ES300SD

In the morning when im leaving to work...or whenever i go to drive after the car has been sitting for a while. Ill be backing out of the driveway or whatever and the first time i apply the brakes fully, I hear a loud Clunking sort of noise, it deffinately has something to do with the brakes or something about the wheel, etc. since it only happens that first time i fully apply the brake....then it wont happen the whole time im driving again......any ideas??

CPerez100

check the neighbor's cat.. he may sleep under the car !

ES300SD

You know...I have been noticing that there seems to be less and less amounts of cats around.....

meZoom!

for all i know, it happens on my 95 ES and my friend's '01 Toyota Celica. maybe it's a toyota thing but it doesn't seem to affect performance. i've come to the conclusion that maybe it's the brake oil adjusting to some sort of sudden pressure after sitting for a long time doing nothing. either that or some electrical component that is turned on when you step on the brakes or something.

ES300SD

Hey, thanks alot for the reply meZoom, I noticed that it doesnt seem to affect the performance...just sorta worried me sometimes when i heard it, guess Ill just have to live with it

jgrooms

I had a similar problem with a Pontiac Grand Am. It felt like the brakes were clunking or grabbing when I first applied them. Come to find out the rear brake pads and rotors were worn so much that they weren't fully connecting when they were cold. However, once they heated up they expanded just enough that the clunking stopped. A replacement of the pads and rotors along with a proper adjustment cured the problem.

I would recommend having your brakes inspected to see if that's your problem. Since most repair shops will inspect them for free, it's worth a shot.

HTH,

- John

bpepsin

The noise you are hearing is the Anti-Lock Braking (ABS) System running a self-check and occurs each time the vehicle is driven after being parked. There is also a noise that the Traction Control system makes when running a self-check. All this is explained in the owners manual so check it out.

lextek

It is brake pad shift. Put some caliper grease on each end of each brake pad and it will go away, for a while. There is no other fix unless you purchase a fit kit, this will fix for a longer while because the pressure on the pads has been restored, however the metal will fatigue (on the fit kit) and you will be back to square one. I did not look but I bet you have a 1996 model.