Grinding noise when driving at slow speed and not braking

dqniel

Member
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2011 Mazda2 Touring 5-spd (Green)
I have a manual transmission 2011 Mazda2 Touring with ~26k miles. About 80-85% of the miles are highway. I'm a very light driver on both the acceleration and the braking (have averaged about 38MPG over the life of the vehicle).

Just this morning, at low speed I hear a grinding noise that seems to be coming from the rear right wheel. I noticed it when driving out of my driveway at less than 5 mph. The grinding reminded me of the noise the brakes on a bike would make if your wheel was bent and it only rubbed once the wheel rotated to a certain position. So, while driving slowly my car would grind for a moment, go silent, then grind for a moment, seemingly in sync with the rotation of the wheels. That's just an educated guess.

There was no noticeable change in braking ability.
There is no high-pitched squeal while driving or braking.
There is no grinding noise when driving at higher speed.
There is no grinding noise when braking.

I recently had the oil changed, perhaps a month and 1k miles ago, and the dealership did its "full circle inspection" or whatever it's called. They wrote that the brake system looked fine.

What do you guys think it is? Is it possible that something from the road got kicked up and stuck in the brakes? I plan on taking it to the dealership ASAP (as it's under warranty) but I would like to have a bit of knowledge on the subject before I talk to them about it. Thanks for your help.
 
1. Pull the wheel off and rotate the drum is there any resistance (If no it may be out of adjustment
2. If so go to step three
3. Jack the back up and spin the wheel and see if noise is still there. Grab the spring with the wheel spinning and see if you can feel that noise (hard to type)
 
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I took it to the dealer to have them look at it. Some sort of foreign object was in the brake drum. It looked like 12" long, 1/4" wide or so piece of sheet metal got wound into a cylinder shape inside the drum. They took it out and the noise is gone. I asked if it was possible that it caused some damage to the braking system and they said nothing looked damaged.

Odd, but I'm happy that the noise is gone and I didn't get charged anything for the visit. Thanks for your help, MazTek.
 

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