Background...last summer I noticed a sound coming from the front passenger side wheel well. A tinny scraping sound that would increase in frequency as the car went faster and decrease in frequency as the car went slower. At first it was only noticeable when I turned the steering wheel to the right and not all the time, but after a few days was present at all times. It did not effect the performance of the car or brakes and aside from the annoying noise, the car drove fine. Sounded like something was scraping against the dust shield as the wheels rotated.

Figuring that a rock or stick had gotten stuck somewhere in the wheelwell/brake assembly and was rubbing against the dust shield behind the rotor, I took off the wheel and flipped up the brake caliper, but found nothing. I removed the brake pad shims and examined them, nothing. Although the rotor had rust along the outside edges, it was not pitted or grooved by anything. Put everything back together and took the car out for a test drive and the sound had stopped.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and the sound has now started from the front drivers side. Like last time it started sporadically and only when the wheels were turned, this time to the left, but has now progressed to where I can even hear it when driving straight. Again, no performance issues. I'm figuring once the snow melts, I'll take the wheel off, flip up the caliper, remove the shims, find nothing, put it all back together and everything will be fine.

But....Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening? Is the rust from the rotors or brake pads getting in there? Pads are original and I am planning to replace them this spring. I seem to recall reading about a simmilar problem with 01/02 (??) accords, but can no longer find the post or site so maybe I was mistaken. Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

 

How old are the rotors? Are they vented disk? I.E. two discs with vanes in the middle? A common issue with older vented discs is that the vanes can rust, and bits of them flake off and get trapped between the rotor face and claiper/pads, making annoying noises. You can fix this buy blowing out the vanes with compressed air and using a thin common screwdriver to chip away some of the rust. Or by buying new rotors.

 

Rotors are the originals, so 2004. I don't know if they are vented disk, but I did a google image search and based on those results, I'd say they are. I'll definitely check that when I get the wheel off. Thanks for the tip.

Living in Vermont, this car sees a lot of road salt in the winter, so the rusting wouldn't suprise me.