake grease at the recommended spots?

 

Hi toyomoho, I thought I had. There was a shim on the Duralast pads so I didnt' transfer any shims from the old pads, but I looked at the old pads this morning and the shims look like they clip on, they have a part number, so I will try to put them on this weekend.

But also, for you and the group, a video I saw from 1A Auto showed that the "squealer' went to the bottom of the inside pad, then I saw a video where the guy used all toyota parts and put the squealer to the top. Perhaps that is my problem?

Thanks!

Ben

 

Hey folks, I am fairly certain I have resolved this-

My Camry has the 4 cylinder with 15" wheels. When on the Autozone app, they ask all those questions and come up with the part number. Nowhere on the app does it ask what size wheels are on the car. When you go to Autozone, that same part number from the app comes up, and unless you know to dig into the menu a little bit would you learn there are two different wheel sizes.

So they gave me 14" wheel pads. There was a fair amount of movement from the pads within the caliper.

I pulled those pads and returned them, got the correct pads installed and just came back from a brief, gentle drive around the neighborhood. So far, no problems. I felt the rims and they were warm but not hot. I'll keep an eye out on temps for the next hundred miles or so and see what happens.

Thank you again for everyone who read and responded to my post. This is a great community of helpful, knowledgeable people.

Ben

 

Great job!

Yes, part vendors list different part numbers for 14 and 15-inch rims.

 

Thanks, man!

Yeah, that one got me good. And another test drive yielded good results, I felt comfortable enough to put the hubcaps back on.

lol

Ben

 

Great Job!