Just bought a new used car. All seems ok, but I have two problems.
(1) when not moving, i have slop in the steering and I can hear metal on metal contact when I turn the steering wheel. I pulled the tire and with basically no force I can move the rotor back and forth by hand. Any ideas on what it is and how to fix it?
(2) when braking, it appears that the front left pad sticks. Pads are not excessively worn down. Can’t figure out how to get to the caliper pins ( thought they might be sticking). Any ideas?
Could the two be related?
Dustin
Shake down the front end again without removing the wheel and see where the slop is. You may have a bad wheel bearing, I will guess off the top of my head based on what you describe. This will appear as the same slop you noted in the rotor, with the wheel still on the car. If the wheel bearing moves that much, this is a very urgent repair. If you don’t know how to change it on your own, or are uncomfortable doing so, I urge you to have the car TOWED to a repair shop for the repairs to be made. If your wheel bearing is significantly loose, driving on it is dangerous since you could lose a wheel at any moment.
When you shake down the front end, wheel bearing play will manifest as lateral movement in any direction. Tie rod ends or ball joints will typically cause only lateral movement in two directions, either side to side (gripping the tire at 3 and 9 o’clock) or up and down (gripping the tire at 6 and 12 o’clock).
Wheel bearing play could cause brake-related symptoms. Get a firm diagnosis and make needed repairs ASAP. This could be dangerous!
With the wheel off of course you will be able to rock and move the rotor…it is held in place by the wheel. You will surely be able to move the rotor all over the place with the wheel off…thats no test of anything except your patience. Like Mark said…put the wheel back on properly then jack the car up and put one hand on the bottom and one on top of the wheel and try to move it in and out top to bottom. If you have play there then you have a VERY bad wheel bearing or bad ball joints. If it was the bearing then it should have been screaming at you while you drive… You could also have bad tie rod ends…but for an Accord this young ALL of this is VERY strange indeed…unless she was in an accident and then “Fixed” up.
Mark is also correct in saying that wheel bearing issues or play will manifest in the brake system bec the rotor is no longer stationary as far as the brake caliper is concerned… You def need to give that front end a good shakedown…