Front Brake Rotor Replaced; clunking gone!

[catiadan]

A mystery I had about the infamous clunking from day one of my 2004 FJR was solved yesterday. The right front rotor was really getting sloppy and I replaced it along with new brake pads. The clunking I had experienced from day one is gone! :yahoo:

 

[Scab]

How many miles did that tortue the crap out of you?

 

[AdamJ]

LOL for a minute I thought you had an '06, had to check your profile... The 06's all seem to clunk, either from the rotors or pads, not sure since I haven't put an ear down by the forks while someone else 'clunks' it.

 

[catiadan]

I have 21k miles on it and the bad rotor had to be floating at least .06 of an inch.....it just had gotten worse with time, but initially it had that clunk but I thought they ALL had that and was the nature of the beast. The left rotor has been snug from day one so with a snug new right rotor the clunk is gone. Bottom line, if you can feel movement in a radial direction, you will be transmitting that clicking sound into a clunk through the forks, etc up to your ears. I believe the steering head being a little loose will transmit a similar clunk which I also had experienced 15k miles ago so I am convinced now we can ride these babies clunk free. The noise didn't really bother me so much, but have a rotor as loose as mine was presented a safety concern should it get so loose as to come apart. That would not be fun.

 

[leebunyard]

My '04 FJR developed a similar clunking sound at about the 5000 mile point, noticeable whenever I hit a slight bump at low speed. Turned out to be a loose outer ring on the right front rotor. Loose enough that I could turn the rivets with my fingers and there was forward, backwards and slight sideways movement of the outer ring. The rotors on the FJR are not full floaters, they are semi-floaters and the outer rings should have zero movement. When I took the bike in to a Yamaha shop, the service manager first tried to tell me that the movement was normal, that the rotor would "tighten up" as I rode it. I told him that was BS, there was no way those rivets that I could turn with my fingers were going to tighten up as I rode the bike. He replaced the rotor under warranty. As an addendum to this problem, about a week after I picked up the bike with the replaced rotor, I discovered that the right caliper unit was loose, the bolts holding the caliper in place were about 1/3 of the way backed out--the tech who put on the new rotor had failed to lock-tite the caliper bolts. The service manager said he was surprised because the rotor warranty work was done by his senior tech, who should have known to lock-tite the caliper bolts. They fixed the problem immediately, altho I'm not sure I'll ever have them do any other service work for me. Not if I have to recheck everything thoroughly afterwards.

I make it a practice to check all the brake rotors for tightness when I do an oil and filter change.

Lee in the Mountains of Northern California B)

 

[Scab]

What were the static symptoms that the rest of us can inspect? I notice leebunyard, you said the rotor rivets could be rotated. Is there anything else? Could you feel any movement in the actual rotor? I am not currently experiencing any problems, but I want to add this to my inspections.

 

[Geezer]

Sounds to me that he not only 'forgot' the loc-tite but also forgot to put the wrench on those bolts at all. Too bad decent service is so hard to find.

 

[catiadan]

My '04 FJR developed a similar clunking sound at about the 5000 mile point, noticeable whenever I hit a slight bump at low speed. Turned out to be a loose outer ring on the right front rotor. Loose enough that I could turn the rivets with my fingers and there was forward, backwards and slight sideways movement of the outer ring. The rotors on the FJR are not full floaters, they are semi-floaters and the outer rings should have zero movement. When I took the bike in to a Yamaha shop, the service manager first tried to tell me that the movement was normal, that the rotor would "tighten up" as I rode it. I told him that was BS, there was no way those rivets that I could turn with my fingers were going to tighten up as I rode the bike. He replaced the rotor under warranty. As an addendum to this problem, about a week after I picked up the bike with the replaced rotor, I discovered that the right caliper unit was loose, the bolts holding the caliper in place were about 1/3 of the way backed out--the tech who put on the new rotor had failed to lock-tite the caliper bolts. The service manager said he was surprised because the rotor warranty work was done by his senior tech, who should have known to lock-tite the caliper bolts. They fixed the problem immediately, altho I'm not sure I'll ever have them do any other service work for me. Not if I have to recheck everything thoroughly afterwards.I make it a practice to check all the brake rotors for tightness when I do an oil and filter change.

Lee in the Mountains of Northern California B)

Caliper bolts do not require loc tite, just the rotor to hub fasteners. They obviously did not tighten or properly torque those bolts. The rivets should not be loose....mine were WAY loose!

 

[leebunyard]

What were the static symptoms that the rest of us can inspect? I notice leebunyard, you said the rotor rivets could be rotated. Is there anything else? Could you feel any movement in the actual rotor? I am not currently experiencing any problems, but I want to add this to my inspections.

I also said that the outer rotor ring could be moved backwards and forward and slightly sideways, due to the loose rivets. Just grab the outer ring with your hand--if you can move it, there's a problem.

Lee in the Mountains of Northern California B)