Brakes ‘rumble’ and smell easily

[jsilva]

I installed Corksport’s front brake pads a while back and am having some issues.

1. As the car warms up from driving, applying the brakes will develop a low-pitched rumble. There is no vibration felt in the steering wheel although you can sort of feel vibration in the car itself.

2. If I stop hard for as little as 4 seconds, I’ll often smell the brakes.

A couple of times I’ve taken out the pads (which look fine), lightly regreased contact points, and retracted the piston. The brakes feel smooth and nice for about 10 minutes, but eventually the rumbling returns.

Any ideas?

 

[jsmith]

Have you tried bleeding the lines?

 

[jsilva]

Have you tried bleeding the lines?

I haven’t, but when I was searching about this issue the closest I found was someone describing a rumble and the cause was the brakes dragging once they heated up (although theirs was rumbling when just driving as where mine is only when braking). So I was considering bleeding, and I just bought a bleeder tool for the clutch on another car so it’ll be even easier I’ll give it a try.

 

[jsilva]

Seems like new Mazda rotors fixed the issue. I’m surprised about that since I felt no vibration in the steering wheel at all. But the brakes are now smooth and no rumble. They feel great!