Knocking Noise

Freelander 3 door..
I'm hoping this is something I've done, rather than an expensive repair job.
Searching the forum for noises has scared me silly....ird, diff, prop shaft etc.

Bear with me as I explain.
My front brakes were squeeling so I had a look with the help of Haynes manual and Rave. Apparently there is an inner and outer brake pad, and must be fitted correctly. The leading edge of the pads have chamfers on them, and they differ somewhat.
On inspection, I find no chamfers at all.....but plenty of life left in the pads, although obviously not land rover original pads.
What I do find is some sort of rubber pad (for want of a better description) attached to the rear of the pads, and these have perished to the point of doing sweet F all, except get in the way when trying to refit the pads.....I pulled them off!

So....I've got rid of the offending perished backing to the pads. I put a chamfer on the leading edges of the pads, apply copper grease to the spring retainers and rear of the pads, and the squeel has gone.
Great, that's sorted.

Test drive....and I hear a knocking noise.
It's difficult to describe. It's not loud, not noticeable over the engine noise until slowing down. A definate knocking/ticking noise. Best heard if I go out of gear and coast to a standstill. Definately speed related, as the knocks slow down in frequency as the speed reduces.

Funny thing is...I heard it once on a test drive after the the brake problem and nothing for a week. Now it is there all the time.

I've just found this....LINK.....it explains what I already knew about fitting the pads correctly, but as a footnote it says...NOTE: Front brake pads must not be fitted to the vehicle if the anti-squeal shim bonded to the rear of the brake pad has become loose or detached.

It doesn't say why!

Has anyone any experience of this? Is this the cause of the noise?
Am I barking up the wrong tree?

HowStuffWorks "How Brake Shims Work"

It will probably be nothing more than the back of pad knocking against the caliper as the disk revolves and moves the pad slightly.

Thanks for the link freebiker.
I'm hoping that's the problem and will report back when sorted.

just don't fit any shims between the pad and disc like the muppet in the article suggests.

I said I'd report back when sorted....but wish it was better news.
New pads made no difference.
I've had to run it for the last few weeks for daily hospital visits and the noise gradualy got worse. On full lock it's a definate clonking, and extrememy tight as though braking. On loose gravel the back wheel kicks up gravel.
My local garage says the VCU is shot and taken the IRD with it!
£1,000 to fix it.:doh:

Allnick said:

I said I'd report back when sorted....but wish it was better news.
New pads made no difference.
I've had to run it for the last few weeks for daily hospital visits and the noise gradualy got worse. On full lock it's a definate clonking, and extrememy tight as though braking. On loose gravel the back wheel kicks up gravel.
My local garage says the VCU is shot and taken the IRD with it!
£1,000 to fix it.:doh:

Click to expand...

Might be worth doing the tippex test for the VCU.

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/1015222-post3.html

Look in the common faults section. There is a VCU test "how to"

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but it's gone beyond testing now.
Popped to the local supermarket this evening and on the way back it gave a massive bang and the whole car shuck as I turned into our street.
It's definately as though the gearing in the drive has gone.
Reversing on to the drive was a struggle.

It looks like it'll need to be trailered to the garage tomorrow. It's definately not driveable.
I'm not happy.:doh:

Just goes to prove - regular VCU checks should be a regular maintenance item.

The problem being that no one seems to agree as to what is a reliable VCU check!
Reading the forum, there are so many different opinions.
The tippex test doesn't make any sense at all to me.

Green Flag trailered mi car to the garage this morning.........

Do you understand how a vcu works? The tippex test just shows whether the rear of the vcu is revolving at a different rate to the front - ie not siezed (like yours is) it doesnt show if it has failed with no drive (but tgat wont screw your transmission).
The important thing is that it is a simple test that can be carried out regularly at no cost. The torque test is slightly more involved, but without quantify-able figures will only give comparative figures.
The more peeps do the latter test and publish figures, the more meaningfull the results will be.
Pity you didnt do either test - now yu got an IRD to replace. Maybe doing the free tippex test might have been a good idea?

I hear what you are saying and will certainly do the free tippex test at regular intervals in future.
However, there was no indication of a problem until the knocking noise appeared....at which point the damage was done.

This is my first Freelander, and it's a learning curve.....an expensive one at that!