# front brake dust cover (splash guard) rattle, vibrate, and rubbing



## cruzinred92 (Dec 4, 2013)

I have been having this same problem with my 03 mdx. After i changed the breakes it started happening. Have taken the right front apart about 5 times trying to fig it out to no avail... sounds to me like you know what your prob is tho. 

I would take the brake calpier and bracket off along with the rotor and look for rub marks. Wherever you find one take a nice little hammer and knock it in a little and retest. Wouldnt remove the whole thing tho (hub actually isnt too hard to take out with the right tools, i pulled all 4 of mine to do extended studs a week ago). 

Unfortunately its a test and re test when it comes to noise. 

To answer your questions tho
1. Anything could have caused the problem really, heat, something hit it, warped.
2. Turnning left puts more load on the right wheel which changes the geometry of the suspension and corosponding parts. 
3. Pull the brakes apart and look for rub marks (shiny or paint missing) and knock them in a little with a hammer. Dont go crazy with it and beat everything lol. 

Remember unfortunately with noises its test and re test. Let us know what you find! Any pics would be great too!


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## toilet_monkey (Nov 30, 2011)

I updated my original post to indicate that I solved my problem. Turns out the crappy stock rotors were to blame.


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## CRUISE-CRUZE (Nov 8, 2010)

toilet_monkey said:


> I updated my original post to indicate that I solved my problem. Turns out the crappy stock rotors were to blame.


I have a similar rattling after I just replaced the rotors and pads! One side only, I checked twice and couldn't see nothing wrong. When I brake there is no sound so it's something related with the rotor..


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## ohyeahjay (Dec 1, 2013)

Cruise-Cruze, any update? Just did the same as you and noticed the same thing.


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## Blasirl (Mar 31, 2015)

toilet_monkey said:


> They also bent the dust cover .... .


I did not know they came with dust covers. Did the dealer add an aftermarket one? Just curious as I purchased mine.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

One of my hobbies is painting backing plates, drums or discs don't make any difference, both rust. Use to get them electroplated until our wonderful EPA banned electroplating in this country. (USA).

Disc are worse, can also get small stones jammed up there, shop tried to screw my youngest daughter telling her, her hub bearings were bad. She is going to die if she drives it when the only problem was stones were stuck up in there. 

Always get surface rust on drums or disc, not bad if you drive everyday, wife panics with the motorhome, sitting all year, but is free from road salt. Just several stops, clears that up. Still cast iron in these things, if they added about 0.5% nickel, would be much better.

Brakes in road salt country is a yearly spring job, would be nice if they electroplated the backing plates on the disc and even stainless steel on the caliper guide pins, do a terrible job of plating the torque plates for the disc. 

Just about any shop job I have seen, charge 99 bucks for the front pads, they install these with a hammer, and you wonder why your rotors go to pot. They sure don't clean and paint the backing plates. Only right way to do it is to do this yourself.


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## CRUISE-CRUZE (Nov 8, 2010)

Unfortunately no :dazed002:
The rattle is like a metallic sound but although I took the wheel twice out and inspected all the bolts, etc, I couldn't find the root cause. If I keep the food on the brake there is no sound so I think maybe the pads are touching the dust cover? I may take the rotor out to redo everything but I was to lazy. I changed both rotors but only the driver side is noisy.



ohyeahjay said:


> Cruise-Cruze, any update? Just did the same as you and noticed the same thing.


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

CRUISE-CRUZE said:


> Unfortunately no :dazed002:
> The rattle is like a metallic sound but although I took the wheel twice out and inspected all the bolts, etc, I couldn't find the root cause. If I keep the food on the brake there is no sound so I think maybe the pads are touching the dust cover? I may take the rotor out to redo everything but I was to lazy. I changed both rotors but only the driver side is noisy.


When you put the rotors on, did you put these bolts back in after the rotor was fully seated?


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## ohyeahjay (Dec 1, 2013)

i seen it in there but did not check it for tightness, I will check tomorrow though


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## ohyeahjay (Dec 1, 2013)

It appears that there is wear in the calipers allowing the pads to move around. Two new calipers on the way, will update if it fixes it.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Merc6 said:


> When you put the rotors on, did you put these bolts back in after the rotor was fully seated?


Ha, seeing this photo is one reason when getting a new toy, I paint anti-seize all over this stuff, can't even remove a tire. That countersunk screw in particular, just used for production, use to use a palnut to hold the rotor on, but that would be rusted off in a couple of months.

Could go even further to remove the half axle and hub bearing, but draw the line there, spline rust solid to the inside of the hub bearing, and that bearing is rusted solid to the yoke. Also all those CRS unplated bolts in aluminum.

Should at least do the water pump, but this requires draining all the coolant its lot of work, with a single drive belt system this little bearing sees the same load as the alternator and the AC compressor and is the first thing to go, least the PS pump is gone, this really puts a load on the water pump.

But the spark plugs sure get a light coating of anti-seize and the boot plenty of silicone or you will never get those off. So do all the caps on lighting, with an 0'ring, they bake on, will break those plastic caps in trying to remove them, silicone sure helps. Also protects the rubber. Sealed beams never had this problem, even used stainless steel screws. 

But if you did do all of this extra work, would be worthless when rear ended by a drunk or a texter. Either way, you can't win.


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