The other day, I pulled into an RV park, set up my trailer and unhooked from my truck. Since it was still early in the day, I decided to go exploring. The campground was down a half mile dirt road, so I had to go back down the road to get to the two lane paved road leading to town.
As soon as I pulled out onto the paved road, my truck started making a screeching noise. I had not gotten up to any speed yet, so I stopped and then started up again. It still screeched - sounding like metal dragging on metal. A noise worse than fingernails on a blackboard! I pulled to the side of the road and decided I didn't want drive any more since whatever it was, it was most likely doing damage. So, I called my roadside assistance and they sent a flatbed truck to tow me to a fixit shop down the road about 12 miles.
After my truck was unloaded at the shop, a mechanic got in to drive it and check it out. He backed out of the lot and took it around the block. When he got back, he told me he didn't hear a thing. Oh, sure, the old story about mechanical things not making the noise when the mechanic is there to check it out!
He put the truck on the lift to check the wheels - bearings, brakes, tie rods and whatever else is in the area of the wheels. He couldn't find anything. Then he told me what it most likely was - and showed me how it could happen. He said that since I had gone down a dirt/gravel road just before the incident, it was most likely a stone that got picked up and wedged in between the disc part of the brake and the housing. He checked my brake discs and said that they didn't look damaged. He said that it's more common than you'd think, he even had it happen to his own truck going down the interstate. The cure for it is to back up for a short way and the stone should dislodge. Then I remembered that he backed out of the lot to test it out.
Since that day, I have put quite a few miles on the truck, even towing my 5th wheel a short way. I have not heard any noise! I am SO glad that nothing was mechanically wrong, since he told me that if it had been a bearing, the fix would have cost about $500! I had no idea that truck bearings would be so expensive!
If this happen again, you can be sure I'll back up a short way to see if that cures the noise!
Meanwhile, here are a couple photos from my walk down to the Elephant Butte Lake this morning - after two days of rain, lightning and thunder.
This is not that uncommon. Because of the close tolerances of the brake pad to the rotor, even a small stone could cause this. The rotor is made from a solid casting and will ring like a bell which accounts for the loud screech. The jar of the wheel going up the tow truck bed probably dislodged the stone.
ReplyDeleteYou're right -the area he showed where the stone would lodge was tiny! I had never heard of it, and I assumed other people had not heard of it, so I wanted to let people know - at least as many as I could reach. Every little bit of knowledge helps, and you can be sure I'll never forget this!
DeleteThanks for sharing, Betty.That was nice of you to go to that effort and expense. I never would have known about that, either.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! I have learned lots of things about vehicles by having funny noises and breakdowns throughout my life - and then questioning the mechanics about things. This was one of the strangest!
DeleteCool, and I thought you were going to tell us all you needed was power steering fluid! lol Check yer fluids too!
ReplyDeleteHA! No fluid problem - I learned a LONG time ago about fluid levels and air in the tires, etc...... This was something I had never heard before, and VERY loud and shrill. Not even belts sound that bad!
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