Rear Disc Conversion Is Squeaking!

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stackz

Junior Member
I did the rear disc conversion on my 98 ex coupe using the brakes off a 97 del sol...it's great but it squeaks like a mofo!!! I use WD-40 on the joints like every 4 days and it's too damn cold to have to keep putting it on there....any suggestions on a better fix (LONGER LASTING) than this??

Also, I had a four wheel alignment done and all but my rear tires are still pointing inward at the top and when I'm wandering around turns at low speeds I hear the "tire noise" that you hear on cars in the movies when they go around corners...is this bad?? maybe an effect of the tire angle??

help me sniffle...

-stackz
 
When you did the conversion did you keep the old rotos or did you buy new ones.

For the tires do you mean the chamber is off like if you look at the car from behind the wheels look like this, \ / or / \ (rough draqing but what else do you want me to do.) An alignment will not do anything. When they do the alignment without a chamber kit, all they can do is tell you what the chamber is. perfect chamber the wheels will be perfectly flat, any chamber the tires will point inward or outward, and you will lose out on braking and also have excess tire wear. I am guessing you loward your car? That happens when you lower it too much.
 
in the back all you gotta do is get some washers and eyeball it and that's your camber correction.... this only applies to the rear though... there will be this little arm connecting to the body hard to explain, but it's bolted on, just take it off and keep putting washers in and eye ball it till it looks straight, not very scientific but it's better than nothing.. but it only works if the top of the tire is pointing in towards the car. (i can't remember if that's pos of neg camber) but that's normally the way it squats when you lower... maybe you can try that.
 
and for the breaks, i dont think that putting something oilly is the best thing to put on breaks. When you put on breaks, make sure you spray break cleaner all over the rotors.
 
you gotta put on stop squeal... normally brake cleaner takes care of dust noise for a few days then it comes right back.. but it all depends though, but they make this goo called stop squeal, it works great
 
no no no no no....it's not the brakes themselves squeaking....

its the suspension squeaking (the bushings) whenever I go over bumps and stuff you can hear it go "creaking" I spray the bushings and it goes away for a while but then comes back...the brakes themselves are working just fine...

which position is it that I would need to add washers to in order to get my correct camber back?? are there actual camber kits for this as opposed to using washers??

my tires are pointed like this= / \

thanks for the help so far guys but here's what I was thinking about doing for the bushings but wanted to know if anyone else was having the squeaky suspension problem....I was thinking about tearing it back down one side at a time and removing the bushings and liberally coating them with axle grease or an equivalent and then reassembling it all...if the axle grease doesn't stop the squeaking I don't know what will....sigh...

also, how do you subscribe to threads on here so that you know when people post??

-stackz
 
if your looking at the car from the back and they are liike / (drivers side) and \ (pass side) that's the way they normally squat under a drop. you can straighten them out with washers, it sounds trashy but it's not harmful and it works.....

and the bushing is probally outta your rear trailing am, it's a bitch, real bitch to get out..... your most likely gonna need a press.
 
Ok first off. My stock bushings creak and stuff at times over bumps. It's normal. If you end up going to polyurethane bushings they will squeek even more. I would recommend using an anti-seize grease on them. Plus it makes it ALOT easier to press them in. As for your rear camber... Its is the UPPER CONTROL ARM that needs to be shimmed. Most aftermarket rear camber kits replace the whole rear upper control arms. Where the upper control arms meet the inner fender wells. There is 2 bolts. Put washers in behind those bolts to push your camber back out!
 
ok but why is my camber point like this / \ as I've got the stock ride height...all I did was swap out the rear drums for discs and then my tires started pointing in...

all the bushings themselves looked good on the trailing arms when I did the swap so I don't want to change them out...just keep them from creaking soo badly and so far the only idea I've heard from someone is anti sieze grease...

sigh..
 
with disk brakes the pades need to be lubricated on the back the part that touches the piston and the cradel a special disk brake lub is made for this the pad vibrates slighty against the caliper to produce the sqeak the cost is 3 bucks
 
Originally posted by stackz@Jan 13 2003, 04:27 PM
ok but why is my camber point like this / \ as I've got the stock ride height...all I did was swap out the rear drums for discs and then my tires started pointing in...

all the bushings themselves looked good on the trailing arms when I did the swap so I don't want to change them out...just keep them from creaking soo badly and so far the only idea I've heard from someone is anti sieze grease...

sigh..

Ok did you use the upper and lower control arms off of your car or the sol? Your camber could be like that because your upper control arms are shorter than the sol ones! Or visa versa on the lower control arms! Because the spindles are different from one another. I would get ahold of the sol control arms for that spindle. And use the anti-sieze grease
 
ok, I got some lithium grease from the parts store (couldn't find anti seize grease and the guys behind the counter gave me a blank stare)...it didn't work sigh hehe...well a little is gone but not much oh well I guess I'll have to tear it all out, grease it, then re-assemble...

knowledge...I just used the trailing arm from the del sol so that's probably the problem with my tire angle and also why I hear the tires chirping going into the corners......would getting one of those adjustable rear camber kits off eBay fix the problem??

like this one??

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...1876735982&rd=1

I don't want to use washers regardless and want something with more adjustability as I'm going to lower the car in the future...so would this work?? I have no idea how this attaches to the car though???

I bow before your "knowledge" thus far... :worthy:

-stackz
 
del sol si/vtec suspension is identical to 92-95 civic's
 
are your wheels like this / \
looking from the back (negative camber),
or from the top of the car (toe in)?

check your rear trailing arm bushings. make sure they aren't cracked, and that they don't have any flex in them. I would personally recommend the Mugen hard rubber rear trailing arm bushings, especially if you plan to lower the car from stock height. Also, strut braces and tie bars will help to stiffen the body with the greater spring rates associated with lowering the car. The bushings are about $100-$120 or so, and whatever a machine shop would charge you to press the old ones out, and the new ones in... you will not be able to wrench them in. The Neuspeed braces I have were like $90 for the upper rear strut tower brace, and like $70 for the rear lower tie bar. Combined with some tight (450 to 600 lb) springs, double-valved & adjustable struts, and those Mugen hard bushings, it's a whole new car. That's just my $0.02.

For tracking the thread, down near the bottom right of this table, directly above "add reply" is track this topic. May be in a different place depending on your browser. You can always search the page for it using search, as it is actually a text link. Hope that helps.

I would also recommend getting the blue stop squeal stuff. It must dry for 15-20 minutes to cure (the can says 5 min), and then you really should be extra careful driving for the first 15-20 stops from 60 mph. Take it easy on the brake, especially if you have ABS, otherwise it will wear right off before settling in and filling the gaps in your pads/rotors that tend to cause squeal. As always, be smart and don't let your pads wear down too low! Check them before and after hard drivin`.

If you're planning to do coilovers (which is the only logical suspension upgrade, IMO) you should do the camber adjustment kit. It's much easier to corner-weight and balance your chassis with the camber adjustment kit.... otherwise you have to lower and raise the spring perches to adjust camber. It makes it a lot easier to corner weight the car if you have at least the rear camber kits, if not all four... because then you can corner-weight the chassis, and then turn around and have a shop dial in the camber you want. I like my setup, -1.8 degrees front, -1.5 back, but it could be better balanced if I'd gotten the kits (see my www).
Oh... and alignment, corner-weighting, etc should be done with YOU IN THE CAR and at least a ½tank of petrol, always.

I don't know anything about the reliability of the kits, but I know that some are/were rumoured to fail under racing conditions. It's basically a plate, with two holes in it... one lets you slide the adjustment, and then bolt it down. The problem is metal fatigue, when you're pitching the car into hard cornering maneuvers. Things like the camber adjustment kit, I would think, become the weak point in your suspension geometry. Or I could just be misinformed. I might look into getting that upper control arm thingy first, and then, when you're doing your lowering, do camber kits on both the rears, or all the way around. At least ask someone who has some autocross or road racing experience what camber adjustment kit to go with. The guys at suspension shops are on commission.... try to keep that in mind when taking advice from "tuners".

Feel free to IM or email me, and check out my www. :werd:
 
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