Front Brake Pad Moves Around

[fire24resque]

I started noticing a "clunk clunk clunk" noise when driving at low speeds with my foot OFF the brake. I jacked the front up and spun the wheels by hand and noticed on the drivers side the front pad has a tad bit of side to side movement, maybe 1/32" and that is what is causing the clunk clunk of the wheel going around bouncing the pad side to side. My rotors are just beginning to warp so I think there is a high and low spot in them and as it rotates around it kicks the pad back and forth. The clips and slide pieces are installed properly and lubed up.

I'm going to either get the rotors cut or just replace them, however I'm assuming this isn't right that the pad has side to side movement like that - I don't want to put on new rotors and have the lose pads chew them up. (the pads are only 2 months old) Anyone else ever have this problem, or for some reason would this be somewhat normal and ok?

Second to all that, I was wondering if the caliper was hanging up. When I have the front end up I can free spin the wheel (with a little resistance) but it won't spin by itself, when I take my hands off it it comes to a stop, is this normal (being the whole 4x4 system up front it's turning some stuff inside) or is this a sign the caliper is hanging up, I don't remember before all this how tight it was to turn.

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by fire24resque

I started noticing a "clunk clunk clunk" noise when driving at low speeds with my foot OFF the brake. I jacked the front up and spun the wheels by hand and noticed on the drivers side the front pad has a tad bit of side to side movement, maybe 1/32" and that is what is causing the clunk clunk of the wheel going around bouncing the pad side to side. My rotors are just beginning to warp so I think there is a high and low spot in them and as it rotates around it kicks the pad back and forth. The clips and slide pieces are installed properly and lubed up.

I'm going to either get the rotors cut or just replace them, however I'm assuming this isn't right that the pad has side to side movement like that - I don't want to put on new rotors and have the lose pads chew them up. (the pads are only 2 months old) Anyone else ever have this problem, or for some reason would this be somewhat normal and ok?

Second to all that, I was wondering if the caliper was hanging up. When I have the front end up I can free spin the wheel (with a little resistance) but it won't spin by itself, when I take my hands off it it comes to a stop, is this normal (being the whole 4x4 system up front it's turning some stuff inside) or is this a sign the caliper is hanging up, I don't remember before all this how tight it was to turn.

this could very well be that the caliper pins /shoes are binding up which will cause the rotors to get damaged...you should be able to rotate the wheel with not much effort...using a C clamp push back the caliper piston/pads so they are not touching the rotor and see if its spinning ok....then with the cal. piston pushed back can you slide the cal , If it is very stiff and will not slide easy then you will need to remove all and correct....before installing new rotors....