Brakes make metallic "tap" our "clank" sound if I brake while moving. 2002 P5

Mikeyman64

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Atlanta
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2002/2003.5 "MSP5"
Brakes make metallic "tap" our "clank" sound if I brake while moving. 2002 P5

Hello Mazda247!

I've got a 2002 P5 that I love and take care of. I'm vary anal about my car's condition, and I fix things (usually myself) as soon as I notice something wrong.

The problem I'm having now is, whenever I brake, almost 90% of the time, I here a metallic "clank" or "tap" sound. It sounds like it's coming from the rear passenger wheel. It only happens if I brake while moving no matter how fast, not at all when I'm stopped which sucks because it makes it really hard to track the sound seeing as how I can't search for it while driving. The brakes seem to work fine. The car stops very well. The pads still have about 30-40% life. The rotors are slightly warped (not sure which ones, but I know at least one of them is).

I can even sit there and lightly tap the brake pedal repeatedly and I hear "clank, clank, clank". So I would assume it has to have something to do with the brakes themselves.

Oh, and sometimes when I turn right after releasing the brakes I hear "clank, clank clank" like something is swinging loose. /shrug

Any input would be great! I'm putting it up on stands this weekend to give her a new clutch and rear engine mount and possibly a new master cyl. (it has a small leak that's eating the paint on the booster, I dunno if that's an important factor) so I'll get to look at the situation a bit better then.
 
Did you recently have any brake work done? If so make sure all the caliper bolts are in fully!!

I read this post earlier but I still come back to this possibility.

If the pads are loose in the caliper it might make a similar noise but I would think the braking performance degradation would be noticeable.
 
You could have comtanmination on the rotors. When I first got my p5 it made a noise similar when braking. Come to find out the dealer I got it from did a horrible brake job on it. They got some antiseeze on the rotor and basically what happens is the pad doesn't grip that section and skips to the next part that's on the rotor and grabs causing that noise I had to cut the rotor to get rid of this. I'd try checking your bolts first, that's the MOST important thing first, then I'd replace the pads and rotors since your getting to that point anyways. Start there.
 
I read this post earlier but I still come back to this possibility.

If the pads are loose in the caliper it might make a similar noise but I would think the braking performance degradation would be noticeable.

I had a shop do the brakes on my gfs old car and they literally forgot to put one caliper bolt back in.
 
Problem solved!

So, first off, I do my own brakes (never other peoples, just mine. I'm not a professional!), so all mistakes mentioned hereafter are mine.

Ok, so I jacked it up, put the rear on stands and took off the wheels to inspect. Come to find out that the rear driver caliper is super loose and in need of adjustment. That caliper went bad a few months ago (leaking) and when I replaced it I must have forgotten to adjust the little piston allen key behind the bolt. So I adjusted it according to the shop manual, "turn clockwise till pads touch rotors then turn counterclockwise 1/3rd a turn", and then had to re-adjust my e-brake (which until now had been super loose and I didn't know why. durp!) and voila! Clicking sound is gone, car stops better and e-bake works perfectly! 3 birds with one 1 stone!

Thanks for all the input btw.
 
Cool! Glad to see you got it fixed. I generally do the brakes on my car as well. I would of done them on the gf's car at that time but her parents wouldn't let me at that time(car was in parents name).
 
Cool.Glad to hear you found the problem.

On a side note-a co-worker had new tires mounted on his pickup Tuesday. Wednesday morning his DS front wheel/tire came off on his way to work.

I do my own work except for tire mounting/balancing. I take the wheels off the vehicle and take them to the local shop for that.
 
Yeah, that's one thing I'm content with not doing myself. Tires. Too expensive (damn 195-50-16s) to screw up, and cheap enough to have someone else handle it. Plus, my dad (first owner of the car) bought a lifetime alignment plan fro Firestone. :)
 
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