Hey everyone I just bought a 1987 GXL. I've been a car guy for a long time, but this is my first Rx7.

Anyway, I have a noise problem. It is coming from the drivers rear corner during normal braking. If I am braking lightly or hard there is no noise. It only happens during moderate around town braking. It is a repeditive creeking sound that varies with vehicle speed. I have taken the wheel off and inspected the brake as well as I could without taking it apart. The pads look 1/3 used and the rotors look straight.

Any ideas? What does a bad wheel bearing sound like?

thanks,
Tom

P.S. I have a cooling problem too, but I'll make a new post.

 

a bad bearing, you can tell when driving straight by slightly turning either side, if noise disappears, then bad bearing on opposite side. But you do this whithout braking.

If I were you, I would just change the calipers both sides. About $65 each loaded with the pads.

hugues-

 

You mean a bad wheel bearing? I assume to mean a bad bearing that the caliper floats on since you say I should replace them. Man, I just replaced the rear calipers, rotors and pads on my SHO.

Oh well,

Tom

 

Could just be a caliper due for a good rebuild...Does it "clank" at all?

Wheel bearings will be more of a "roaring" or "grinding" noise, noticeable on turns at first, like Hugues said...

 

I've heard you guys mentioning rebuilds a lot, but it seems most places just sell new calipers. Where should I get a rebuild kit?

Tom

 

Just on one side, eh?

You might try swapping the pads themselves, if the squealing comes from the other side now you may just need a better set of pads. My car squealed for a long time and I never figured out why, turns out it was the crappy Autozone special brake pads I had put on it. Used some real pads, and the problem vanished.

 

Mazdatrix is one of many vendors that will have both rebuild kits for the calipers, and complete rebuilt calipers...

 

take a look at the rear brake rotors. the entire surface of the rotor should be shiny, or appear to be contacting with the pad. if this is not the case, for example if you see only a thin strip shiny or certain parts of the rotor are black, then that is one indication that it is brake rotor/caliper related...

but noise can only be one of so many things. assuming you are correct in saying it is coming from the brakes, it is either a worn or damaged pad/rotor, loose caliper mounting bolts, or faulty caliper not releasing correctly. i think these are basically all you need to look for...
check out the FSM also, there is a trouble shooting guide as with all the sections in there...

oh, for some reason i can get OEM TII rotors (front or rear) for about $30 each at my local NAPA auto parts store. NA rotors were, even stranger, twice the price...so i decided to pick up the TII rotors and get TII front and rear calipers