'96 ES300 here. I had a shop tell me that my front brake pads were worn pretty bad, so I had them replace them, plus machine the rotors and give me new brake fluid. Nothing was done to the rear brakes (afaik ... didn't show up on my bill, anyway).

Immediately after this, my front brakes started doing something I've never heard them do. When they're cold (i.e., car hasn't been driven in a couple hours), and after I come to a stop, as I slo-o-o-owly take pressure off the brake pedal, one or both of my brakes make a creaking, clunking noise. Crack-crack-ck-ck-ck-k-k-k. Especially happens on an incline/decline, like a driveway, in the morning. Doesn't seem to do it later in the day, after the brakes have been used.

I mentioned all this to the shop, had them keep the car for a while and test it, but they either couldn't reproduce it, or if they reproduced it they weren't sure what it was. I forget, exactly ... it was a few months ago.

After they gave it back to me, I noticed another problem. At low speeds (<10 mph), the ABS will sometimes kick in. Again, it seems to happen mostly when the brakes are cold, and after a few mins of driving it stops. It also seems to happen mostly as I'm turning, or on uneven surfaces or something. I haven't got the exact conditions figured out. The ABS light on the dash doesn't come on, but I'm pretty sure it's the ABS. It's a F-R-R-R-R-R-R-R sound, and the pedal shakes, and I lose braking effectiveness a little while it's activated.

Now, I've searched through old threads here on both these topics, and I'm familiarizing myself with what could be wrong (caliper pins of some type might need to be greased up for the clunking, and maybe the ABS sensor is dirty, etc), but what I'm wondering is, what the heck did the shop do up to bring about these problems in the first place? This is an old car, but it wasn't doing EITHER of these things before I got the brakes done. This started happening right after the new brake pads were put in. I'm open to the possibility that it's all a freak coincidence, I guess, but c'mon.

I can take the car back to the shop, but based on the last time, I don't have high hopes they'll figure it out. If I do take it back, is it reasonable to expect to have this stuff fixed for free?

Just wondering what could've gone wrong, when everything was working fine before.

 

The shop most certainly did something to your car. It's hard to say exactly what, perhaps they used the wrong brake pads, or the clips are not installed properly (the pads ride on the clips). It sounds like the pads themselves are binding up and are not able to move freely. This would certainly cause the ABS to kick in.

Tough call about taking the car back, I would hesitate because they buggered up the car in the first place. But it is reasonable for you to expect them to fix the problem for free, a brake job is very simple compared to most repairs/maintenance there is no reason they can't do it right the first time.

 

It sounds like the shop didn't tighten the lug nuts properly so you are now getting the craaaack noise. Loose the lug nuts, raise the car a little bit, hand-tight them and using the tire wrench, tighten them, in a criss-cross pattern, until they are snug.

 

I'd try taking it back to the shop again and speaking with the manager. Demand they fix it, or they pay for another repair shop competent enough to re-do the brake job. If that doesn't work, I suggest you have them give you a refund, at least for the labor.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try taking it back to the shop at some point.

I guess I could check the lug nuts too, wouldn't hurt. Although would they really stop making the clunking sound after warming up?

By the way, in the car's manual, it says that after the brakes are replaced, the system needs "bedding-down." Anyone know what that means and whether it might apply here? That might apply only to the drum brakes in the rear wheels, though. Although the manual says these are drum-in-disc brakes? WTF? Is that all four tires or just the rear?

 

Bedding in or bedding down just means the pads need to wear in to make the surface area of the pad contact the disc as much as possible. Before that happens, the brakes will still work but you will probably need a bit more pedal pressure. Loose lugs don't go away when things warm up. Check that for sure anyway, driving that way is very dangerous!

Your car has discs on all 4 wheels. The e-brake has mini brake shoes however, but those normally don't need to be serviced/replaced.

 

Don't just check to see if the lug nuts are tight. You have to loose and fasten them again properly (as described above). It may sound silly but it isn't.

 

well i can say i just changed my axle like two days ago and while changing it the driver side caliper fell apart and all the fluid fell out and after bleeding the brakes while almost coming to a complete stop the brakes would clunk and u could feel the car shake but it ended up being i had to bleed my brakes again and the problem stoppped

 

I'm having these exact issues with the ABS in my 93 ES300... Though it seemed to happen after I got my front right wheel bearing replaced...

My mechanic said it was the drivers front ABS solenoid he derived that through a diagnostic machine (which was as useful as burning money), So I replaced the "apparent" damaged pump with a working one and it still does it...

Prior to replacing the pump, All four channels seemed to work... I would assume they currently do.

I was thinking, Could it be the ABS computer itself? Or would my best bet be to attempt to re-seat and recalibrate the front calipers (even though I don't see how the calipers themselves would cause this kind of phenomena)

Did you end up fixing your issue???