My 325is has developed a strange noise when braking. If I hit the brakes hard there is a clunk initially that can be heard but not really felt. Occasionally (50-70% of the time) under medium braking there is a creaking noise that seems to occur with suspension undulations.

I checked to look for anything loose and nothing appears to be. I also don't really notice any strange noises when going over large bumps, rough roads, or anything that may cause suspension movement.

Now, the reason I posted this in the track section is to see if this is indicative of failure of Delrin CAB's. They have roughly 15k street miles and a fair amount of auto-x use on them.

I have the GC Race Kit with Koni SA shocks on the car with the same mileage; the noise seems as though it could be coming from the camber plate area as well.

Lastly, could such a noise come from tie-rods? Pretty much the only thing on my front end that has not yet been replaced is the tie-rods.

Hoping somebody here may have gone though a similar issue and can offer some insight before I start ripping it all apart. :eyecrazy

Are you using factory swaybar endlinks? Could be them.

Could be bad RTABs.

Are you using solid brake guides. They make a clicking sound.

Torn shock tower or subframe mount. Hope not.

Torn swaybar mount.

Let's hope it's an easy fix :)

Jay

Double-triple check your brake caliper carrier bolts (bolts that mount caliper bracket to the hub). I had a similar *very intermittent* noise (clunk) come from my street car's brakes every once and awhile. I could not figure it out for the longest, kept blaming my UUC sways because they had become loud as hell (mounted with only lithium grease and no teflon tape). My HIOP camber plates on the street car will sometimes groan a bit as well, to add to the chorus. Although my street car is now purely a street driven car, it has had over 40+ track days on the car's suspension by me (and who knows how many more by the 1st owner for her first three years of life).

Then one day in the middle of a busy intersection I casually applied the brakes and there was a god-awful grinding noise and vibration. One of the two bolts that holds the brake caliper carrier to the hub had slowly been working itself loose-- somehow I had missed that when I checked things out a month or so earlier when the noise had started. Once that bolt had backed itself all the way out, as I applied the brakes, the caliper just deflected and leveraging off the remaining bolt, swung the caliper body out ramming itself into the inside of my wheel, nicely grinding two large grooves in the inside of the wheel in an attempt to slow the car. Ouch. This occured maybe 3 months and who knows how many HPDEs after the last rotor change on that corner (i.e. the last time that bolt would have been removed and then retorqued).

With noises like these double-trip check all of your brake components. Don't be a chump like me and just blame your clunky track suspension parts . . . . I was lucky I was only going 10 mph when my caliper let loose. Going 80 on the expressway may have been a different outcome. Using your ratchet or a wrench, check the tightness of all your brake components- don't rely on a visual inspection.

Just something to think about,
ben

Get that sucker on the lift today and look at those LCAs, they are notorious for going bad and you have gotten more than your share of mileage out of them. Otherwise, double checking the bolts is a good idea, then we can look at the camber plate bearings. just bounce the car while looking closely at the bearings and see if you can catch any odd movement.

I had a semi-random clunking coming from my front end recently, and it turned out that the top nut on my GC shortened strut housings was coming loose, and the Koni inside was basically wiggling side-to-side. Since you will have you wheels off anyway to check other stuff, this one is easy to spot. just grab the strut housing and start yanking it back and forth; If it moves around then tighten the top nut back down and you should be good to go.

Hope it's nothing serious,

-Bret

Is the pad shifting in the caliper? Happens on my E30 M3, rather annoying but totally harmless.

I've got brand new E36 M3 links on the sway bar in front.

RTAB's have the same mileage and are urethane, the noise is DEFINITELY from the front.

Took the brakes appart on the left side last night and nothing seemed to be the matter. Upper mounting didn't seem to be loose and didn't seem to be too much play in the LCAB's

I may check for cracks to the subframe or strut towers. Everything else really seems okay...Maybe I just need to do a closer inspection.

have you replaced your pads or rotors lately? Mine started making that click after I replaced my rear pads. I just re-installed them today and the click is gone(for now)... I think it was the metal clips that hold the inside pad into the caliper. they seemed to be bent inward making them loose. I pryed them out to make a tighter fit and I did not hear the click after one day of driving. HOpefully its gone.


My suspension is getting very Creaky sounding lately. that is next on my to do list. When I am stopped at a red light and if I pump my brake on and off the car/suspension is very creaky/squeeky... any ideas on what I should check out?

Do you have the solid caliper guides?

-Serge

Not sure what you are referring to...

And unfortunately the clicking is back!! GGRRRR