I have a 2013 Civic that is making slight thumping noise only when slowly coming to the stop while braking. The noise increases and decreases with speed when braking. There is no noise when applying brakes during faster speeds or stopping fast. At least not detectible. Also I can't seem to figure out which wheel it's coming from no matter how hard I listen. Car has rotors in front and shoes in the rear. I did take all wheels off, inspected all the brakes, greased, cleaned, etc. All looks good. Also, I just had the car inspection done by the garage and told them to inspect all the brakes and see if they can figure out what makes the noise. Well, they said everything looks good and all brakes look good and told me that if I drive more the noise will eventually disappear since I bought the car from an older man who only drove it 2K-3K per year. After 1 weeks of driving, the noise is still there. The car has only 35K miles on it. Any suggestions as to what I should do? Keep on driving or replace rotors and pads? The noise is not scraping or squealing, it's some sort of slight "hump, hump, hump" that increases or decreases with speed when slightly applying brakes at lower speeds.
Well if it only makes it a low speeds and not high speeds either you have a tire or tires that are worn and out of round and they will thump. Or you have something worn like a tie rod or a ball joint that will thump at low speeds because you're going so slow. The tires aren't spinning at a fast ride so they don't have enough spinning energy to offset any slightly worn part so that it hire speeds. You won't hear it because there's so much energy spin in the wheels. A little thing off isn't going to make any noise
Thank you Scotty for finding time to answer (not sure how you can even find time being so busy making videos). Anyway, the thumping noise only occurs when applying brakes at low speeds, not while driving. When driving fast or slow there is no noise. No noise when making turns. Only during braking. I wonder if a "thumping" noise even a correct noise description (hard to explain noises). Perhaps a "grinding" noise with intervals (not constant) during slow braking, would be a better description. I guess, I'll live with it until it's time to replace brake pads and I'll just replace both, rotors and pads with Akebono ones.
noise only occurs when applying brakes at low speeds, not while driving.
How can both be true? Perhaps you mean it only occurs when you're driving at very slow speeds???
As Scotty suggested tires can make odd sounds at very slow speeds.
To clarify, when driving at high or low speeds without applying brakes (just driving), there is no noise. The noise occurs only when applying brakes at low speeds or coming to a stop slowly. If I push brakes hard doing a quick stop, I can't here any noise. The mechanic that did a car inspection few weeks ago said that I need to drive the car more and the noise will eventually go away since he couldn't find anything wrong with the car. Go figure 🙂
The noise occurs when you brake at low speed . The sound comes from underneath the wheel area(s)..
Can you be more specific like front or back, drivers side, passenger side?
I'm still trying to figure this out. I know it's coming from one of the wheels but I can't even tell whether it's front or back or which side. Might need to get one of those noise detectors that Scotty was taking about... I'm now thinking maybe it's one of the brake pads retainer springs that somehow makes this noise. I'm thinking to take them off and see if noise goes away.
A noise detector would be helpful. Might find 'another set of ears' useful. Have someone ride along and listen with you. This often is quite helpful.