Hey everyone, new guy here.


I've been having an annoying issue with my 2008 Fit (Jazz here in Europe). It's on the tail end of the GD series (*edit: GD1).


The car started to make a scraping noise only when turning left (no noise or shimmies when driving straight or turning right) about 5 months ago. I didn't have a lot of time back then as I started a new job and moved to a different city and therefore ended up trying to ignore it.


First assumption after that was the brake rotor splash guards rubbing. Checked and rechecked and no dice (*Edited). No rub marks and loads of clearance everywhere.

Afterwards we took the car to a mechanic (again, time or lack thereof factor), thinking it might be the wheel bearings (car has about 125k km (~78000 Miles) on it and the bearings have never been done). He said he couldn't find a problem, all the bearings were fine. I've checked for play in the front myself and found none of note. :/


So I figured maybe the old rusty front rotors (with nice rust lips) are probably rubbing on the pad backing. Due to the nature of the noise (higher metallic scraping) this seemed to be the obvious choice.


I just finished swapping out pads and rotors up front (rears are less that 30k km old), and lo and behold the noise is still there. Same noise. The only difference I noticed was that there was a very light squeak when turning slightly left, that seemed to disappear after a few minutes of driving. I guess the top edge of the pad rubbing on the fresh rotor.

Looking at the old pads I could clearly see the rust lips on the rotors had been rubbing on not only the top edge of the (couple of mm!!) pad material but on the right side also on the pads backing. Success, I thought.


But as I said the noise continues. Any thoughts?


PS: more on the noise itself: sounds very much like the brake rotor rubbing on the rotor splash guards. No clunks, knocks, or anything like that. Like a grinder at low rpm hitting a piece of thin steel, at one point per rotation (maybe a little bit lower, in terms of pitch). I'm stumped, and hoping that someone else has had the same experience or at least has some idea as to what it could be. Something of note is that the noise started after I was goofing around in a gravel parking lot (little burn out but hit a pot hole full of water) before this all started.

Oh, and all the CV boots are in good shape. *Edited

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

 

I guess everyone is as stumped as I am. Another weird thing to add: the noise also disappears when you get closer to full lock left. What the hell is this?

 

So I jacked up the car and spun the front left wheel around at various turning positions. No noise of note aside from a light click when changing spin direction. Can only assume that this is the small amount of play in the CV/differential (on that note I should mention all CV boots are looking good and there is no noteworthy play on either side.. a little blown away by this, but they don't salt the roads over here so that probably helps). Mind you the car was completely cold. Will try again after a drive.

Before that I also double checked that the splash guard on the back left wheel wasn't rubbing and that no stones were stuck anywhere they shouldn't be.

Don't know if anyone is or was tuned in to this thread but I will try to keep it updated with my findings in case a similar problem should crop up for someone.

 

Hi there, I have the same noise with my 07 fit. Just wondering if you had any further luck with diagnosis
I am wondering if the plastic wheel well is rubbing ? Like you mine is only on the front left and occasionally makes rubbing noise when moderately turning (not cranked)

 

Hi. Unfortunately I have yet to be able to diagnose the problem. Haven't had a lot of time in the past months and since it only occurs when the brakes are warm and while turning, and aside from that hasn't gotten any worse, I've been ignoring it. My next step when time allows will be to look at the rear brakes a little more thoroughly. I wish it were just as simple as the wheel well shrouds rubbing. :/ Please let me know if you find anything on your end.

 

Your inside brake pads are overhanging into the rotor hat area.
The severe case is shown here https://www.lotustalk.com/attachment...9-jpg.1200346/

 

So after months of just ignoring the noise, the front right headlight bulb burned out.

Instead of screwing around with the wheel well/blind swap thing I pulled the bumper and replaced all the headlight bulbs.
After I had finished I noticed a golf ball sized stone on the floor of the garage. It had some polish marks on it. I thought, what the hell, go for a test drive.

Noise is gone. No idea where it was rubbing or on what, but who cares.

Thanks for the ideas.

Edit: btw, this is the second large(ish) stone I've gotten out of the front end of this car. I guess this model has some nice hollow spots that are easy access.