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Last year at this time, the car (1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX) didn't make any bad noises. :-) Then in the Summer, the left rear wheel bearing failed and turned into a really big deal. When I finally got the car back in January (with a new axle and upright), it would make an occasional very light scraping sound under hard cornering.

A couple weeks later the left rear brake caliper seized. After rebuilding that, I didn't hear the scraping sound at all.

Then I took it in for an alignment only to find that the rear eccentric bolts were seized up. I cut those out and replaced the arms. At the same time I replaced the rally computer sensor magnets that got removed during the wheel bearing work.

Ever since then the car makes a horrendously loud scraping sound at anything over a walking pace. Pushing the car around it can't be heard. No sound when turning wheels by hand. However, as soon as I get past walking pace, it goes from quiet to GRUNCH ... GRUNCH ... GRUNCH at about the speed you'd expect from say, a brake rotor rubbing on a dust shield. So far, even after running the car around for awhile listening to that horrible noise, I can't locate the source. Nothing gets warm. I can't find anything that's showing any signs of scraping.

I'm at a loss. Suggestions?

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It ended up being the one dust shield, just like what the sound indicated. Apparently a small ding on the backside, right at the "corner" was touching the rotor. I went all around between the rotor and dust shield, on the corner that had the most work done recently, with a screwdriver and a hammer. That did the trick. Just a hint of scraping on hard right turns, otherwise fine. Next brake service I'll see if I can get a new dust shield to slip in there.

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  • Scraping on hard turns is bothering me. It should all move together, I'd think ... You may want to check to see if you have the hub on there in good shape.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Apr 4, 2014 at 23:28
  • Seems to be fine. It's actually a brand new wheel bearing, but even a new wheel bearing will allow for some slight deflection under heavy load. These dust shields are extremely tight fitting to begin with, apparently doesn't take much of a ding in one to eat up the gap...
    – Brian Knoblauch
    Apr 5, 2014 at 12:53
  • I think, I might have the same issue, a noise that's as frequent as the rotation of the wheels. Were you able to do this without taking apart the the tire?
    – blueseal
    Apr 19, 2021 at 20:58
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    @blueseal Well, I had to take the wheel off the car to get at the dust shield... Removing the rotor too makes it easier to get at the dust shield too, but I didn't have to do that.
    – Brian Knoblauch
    Apr 20, 2021 at 21:35

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