Hi all:

First time poster, long-time reader here (if you count three or four months long). Had a question that I think someone here might be able to shed some light on...

So, a few months back my relatively new Dakota (new to me at least - 2007 Dakota SLT Quad Cab, V8 4.7L) was showing a lot of brake dust on the front passenger tire rim, as opposed to on the driver's side. I took the tire and brake caliper off to get eyes on it, and lo and behold, I needed new front brakes already (about 45,000 mi). So I swapped out the pads and anti-rattle clips on both sides, new caliper grease everywhere it should be, and all was well. From what I could tell, there was nothing odd with the caliper, caliper bracket, or the rotor on that side. So I put everything back together, and the truck braked perfectly, which it still does.

Only thing is, about two weeks after I did this, I noticed an odd rattle coming from my front end while going over bumps, even small bumps at low speeds. It was definitely coming from somewhere on the front end, and the only time it doesn't occur when going over bumps, is when I'm braking. So of course I immediately thought, "hey, anti-rattle clips". I pulled both wheels and calipers off again, and the rattle clips were definitely still there, right where I had put them. Everything else was still looking great, so I made extra sure the pads and anti-rattle clips were seated properly, made extra sure the calipers were on perfectly straight, and put the wheels back on. I made sure to re-seat the pads, and gave it another test drive - the rattle was definitely still happening, and definitely not when braking. So I put the truck up on stands one more time, and gave the bottom of each wheel a good couple taps with a rubber mallet. As I suspected, the rattle is only coming from the front passenger wheel, and not the driver's side.

Any ideas on what I could be looking at here? Just from asking around, I'm hearing "bad caliper" a lot, but I'd appreciate any thoughts you guys have.

Thanks!



- Nick

 

The anti rattle clips help prevent brake squeal. I supect that your sway bar links maybe going out. Its a common issue with 3rd gens.

 

This, Ive had both mine go. Rattles over every bump (and the road to my work is SUPER bumpy from transports braking and wash boarding the hill.)

Not very expensive to fix. (I had both mine replaced by my Mech) since it was before I started to do alot of the work myself.

 

I didn't know that about the anti-rattle clips. I would've thought that the anti-rattle clips would, you know, prevent rattling of some kind.

Either way, that's good info, will try replacing the sway bar links. Will have to pull out my service manual, but are these links tough to swap out?

Thanks.

 

sway bar links are one of the easiest to replace. They are held in with 2 13 or 14 mm nuts. Take the nuts off, remove the link and replace. I would also check your outer tie rods while your at it.