At slow speeds once in awhile i hear this grinding, metal on metal noise coming from the back of my car. It happens sporadically and everytime i look at it i can't seem to figure out if something is loose and rubbing against some moving part or what. It's almost like the sound when you have almost no brake pad left but that can't be it. Anyone else have any ideas on what it might be? Blown strut maybe?

 

Could be your wheel bearings.

 

It could be your brake rotors scorned by worn out rear brake pads. I'd take a look at the insides and outsides of the rotors.

 

+1 on both of those. i would say wheel bearing 1st since it happens when turning only. are you still running stock wheels?

 

no i'm running volk ce28ns

i'll check it out after work today, thanks for the responses

 

what size wheel and tire? big enough to cause rubbing?

 

yeah they'll rub my fenders on extreme turns, could that be it? seems weird coming from the back though

running 245/40/18

edit: it wasn't doing it this morning, its very sporadic

 

could be it, they usually rub more in the rear than the front. but i don't think that size tire would cause any rubbing unless you have an extreme drop(even then, not likely). what offset are the wheels? what lowering do you have? the more info i hear, the more i think it's a bad bearing. jack the car up, spin the wheel to see if it spins freely(no binding/noise), pull in and out on the wheel to check for play, and check the hub to see if there is any apparent signs like metal shavings. is this both sides or only one?

 

it sounds like the passenger rear

i'm pretty certain the offset is a +30 and i got tanabe gf210 springs

 

not rubbing then, check the bearing. i think that's your problem.

 

actually alot of cars with brembos or other type of similar brake systems make this noise .. when you drive slow and when you start to hear it tap on ur brake.. normally metal to metal isnt the sound of bearings.. more a hum for bearings.. but just try that out when you hear the noise.. its normal for our cars that are equiped with race inspired brake systems..

 

variable backpressure valve on the stock exhaust?

 

spinning the wheels freely made no sounds, i don't think its a normal sound though. I'm putting new brake pads on this weekend with ome friends so we'll thoroughly check it then. Thanks for the replies again.

 

You know it's funny I saw this post this morning... My wife's Jetta was making the same noise last night. I thought it was something we dragged, but nothing. Then I was thinking the brakes/rotors are fucted... But the brakes are fine... did some runs and hard braking.. no noise. But as soon as we slow down to park, I can hear grinding coming from the rear pass side, without stepping on the brakes.

Checked everywhere to see if I could see anything out of the ordinary. The brake rotors looked ok and still couldn't see anything even in the wheel well. So last guess would be the bearings. She does have 78K on the car, so I'm thinking they are about done.

Is your car new? Hopefully they cover that under warranty. Good luck!