Gravel in brakes

Jake Speed

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On Friday, my sixth day of ownership, I took my buddy out to lunch & we heard a horrible screeching/scraping sound coming from the front left wheel. Did a ton of visual inspection, couldn’t see anything amiss. It ended up being really intermittent. For a while it was only when turning left, then it was only when turned to the lock either direction in reverse.

Drove from work to my local dealership, but all the techs had gone home, so went this morning for drop-in, and $88 later, they confirmed it was a piece of gravel stuck in the “left front backing plate”.

This isn’t a shock; there just happens to be a ton of gravel on the streets in my neighborhood lately. I do feel like this car either picks up a lot or it’s somehow louder than I ever recall gravel being before.

When I picked it up, a tech passing by said, “Yeah, get ready for more of that.”

I haven’t yet searched, but I’m guessing this is a known issue. I’ll search & read, but I’m curious to understand why, and if there are any effective mitigations.

I mostly just wanted to chime in with this as a data point, in case it is a known issue.
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redwing497

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Happens pretty much daily for me. Honda should have really designed the dust shield with edges that cover the space between it and the rotor. It's wide open. And all the stuff these super sticky tires fling up gets lodged in there. Super annoying.
 

xc1v1cx

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Same thing happened to me the second day of ownership. A scary sound if you don't know what is causing it! I have noticed though that it hasn't happened since I swapped out my stock tires to the Michelin AS 3+ tires. I think the stickier the tires, the more prone you are to getting the gravel stuck in the brake shield. Also, I think the chances are less now (for my area anyway), since the majority of the gravel was road treatment rocks/salt left over on the roads from winter. Now that warmer weather is here, and a majority of the road treatment particles are swept away, chances are less that this will happen.
 

EnjoyDriving

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quick question - if we can tolerate the sound and dont do anything about it, will the object eventually be pushed out by daily driving?
 


Periokid

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This happened my first week of ownership. Brings back horrible memories of a past M3 I had. It was a disaster and I always feared rotor or caliper damage. I tried 3-4 times on the CTR to free the rock, moving the shield, driving backward, anything to try to get it out. Finally success.
 

slowride

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@EnjoyDriving Typically yes, but when I get it, I will jab at the shield for a bit and see if I can get anything to pop out
 

davemarco

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Is this screeching sound different from the brake squeak?
 

NapalmEnema

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This happens from time to time with my M2 - just get a home power washer (I got a SunJet for like 130 I think to wash the car at home) / or go to a car wash - and just spray right past the rotor into the dust shield and get up in there knocking anything loose / under the pad / rotor. It's a simple fix.

The reason I advise the home option is you don't want to do this when your brakes are hot. You could warp things if you hit hot brakes with cold water, so best to do at home / really close car wash.

Is annoying but seems to happen to a lot of different cars so wouldn't sweat it. The M2 even had a revised dust shield to address this issue - it still happens lol.
 

RedFK8

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$88 is an expensive lesson. I’m surprised they didn’t do it for free since it only takes a few taps to the shield with a screwdriver to get them out most of the time.
 


Nanook

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Yes this a really well known issue. Happens almost every time I drive.
 

RedFK8

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I too run a set of these OSF carbon rock guards. These have definitely helped with the road debris kicked up from running 275s all around from normal driving and the annoying track grit that gets lodged into the brake shields while tracking the car. @bouford and I got a hold of the first sets of these a while back for track testing and they’ve stood up to cones at autoX and decreased all the chipping and debris blasting to the paint on the rear flares.
 

davemarco

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+1 for the OSF Carbon Fiber rock flaps. I used to hear the constant sounds of rocks and gravel pinging off of the sides and bottom of the car. Since installing the flaps, I hear nothing at all.
 


 


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