2005 Echo Rear Brake Click

Your Echo probably has rear drum brakes, and if that is the case, the sound is not from a sticking rear caliper because calipers are not used in drum brakes.

200,000 km (125,000 miles) is a lot of miles to put on the original rear brake shoes without replacement, suggesting that the rear brake shoes may need adjustment. When properly adjusted, the rear brakes will last roughly twice as long as the front brakes. When the rear brakes are not adjusted, they provide less stopping power, making the front brakes do more of the work, wearing the front brakes more quickly and sometimes promoting front rotor warpage.

Your owner's manual should have details on how the self-adjusting mechanism for the rear drum brakes work. Usually, this is accomplished by applying the parking brake. If the brakes are too far out of adjustment, they may need to be manually adjusted. If you have a jack, jack stands, and a screwdriver, you can adjust the brakes yourself with some patience and practice.

Noises are difficult to diagnose without actually hearing them first hand, but it is possible that the rear brakes are so far out of adjustment that they are shifting when they are applied. I would get them adjusted and see if the noise goes away. If you want to attempt adjusting them yourself, post again and I'll provide some instructions.

200,000 km on a 2005 car? Is it a taxicab? Did you ever NOT drive in the past two years?

I can't imagine how you put on this kind of mileage ....can you elucidate?

One of the reasons I drive an Echo is that it takes me roughly 3 hours to get to work each day. 160km each way of mainly highway driving.

My employer jokes that I'm the only person he knows who can map their commute on a globe .

AndrewB

Ray:

Thank you for your prompt reply. Yes, the Echo has rear drum brakes. At my next oil change I'll ask the dealer to have a look at the rear brakes to see if they need adjustment. In the mean time I'll consult the manual to see about the self-adjustment. I'm a bit of a fumble- fingers for mechanical work, especially where breakable and loosable parts are concerned so I'll leave it for the pros.

AndrewB

In that case, I recommend that you ask the dealer to inspect the rear brakes, adjust as necessary, and see if they can identify the source of the clicking sound.

Just a followup. I was able to re-create the noise (which I'll now describe as a "clunk" rather than a "click") reliably on the way home tonight. At low speeds and with gentle braking I hear and slightly feel a clunk from the FRONT of the car (sorry about that). "Normal" braking doesn't do it and turning corners at any speed doesn't do it either.

I'm thinking that there are two things with the front that I'm aware of, that might cause this, the left front wheel bearing is definately going bad. The dealer's mechanic said that there was some play in it but that it would probably be fine for a while until it starts making more noise. Also, I had a non-dealership replacement of the front brakes and when putting on my summer tires noticed that there is a bit of play on the rotors. The holes in their rotors didn't exactly match the diameter of the bolts.

I'm leaning towards it being the bearing though as I remember a similar noise before the brakes were replaced. Do I need to worry though? The front end of the car got a pretty thorough going over at the dealer last Saturday when the right front bearing was replaced and I've found them pretty good about letting me know about problems but I didn't mention this one to them. Their only comment about the brakes was to say "oh I see you got your brakes done elsewhere".

AndrewB

That's why I always say that noises are difficult to diagnose without hearing them first hand! ;-)

Aftermarket brake pads sometimes do not fit the calipers as precisely as OEM pads, and besides moving in and out to squeeze the rotor, if they are a little bit too small, the rotation of the rotor can make them shift, making a click or clunk noise.

Noises and poor fit are one of the main reasons I always recommend using OEM brake parts.

The slightly large holes on the rotor should not make the rotors make noise because the lug nuts from the wheels should be holding them in place.

Other possible sources of a clunk noise are CV joints; other suspension parts like struts, strut mounts, control arms, ball joints, etc.; engine and/or transmission mounts; and an improperly tightened wheel.

Bad wheel bearings tend to make a growling or whining noise.

Thanks again Ray. I'll pull the wheels off tomorrow and have a look at those components. I'm not comfortable taking them apart (the one thing I miss about old cars) but have no problems taking a close look.

AndrewB

You're welcome! The pads have square tabs that should fit pretty tightly into square notches on the caliper bracket. If the fit is not very close, that is a potential source of clicking or clunking sounds.

Well - I took the front wheels off, checked the pads (only could see the outer ones without disassembling) and the appeared to fit snugly into the bracket. Shook everything that could be shaken and can't hear or see anything at all loose. I also crawled under the back and gave everything there a good shake and then jumped up and down on the car for a while - still no duplication of the noise.

I'll keep my ear open and mention it to the dealer when I book my next service appointment which will have the car on the hoist for a while anyway (transmission and radiator fluid change time). I suspect it's nothing to worry about but I still need to get at least another

120,000km out of this car and so am just a tad over-paranoid.

Thanks to all for your patience while I beat this issue to death. If I do find that something is amis, I'll post an update.

AndrewB