'Click' sound from front suspension during braking?

SadbutTrue · May 12, 2008

I noticed it on thursday... my mustang consistently makes a 'click' when braking. It happens when the brakes 'catch' and the weight of the car starts shifting forward, and seems to only be coming from the front passenger wheel.

I haven't gotten a chance to take a look but will do so tonight, hopefully. Any idea what it could be?

10secgoal · May 12, 2008

Ahhh, the granada click. Go to the passenger side brake pad, and you'll probably notice the pad can slide back and forth in the caliper. You can take it out and hammer the tabs so it won't slide and far. but that's probably what it is.

zookeeper · May 12, 2008

Yeah, my wifes '69 Corvette does it on all four corners. It's irritating, but not life-threatening.

izzy jr · May 12, 2008

10secgoal said:
Ahhh, the granada click. Go to the passenger side brake pad, and you'll probably notice the pad can slide back and forth in the caliper. You can take it out and hammer the tabs so it won't slide and far. but that's probably what it is.

Interesting! never heard of that before. I'll have to store that in my brains g-wiz file of car data incase I ever do a granada brake swap.

6T6coupe · May 13, 2008

Closely related to the "Granada Rattle" which is caused by not installing the anti-rattle clip on the other pad....

SadbutTrue · May 13, 2008

Ha, good to know. I'll check it this weekend. Thanks everyone.

10secgoal · May 13, 2008

SadbutTrue said:
Ha, good to know. I'll check it this weekend. Thanks everyone.

Please, do. Just to make sure it isn't anything major. Hate for it to be a ball joint, and you want to kill me after something bad happens.

SadbutTrue · Jul 16, 2008

okay i'm (finally) taking a look at this tonight, as i try to finish putting the car back together and get it on the road.

last night, while replacing my cadillac's starter (what a pain...), i did poke around the brake and tried to find parts that would move, but couldn't find anything. However, I was mostly just poking around with a screwdriver and not really putting a whole lot of thought/effort into it.

When you say the pad will slide back and forth, how much pressure should it require to slide it? The tabs you're speaking of, are they the plainly visible ones at the rear of the brake?

red65 · Jul 17, 2008

I'm not familiar with your front suspension setup, but you might also look for interference between the sway bar and the underside of the frame rail. My '65 has a 1-1/8" (I think) front sway bar which, when I first installed it, would click during hard braking as the suspension compressed and allowed the sway bar to hit the frame. It'd also happen during hard turns.

If the sway bar turns out to be the culprit, the solution is simple - just shorten up the end links that attach to the lower control arms. That drops the bar far enough that it doesn't make contact.

tweet66 · Jul 17, 2008

red65 said:
I'm not familiar with your front suspension setup, but you might also look for interference between the sway bar and the underside of the frame rail. My '65 has a 1-1/8" (I think) front sway bar which, when I first installed it, would click during hard braking as the suspension compressed and allowed the sway bar to hit the frame. It'd also happen during hard turns.

If the sway bar turns out to be the culprit, the solution is simple - just shorten up the end links that attach to the lower control arms. That drops the bar far enough that it doesn't make contact.

red, I had a somilar problem and "click" from my fornt end with a 1 1/8" sway bar. Found out later that the sway bar and strut rods were touching/clicking as the suspension compressed & rebounded. I still have to fix it, especially with the adjustable strut rods compounding the situation.

Hack · Jul 17, 2008

The clicks I had from my Granada brakes were always when the brakes were NOT applied. They would go away when I applied the brakes. I think that your problem may be related to binding in the suspension.

Above posters are talking about the large tabs that hold the pads on the brakes. You want to bend the tabs so that the pads are tightly clipped onto the caliper. I had the best results bending the base of the tabs the most. When I bent the tips of the tabs, they would relax after a few hard brake applications and the rattling/clicking would come back.

SadbutTrue · Jul 17, 2008

I'll check out the sway bar, I do have a 1" front sway that is fairly new that could be the cause of the noise. I guses I can look for scratch marks on the bar or something as evidence of rub.

When you say that if its the brakes, the pad should 'move' in the caliper... how much should it take to move it? Just pushing with fingers? Screwdriver? Screwdriver + hammer? It didn't seem all thaaaat willing to move when I checked it, but like I said I didn't spend hours on it.

12sec67 · Jul 17, 2008

try stopping on the brakes while someone is looking at the tire. See if the tire flexs back once you brake. If the strut rod bushings are bad or the upper A-arm shaft bolts are coming off then it will also make that noise.

Rich

6T6coupe · Jul 18, 2008

If the clips are missing the pads will rattle around in the caliper when ever you hit a bump. Typically, when you apply the brakes, there will be a single "clack" as the pads set themselves against the caliper and the noise then stops. At least, that's what mine did.

If you only get the noise when you apply the brakes, it may be something suspension related. The strut rod bushings are a known source of noise. Also, make sure that you don't have an upper control arm bolt loose or a shim missing causing the upper arm to "clack" when you hit the brakes.

SadbutTrue · Jul 18, 2008

Just replaced the strut rod bushings this spring, hopefully they didn't go bad already. But I'll check. Thanks. Anything else I should look for?

bnickel · Jul 18, 2008

check the wheel bearings real good, they will sometimes click if they need regreasing or if they are starting to go bad. it's better to catch the bearinsg early too or they could weld themselves to the spindle and screw it up to the point of it breaking. i've had this happen before and it's not pleasant to have bearing fail driving down the road, luckily i was only doing about 30 when mine went and it was still almost uncontrollable

SadbutTrue · Jul 22, 2008

I checked the bar and didn't see any obvious signs of scratching/contact, and also poked the pad around some more and it didn't move as far as I can tell. Hope its not bearings/u-joints, I just had them serviced in March. Always something...

gsxrken · Jul 22, 2008

Check your upper control arm shafts, and see whether the nuts that center it in the arm itself are not wobbling around in there. BTDT.

'Click' sound from front suspension during braking?

SadbutTrue

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