I’m a young novice home mechanic with a 2014 Dodge Charger R/T and I recently started doing my own work on my car after college started bleeding me dry. Has gone well thus far, changed a few parts, added a few mods, no biggie.
That is until last Wednesday when I changed my brake pads. Rotors looked good so I just changed out the pads. Used Duralast Gold ceramic pads, part #DG1058. Lifted the car, pulled the old pads, cleaned the rotors, greased the ears of the new pads as well as the caliper guide pins and the anti-rattle pieces included with the brake pads. Put everything together, tightened it up, and thought I did a swell job.
That is until I go to test drive the car and I hear a slight knocking coming from the passenger front wheel well. More noticeable at low speeds, stops with any pressure applied on the brake. Since then, I’ve pulled the wheel back off twice to check everything. Fitments are tight, stuff is greased, nothing out of the ordinary moving. Even today I just went and pulled everything apart to “do the job over again” and still the knocking persists.
If anybody has experienced this before and can advise me on what to do next, that would be great! I don’t have the money to take it to a mechanic any time soon so home repairs are preferred.
I replaced front shoes on my truck recently, had a little noise at first when slightly braking, but that went away w/use, brakes bedded in. I expect this problem will go away once the pad surfaces wear more and conform w/the rotor’s surface.
I had another problem on that job, not noise related, instead notices more play in brake pedal than before, took that side apart again & discovered there was a broken spring.
I’ve never had any noise problem with disc brake pad replacements myself. Pad jobs for me include using 180 grit sandpaper to make cross-hatch patterns on both the pads and rotor. If you decide to take everything apart, might want to try that. I expect however this problem will go away on its own. Could speed up the process by reading how best to bed brakes.
I presume your car has ABS. When retracting pads on ABS designs, best practice according to folks here is to loosen caliper bleed screw so excess brake fluid flows out the bleed port, and not pushed back into ABS unit.
If you decide to remove the pads, good opportunity take a careful look at the caliper bores, make sure the rubber seals aren’t cockeyed. Those seals are important for maintaining proper pad to disc clearance.
Note: No 2014 Charger experience. I’m just a diy’er with older car brake pad experience, VW Rabbit, Corolla.
It’s generally a good idea to replace the rotors with the brake pads.
I have a 2009 Challenger (very similar to the Charger). It’s got some kind of quiet “knocking” sound coming from the front passenger wheel that I’ve been chasing for years. Not sure if it’s a suspension issue or brake issue…but from what I’ve read, these “knocking” noises are common on Challengers/Chargers.
