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After a bit of advice for this one, more for peace of mind than anything.
Driving home from work yesterday and my car started making a horrendous metallic scraping sound. I pulled over and had a good look around the car and everything looked fine. Stumped, I called the RAC who advised a 3-4 hour wait.
Whilst waiting, I jacked up a corner at a time and span the wheels. Turned out to be the offside front that was the source of the noise when rotating. I took the wheel off and discovered that the brake disc dust shield had bent and was contacting the brake disc. Managed to straighten it out, popped the wheel on and drove home fine.
I am just wondering what had caused the piece to bend? I can only think something got caught in it. The caliper is not seized so I can rule out heat related warpage.
Anyone had a similar experience?
They're pretty fragile things at the best of times. On cars heading towards 5-6+ years, they tend to start to rattle as they detach frmo the mounts.
I tend to just remove them if it is an older car - I removed all of them on my 2010 5 series BMW as they were rattling a treat.
Doesn't really impact the performance at all.
I've had a small stone caught in one so I can imagine a slightly larger stone (or other road debris) hitting and bending one.
As above, stones get caught in the brakes. First thing to check with noisy brakes is for stones jammed in the caliper.
The dust shields are very thin and after a few years of corrosion it doesn't take much to bend them. I had one that was flapping around like cardboard, I'd have taken it off if I could get at the fixing but just bent it away from the disc.
they corrode and can warp as well as damage being caused by clumsy mechanics while changing brake disks and taking wheels on or off.
Whilst its true that removing them doesn't affect braking performance it does make a hell of a mess of everything inside the wheel arch coating every thing with a layer of brake dust...suspension struts, suspension arms and bushes, hoses, sumps and crank cases as well as any exposed belt pulleys and belts. Speaking from experience here. So whilst braking is not affected the dust accumulation certainly makes a proper mess of things, promotes and accelerates the corrosion and degradation of all the other components it touches, not to mention making working on the car in those areas alot dirtier and messier than it needs to be.
The dust shields are cheap and can be replaced easily...less than an hour. So consider as consumable items and maybe replace every other brake disk change or something like that.
They're made from cheap/thin/poorly coated steel on most cars. They often corrode through and rattle or get damaged.
Short term road side solution you can usually bend them back and fore and snap them off if they are making a racket.
Long term answer if you're not going to replace them your self. Its probably not worth the cost of putting your car in specifically to get a mechy to replace them. Maybe keep them in mind and get them replaced when you have the car in for something else like disc replacements.
I can only think something got caught in it.
This. It's easy to drive over a stick or small object that can flip up and hit things. Once I drove over what appeared to be a piece of wheel arch liner on the road at night, which in turn broke our own wheel arch liner.
My rear ones are no longer there - corroded away (the car is 18 years old). They aren't an MOT issue unless they could cause damage. My front ones have rubbed a few times - as you have done, you can bend them straight. Doesn't take much to deform them, and any road debris could have caused it.
Thanks guys, good to know that these can be problematic, if I can find new ones I'll change when doing discs and pads.
promotes and accelerates the corrosion
By what mechanism ?
yeah just pull them off and replace when next doing discs
You'll get them from the dealer.
The bolts holding them on will be tiny and well seized.
I wouldn't waste your time replacing them
wzzzz
Free Memberyeah just pull them off and replace when next doing discs
Unless it's a subaru- in which case, just leave them alone and they'll disappear of their own volition