Metallic front end rattle issue.

[EricM]

Hello all. I'm a new Raptor owner and was experiencing the front end rattle being discussed here. I live out in Boulder City, Nevada and lets just say I drive the truck very hard out in the desert. I've jumped it multiple times and need new tires after 6,000 miles. I recently noticed the rattle, and as noted by other folks, the sound just wasn't acceptable for such a nice truck. After going to multiple dealerships and other speed shops in town, it turns out the brake pad on the drivers side was loose and rattling as described above only on speed bumps, potholes, and washboard dirt roads. I had a technician remove the wheels, the brake calipers, the rotors, removed all heat shields and skid plates to check for loose rocks, and also replaced both sway bar end links (this wasn't necessary, but I didn't want to be given the runaround by the dealership). By process of elimination, it turned out the brake pads were loose. He removed them, cleaned, and adjusted the clips. Everything is good again!

One of the reasons I always do my own brakes. I bend the new anti-rattle clips so they are nice and tight, but not crazy tight. I also file the burrs left from stamping out the backplate on the pad ears - lots of quality pads have the ridges that catches on the clips. Pad slappers are likely to re-use the hardware and put in pads with big burrs on the ears. A $5 brake hardware kit and 5 minutes of the pad slapper's time (not spent) sent you chasing your tail to find the noise.