# Rubbing Sound from Front Tire

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/rubbing-sound-from-front-tire/136647>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Created:** [March 17, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/rubbing-sound-from-front-tire/136647 "2019-03-17T16:10:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![arachosia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@arachosia](https://community.cartalk.com/u/arachosia)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/rubbing-sound-from-front-tire/136647/1 "2019-03-17T16:10:59Z")

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Hi, recently I was driving my 2002 Chevy Astro slowly in a parking lot when suddenly I heard a rather loud metallic scraping sound coming from somewhere under my vehicle. It sounded like something metallic was being dragged across the pavement, but when I got out and looked, I couldn’t find anything. I gave up and drove home, and the sound shortly subsided. Since then, there has been a rubbing kind of sound coming from the front passenger tire (like a rhythmic cha-cha-cha sound). The sound gets louder as I apply the brakes and slow down.

The front wheel bearings and brake pads were replaced about 1 month ago. Not sure if that’s related somehow.

If anyone has any guesses as to what this could be, I’d appreciate your insight. I don’t know how to work on cars, and have been sinking so much money into this van lately. It’s like every few months something else breaks on it.

Thank you!

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**Author:** ![shanonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@shanonia](https://community.cartalk.com/u/shanonia)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/rubbing-sound-from-front-tire/136647/2 "2019-03-17T17:12:15Z")

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Sometimes a little stone or something gets between the rotor and the sheet metal dust/water shield. It could be that. But since it’s brakes and recent work was done on them, the shop you used ought to have a look and see what’s up. Good luck and please let us know how it goes.

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**Author:** ![arachosia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@arachosia](https://community.cartalk.com/u/arachosia)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 5:36pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/rubbing-sound-from-front-tire/136647/3 "2019-03-17T17:36:44Z")

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Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll take the wheel off and look for stones or anything like that. I can’t bring it back to the original shop, unfortunately, because right after he worked on it, I drove 2,600 miles across the country to a new state where I’m now living.

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**Author:** ![Honda-Blackbird](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/honda-blackbird/32/3159_2.png) [@Honda-Blackbird](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Honda-Blackbird)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 12:06am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/rubbing-sound-from-front-tire/136647/4 "2019-03-18T00:06:00Z")

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Sometimes when “mechanics” do a brake job they inadvertantly bent the sheet metal dust shield that @shanonia mentions. Its very common and all you need to do is bend it gently backward off of the rotor surface… it only takes a tiny amount of deflection of this metal plate to go from silent to scrapy sounding.

This is most likely the cause and solution.