Has anyone else had a problem with their brake caliper rattling,, i can be driving and it sounds like something is loose up front till i lightly apply the brake pedal and then it stops till i remove my foot from the pedal,,,i have removed the tire and the caliper has a small amount of play in it, i found a screw on top that has a metal cap on it that goes thru the caliper to attach to housing, but adjusting it will only become a rattle again after a few yards of driving again,,,,,thanks for any input......

 

Morning, Donna...

Your caliper is held to the backing plate by two bolts. A top bolt and a bottom bolt, and the bolt heads are on the inside of the backing plate, facing the vehicle. As I recall, I think they're 14mm. Raise the car, Take the tire off, spin the steering wheel as if you're making a tight right turn. that will make getting to the bolt-heads easier.

Hopefully, it's the top bolt that's loose. It's easy to get to. It's the bottom bolt that's a real bull to get to, and to remove when it's time for brake pads. The bottom bolt sets inside a "dished" part of the backing plate. You can't get a socket on it, and it's barely reachable with an offset wrench. Watch out you don't knock off the corners of the bolt-head! I bought a cheap 14mm offset wrench from Wal-mart, then ground it down at the wrench-head, and neck so that it would fit into the dished area and I could get a purchase on the bolt-head.

To remove the bolt takes a prybar on the steering knuckle, which is real close to the backing plate, and some delicate play with the bolt. Same for putting it back in! What I did was to grind the bolt down a bit until it barely fit into the dished area without having to use the prybar. Makes changing pads a lot easier...

A tip of the Stetson,
Denny, from the 'ol corncrib

 

If you are missing any of the anti-rattle clips, you will get the same thing. You might want to look at both sides to see if they have the same number of little metal clips.

Kerry

 

I had the same problem for the longest time on my first gen. Tightenning the calipers never fixed the problem for me. It finally stopped when i bought a new mounting kit for my pads... it had an anti rattle clip, like Kerry said, and chims. I guess the rattle was caused by the pads moving around when no braking force was applied. It doesnt rattle anymore.

 

Previous owners or his and her mechanic was/were freakin morons. I have various odds and ends for caliper mounting hardware... I think one shim somewhere on the front and one spring. Not a complete set of shims or springs on any wheel, but I don't recall that any wheels were missing all of the springs and clips and shims. I just need to buy another full kit. When I finish all my mods and start autocrossing, I'll just buy loaded calipers and good stock rotors, unless anyone can suggest good autocross AND street rotors and pads.

 

I also recently started getting a wicked rattle in one of my front calipers but mine is the wedge type from SA. I believe I might be missing a peice somewhere in there? Anyone know what kind of hard ware there should be. It seems like all thats holding the wedges in place is pressure. Is this right??