# Rear Brake Noise - Difficult to Diagnose and Identify



## thegazelle (Jun 6, 2009)

Hi, there, I am (and I think my mechanic is) stumped on the current problem that I am having. Any thoughts, comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

I have a 2003 Nissan Sentra GXE in automatic transmission. It's always been serviced by Nissan for pretty much everything.

The extended warranty that I purchased ran out a year or two ago and this year, I thought I'd get some new tires put on it, so I researched the tires that fit my car and bought a set of four Michelin Primacy tires. I went to Costco to get them put on my current rims. When they took the rims off, they noticed that the rear drums were pretty rusted. I told them to put the tires on and I'll get it checked out. When I left CostCo, the driver side rear area started making some clicking / klunking noises whenever I braked slowly and it got to the end of the braking cycle (like, when the car was under 10KM). The noise is not there when I am driving otherwise or when I brake fast or when I start braking - it's only at the really end of the cycle that it starts to klunk and click and I feel a bit of the vibrations in the car. The clicking/klunking gets slower as the car comes to a complete stop. My son feels it more sitting in the rear. The noise is intermittent, but it is there daily.

So I took the Sentra over to a highly respected and recommended garage in the area (not the dealership since I don't want my wallet pillaged). They said that when they test drove it, they didn't hear the noise, but when they braked hard, they heard a single klunk. So they took the rims and tires off and showed me the rusty drum. I said go ahead and replace the drums. They did that, and told me that the shoes looked fine. They said that part of their process is to clean the shoes so they did that, and put the new drums on. Afterwards, the car ran great - no noises when braking. A week later, the noises came back, under the same circumstances (see above). I just brought it back to the garage yesterday and they didn't hear the noise on their road test (it is intermittent). The mechanic said that it is possible that the parking brake may be sticking, so he lubricated that and again took off the drums and inspected everything and said it looks fine. I drove the car home and there's been no noise since. He said that if the noise comes back, it may be the struts since they are old, but he's honestly not really sure, since he didn't hear the noises. 

I would think that after the brakes were cleaned and it ran fine for a week that it has something to do with the brakes. But he showed me the brake shoes and the drums and there is no visible wear or damage and he said that it may be the parking brake, but we'll see...

My question is, if the noise comes back, does anyone have any guesses as to what it could be? It is really strange...I am not sure it's the struts since after the brake shoe cleaning / new drum install, it ran fine for a week, and I drive the car every day. After yesterday's parking brake lubrication, it seems fine again...I am hoping that was what it was, but it's a bit frustrating that everything appears to be fine (and he and another mechanic showed me the shoes and drums) but I am worried that noise will come back. Again, it only clicks/klunks when I brake slowly and it gets to the end of the braking cycle (under 10km/hr) is when it starts. The noise is only on the driver rear side.

Does anyone have any guesses as to what the problem can be? Thanks for any help you can provide.


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