Cracking sound from front end

[Airzzz]

2002 boxster 2.7, so if I put my car in reverse and put the breaks on it makes a cracking/click sound from the front right side, then the first time when moving in a forward motion I put the breaks on it makes the same sound?? Any ideas? could it be the break pads moving around?. I just had all new breaks and rotors all around on it.

[White987S]

How many miles have you done since the brake job?

[Airzzz]

It has been about 2000 miles

[PAULSPEED]

Sounds like a poping noise from the brake calipers. Maybe

some air got in there and you need to bleed the brakes.

Paul

[Chris_in_NH]

2002 boxster 2.7, so if I put my car in reverse and put the breaks on it makes a cracking/click sound from the front right side, then the first time when moving in a forward motion I put the breaks on it makes the same sound?? Any ideas? could it be the break pads moving around?. I just had all new breaks and rotors all around on it.

-how many miles does the car have?

-is the sound 'metallic' or something else? what would you compare it to?

-did this happen right after your brake job or was there some time in between?

-does this happen exactly this way every time you start to drive?

-after the initial click/clacking in reverse to your first braking going forward, does it ever happen again while you are driving/braking/reversing? (e.g. when you brake the second time or third time, etc.)

-after you start moving forward and apply the brakes/hear the noise, what happens if you go back into reverse? does it click? continuously? what if you are in reverse and don't use the brakes? anything?

it's not the brake pads moving around. even if the cotter pin was missing, they'd stay in place. sometimes a small rock or other debris can get stuck between the pad and rotor and make noise. rocks/pebbles usually make a terrible SCREEEEECH - (you'll know it when you hear it) :wacko: . it also could be as simple as some rust built up on the rotors overnight and the pads are scraping it off (although that would probably happen with ALL the wheels, and you'd be able to feel it in the brake pedal).

but since you had the brakes worked on recently, i would triple-check everything involved. brakes are a 'need-to-have'. make sure the wheel bolts are tight (you'd be surprised - my dad had a wheel come OFF AT 70MPH driving home from getting a brake job! he lived, thankfully). check the calipers and the bleeder screws. make sure there is no brake fluid on the caliper. if there is, that's a problem.

you could jack that corner of the car up and spin the wheel forward and backward while someone applies the brakes to see if you can pinpoint the source of the noise.

and if you had a shop do the work, just take it back to them and tell them what's going on.

Edited June 9, 2008 by Chris_in_NH

[secretagent214]

My 2001 Boxster with 125,000 miles makes the same noise. I have to backup to get out of my driveway, and when I put it back in a forward gear and press the brake, I get a pop from the front right and left, usually a half second or so apart. I bought the car used about 2 years ago, and it did that from day 1. It's always more noticeable when it's hot out, like maybe something expands and has a little more room to move around.

I have two theories. One, it could be the brake pads or some part of the brake system that has a slight bit of wiggle room, and they change position when braking in reverse vs. braking forward. The discs and pads were just replaced before I bought the car though.

Second, it could be a part of my suspension system, such as a ball joint on the front that has room to move, and would shift its position slightly as the car's weight pushes forward while braking vs. reverse. I'm leaning more towards this theory because I know the front tension arm ball joints need replacement soon (slight rattle when going over small bumps, especially when warm, and the ball joint was noticeably loose when I took the arms off for inspection). Since those arms control that forward/reverse stability, it makes lots of sense to me. I'm planning on replacing those arms soon and hopefully that will take care of both problems. It'll be probably a month or so before that happens, but I'll update here if there's no other solution.

Edited June 11, 2008 by secretagent214

[secretagent214]

Update: I finally got the new control arms and installed them today. I am pleased to report that replacing those took care of that cracking noise when first braking in one direction or another. It also took care of a low speed rattle over rough road.

I've seen a few names for that part, so I'll just post a diagram that shows it. It's #2. It says "control arm back," but it's the right one. It's really pretty easy to replace yourself. Two 18mm bolts hold it in place, and it's not too hard to access once the wheel is off. A few tips if you're replacing it: Make sure you don't tear the rubber around the ball joint when you're putting the new one in, and loosen the 15mm bolt that holds the cross piece that holds the end of the control arm to the car frame before you slide that end of the control arm back in.

Edited July 8, 2008 by secretagent214

[secretagent214]

Update #2: The front end popping is noticeably improved and occurs much, much less often, but it still happens. Probably the other ball joint on the lower control arm needs replacement as well. *sigh*

Edited July 8, 2008 by secretagent214

[secretagent214]

As I mentioned before, the noise is back. I decided to try and diagnose the problem with a little more certainty; it was starting to really bug me. I started by trying to rule out brake parts. The first thing I did was check for any play in the pads themselves. There wasn't anything obvious I could see by looking or feeling around, but I went ahead and took off the pads, pressed in the pistons a slight bit, and sat the pads back in there. Once they weren't so tightly pressed up against the disc by the pistons, I was able to slide them forward and back along the disc about a 16th of an inch...just enough to make that same annoying pop (though obviously quieter since I was moving it by hand). I don't know if the play is caused by worn calipers or non OEM pads that are slightly too small; these pads were put on before I bought the car.

I decided to put a drop of solder (about 1/16" thick) on one of two points on each pad where it rested against the caliper to try and make them fit more tightly. It was easy to see where this was since they are the two cleanest spots. (There are another two clean spots where the spring contacts from the outside, which I ignored). I put everything back together like it was. I only did this to one wheel so that I could compare one wheel with solder on the pads and one wheel without.

It has been 4 days, and the side I put the solder on is still silent. The other side pops like it did before. When it cools off outside later this week (humid 90s is too hot for working on a car in my opinion), I will do the same to the other wheel.

[niebyl2002]

I had the same clicking noise, actually more like huge click. Anyway I bought damper pads for front calipers and the that noise is gone. On one side of the damper pad there are two cylinders that you insert inside a caliper on the other side there is a metal plate with kind of dbl side tape. Once you do the whole procedure correctly there will be no movment/vibration to a brake pads.

For a $22 a piece (you need 4 for front) it's a quite cheap OEM fix.

Here's link just to give you overall idea: Pelican Parts

BTW is says it is for 996 Carrera 2/4 (1999-04), Boxster S (2000-04) in fact it fits also (1997-04) Boxster