Rubbing noise after installing new front struts

Brake pads dragging lightly and then they don't.

 

By making sure the slide pins and all of that business all of the brake hardware is not unsprung from heat and any of that all of that stuff in there and those in the pad holders are supposed to be chrome silver those little springy thingies need to be able to push up and down on the pad so you need to clean all that area spray it out real good some people every few hundred thousand miles use a Dremel with a wire wheel in there just to clean up all the crevices and you might catch it with the pressure washer and purple cleaner. And then once you put all that stuff back together with the new hardware I don't know if some of these cars have the outside v clips that help spread the pads when you're off the brakes are not some did some do not sure if you have that system you want to make sure those pieces are in place.

 

I could be way off base but sometimes my rotors will literally develop like a rust patina overnight and I’ll get a noise until it’s wore off (usually by the end of my driveway).

 

Yes this happens a lot in the Prius because if you break correctly and drive the Prius any kind of correct you'll almost never use your hydraulic brakes Even driving pretty smartly I mean it's just the way it is unless you're one of those guys that pounce on the brakes at the last minute or something I don't really play that too much and listen doing something crazy. So that is a thing usually I just clear that up like you say on the way down the driveway gun it going down the hill and get right into the hydraulics but not squeezing super tightly I'm just let it run that right off and that's that also changing rotors to something that was newer flatter and coated made a big difference The old rotors you know they were 200,000 miles or so on them slapping some new ones on made a huge difference it seems along with new pads and the hardware kit of course

 

So if this is what you believe then when the car is jacked up on one side at a time so like the left front you jack that up you have the left front at full droop except the sway bar is still connected so it's pushing down a little bit no matter now you take a long iron digging bar something that's not going to break and you put it under the tire or if the wheel is off the lower control arm and you lift up with that iron bar between the ground and where the lower control arm ball joint penetrates the aluminum hub assembly and you jog up and down on that nicely quietly at first and you're listening for anything that is moving while you are lifting up and down on that assembly You with that long bar you will even be able to compress the spring move the upper strut housing in bearing somewhat so on and so forth If you got a friend who can do the lifting and jiggling on the bar you can be right at the strut touching with the 3/8 drive six or eight inch extension through that when the suspension creeks are groans or clicks or pops it'll come through that extension that you're holding on the strut spring in different places on the strut metal and it'll amplify it through your hand this will help you find the nonsense that's moving compressing making metal noises rubbing what have you You just replace the struts I think so all of that should be relatively good where the struts connect to the rest of the suspension of those two big bolts through the hub assembly and the three upper strut mount studs that go through the chassis If you're in a heavy rust area you want to make sure you're strut towers are not rusted out that will allow the struts to flop around almost like they're not mounted but this wouldn't necessarily cause a scraping noise this would more likely cause some kind of a clunk clunk or a clicking if it was able to do it and catch a point where it would vibrate back and forth and do it constantly at speed what you were describing to me sounds like brake drag the rotor dragging through the pad anytime the front axles are moving usually forward.