HELP! Rear tires making a metal dragging noise/ grinding. NEW BRAKES AND DRUMS

help! I have a 2010 honda civic LX. i have new brakes and drums on the car and the rear tires are making a grinding when I drive as well as when I brake. I changed the brakes and drums twice thinking they might be defective and they are still doing it. Any suggestions ?

You may have bent the backing plate when you removed the drum.

yosemite

THANK YOU. I will check it tomorrow. it didnt look bent when we replaced the brakes. it almost looks like the drum is grinding against the wheel cylinder .We have also adjusted the drums so they don’t easily move. Any other suggestions?

Try grabbing the hub flange and wiggling it.

If it wiggles, the hub bearing is worn out.

Tester

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Assuming you did the brake job correctly , I don’t know your lever of expertise, It could be a bad wheel bearing.

My machanic has been doing cars for years and I am confident he installed them correctly. I will replace the wheel bearings , Thank you

Will do. Is there a way i can upload the video of the sound its making ?

You said you changed the BRAKES and drums twice. If the mechanic actually did it what does he have to say about the noise?

If you mean you adjusted the shoe-to-drum clearance so it prevents the rear wheel from rotating easily, then they are adjusted too tight. That could cause a grinding noise when driving and braking. Does the rear wheel feel hot after driving 5 to 10 minutes? Try backing that rear brake adjustment off just until the wheel rotates freely.

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I drive a 1998 Civic I’ve owned since it was new, so I’ve done several rear brake jobs on it, and it’s fairly common to notice a little rubbing with new shoes, especially while backing out of the driveway in the morning before everything warms up.

I don’t know about your Civic, but mine is pretty noisy. There isn’t much noise insulation between the rear wheels and the inside of the car, so you’ll probably hear things in your car you won’t hear in more expensive more insulated cars, like a Lexus. Most of the noise insulation is provided by the back seat, so a lot of noise still passes through the floor. One thing reviewers like Car and Driver and Consumer Reports don’t typically like about the Civic is the amount of road and engine noise that gets inside the cabin.

Try ignoring the sound for a week or two. I’m betting it gets better or goes away completely.

George has a point that you might have adjusted the brakes so they’re too tight, but that’s typically how I adjust mine. If you can turn them by hand, they’re good, even if they rub a little when they’re cold.

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yeah. He has no clue, thats the frustrating thing about it.

Yes. I am ignorant to the terms of car parts and stuff, thanks for the clarification. I will try this tomorrow as well.

Yeah I ignored it since July and it just got louder. Prior to this my car never made a sound. So obviously something happened. I take care of my car like its a baby.

If this has been going on since July, unlikely to be caused by the shoe adjustment. That self adjusts eventually as you drive. So what is it? hmmm … well there’s a half dozen ways to install shoes and their springs incorrectly, so it could be something like that. Unlikely a pro mechanic would make that mistake however, as they usually do one side at a time if they are at all unsure, keeping the other for reference. Sometimes when doing brakes on an older car the drum is really difficult to remove, rusted fast to the hub, and a mechanic will have bring out a big 4 pound hammer and bang on it. That series of whacks on the drum could damage something, like maybe a wheel bearing got damaged. Just idle speculation of course.

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Yes, but the rear brake shoes on the car were already broken in when you took possession of it (especially if this is your first new set of brake shoes since taking possession of it), and since most of the braking is done by the front brakes, it takes a long time to break-in new brake shoes in the rear.

If you want to ignore my advice, feel free. It’s no skin off my back, but obsessing over this isn’t going to help, kind of like being a nervous hypochondriac parent with a new baby who is just doing what babies do.

Trust me, I’ve been though this, but I do my own brake work and I knew I did everything right, so I didn’t worry about it and now they don’t make the noise anymore.

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Thank you!
I’m on a dummy mission

Thank you! I will definitely take all advice given! i need this issue to be resolved
.

Yes. If your mechanic did the job, then it’s his responsibility to correct the problem and find the source of the grinding.

Yosemite

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I’d like to personally hear this grinding noise, because if it’s the sound of metal on metal, it could just be the sound of metallic or ceramic brake shoes against metal drums.

The frustrating part is that he has no clue whatsoever. We’ve done everything , so he says . So I’m taking it somewhere else