I just installed a new set of rotors and pads on my xB. Now when I drive at highway speeds I notice a light metallic whirring noise. It is hard to describe. The first thing that popped into my mind was maybe the metal hubcentric rings I have were a little loose. I thought of that because the noise would get louder if I was turning the wheel going around a curve. The noise also seems to go away if I tap the brakes. I don't know exactly why.

Well I decided to retorque my lug nuts with a different wrench because the wrench I had been using was crap. I don't want to overtighten them, though. It did seem like tightening the lugs made the noise less pronounced, but it didn't make it go away completely. I'm iffy about overtightening the lug nuts because I did that once before on my Integra with a set of wheel locks and broke it off on the stud and had to have it drilled out ($$$). Is it possible I haven't tightened them enough to make the new rotors seat fully back on the hub?

The brake job was pretty much a no-brainer and I don't see how I could have done something wrong and have the brakes be making the noise. I think the hub rings might not fit back against the new rotors as well as they did with the factory ones. I'm really lost.

What do you all think? Is a little noise normal while the brakes are still new? Should I try some different (not metal) hub rings? Torque the lugs more? I'm really not sure what to do.

the pads are rubbing on the rotors. (pads and or rotors are to thick - the sound will go away once you wear them down enough).

if the wheels aren't HOT to the touch after a drive - give it 5 miles, it's not a huge deal.

Thanks.

Now, I have done quite a bit of driving since I put the rotors on. I drove about an hour last night, mostly freeway and the same again today. I haven't felt my wheels to see if they're hot but I have felt the rotors. They have been warm but not anymore so than I expected them to be. I figured if it was a break-in thing, it would have been finished by now.

not if the pads and rotors are both overly thick - which is going to have a LONG break-in. The rotors will always be hot/warm, that's just normal driving, but if they are dragging really bad, the heat wont have time to dissipitate and will make the wheels hot too. HOT.

My guess is that you're going to have to really wear on the pads to get them thinner.

the "whirring" noise is the giveaway to the noise from what you describe. If the hubcentric rings (which in your case aren't integrated, but seperate peices) were out of mount, yuo'd feel a slight vibration in the wheel as that slight amount of unbalance would be amplified (and felt) at freeway speeds - nor would they make any 'whirring' noise.

A quick test is to go ahead and take your wheels back off and see if you can slip a peice of natebook paper in between the pads and rotor - my guess is that you won't be able to. If you CAN, hold the paper there and spin the rotor around and see if the paper gets pinched at some point during the revolution, not likely, but the rotors may not be true and just a spot on it is rubbing - but you should able to see that on just sight as that spot will have more wear on it the other surface areas.

Great stuff. Thanks for all the info!

i had the same experience. pretty scary huh

Yes! I was all like "What did I do wrong?!"

I think I'll be taking some long drives this week to speed up the break-in process.