Car is a 2007 Ron Fellows Z06. Roughly 25k miles. I recently started hearing a sporadic, random pinging or ringing sound coming from what I believe is the front of the car. The noise became very prevalent under moderate braking, especially at slow speeds coming to a stop. When the car stops, the noise stops. If I shift into reverse and take off, you can hear the noise again, even without brake pressure.

I thought the issue might be brake pads since they were worn and the rotors needed replacing. Replaced them both On all 4 corners ...rotors are OEM replacement and pads are OEM-style padlets from Powerstop. No joy...exact same noise. I also replaced the metal pad retainers.

I have been all over this guys, front and back, engine bay, wheels wells. I have grabbed everything I know to grab and shake and have inspected everything in sight. I cannot find anything out of sorts at all.

Out of an abundance of caution I will also mention that I did a cam/heads/full exhaust swap last fall. I have probably 3-4K miles on those mods with no issues whatsoever.

I took a short video of the noise. Of course I got a big brake squeal right in the middle, but you can hear the noise really well right after that.

I’d appreciate any insight or suggestions you may have. We plan to drive this car to Carlisle the week after next, so I need to get this resolved ASAP.

Thanks guys.

 

Been working on this thing all day. I found this groove in the new rotor on the driver’s side front and I believe that the issue I’m having is being caused by the brake pad retaining spring making contact with the rotor. I’m not sure how that’s happening, but something obviously is amiss.



The rotor isn’t gouged, but it’s making significant contact. It appears to me that the pinging noise could be when the spring contacts the drilled part of the rotor.

I used the brake pad retaining spring out of the box of the new Powerstops. Of course I threw the OEM ones away. Not that it would make a difference, because I was having this same issue with the last set of rotors and pads, but I’d rather have the old ones back now.

At the very least, I’m going to order new retaining springs. I am also considering replacing the padlets with a one-piece pad. I’m not sure that’s the problem, but at this point I’m willing to throw money at the issue to get it resolved. I’m really not crazy about the padlet design.

Any thoughts or suggestions?