Front wheel spin on neutral

ariesdude · Post by **ariesdude** » March 12th, 2006, 3:01 pm

I put my car on jacks and tried to spin the wheel (ATX in "N" position) and it is really hard to even move the wheel - almost impossible to spin it in reverse (not reverse gear). gut feeling and previous experience (different car) tell me its not normal - is this normal for our cars? Maybe its brake/transmission inspection time...

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » March 13th, 2006, 12:02 am

Wish I had seen this post earlier.. I could have checked my RS while it was up on stands today :S

Tunes67

ariesdude · Post by **ariesdude** » March 13th, 2006, 4:41 am

No probs man - sombone on the forum must have tried this out of curiosity before ....
In my previous car i can spin the wheel and it will keep spinning for a while - thats how smooth it was - and it was a 90 nissan stanza that had seen some abuse too.

happyclown · Post by **happyclown** » March 13th, 2006, 10:31 pm

mines a manual, but when its up i can spin the wheel. On my other car its really hard to, but its very obviously bad breaks rubbing. I'd say something is up. Maybe breaks, tranny, axel, somethin else... i dunno...

Try turnin the car on in neutral (will an auto start in N? if not put it in N right after start) and step out and look at the wheel, does it spin at all?

I was helpin a friend on his car (manual) and with one tire in the air he started it in neutral to let it run for a bit and the axel started spinnning. Very slowly and you could stop it with you hand, but it was spinnin.

Dunno if all that helps you, but as far as I know you should be able to spin the tires, the less resistance the better. It would improve gas mielage to find the problem.

ariesdude · Post by **ariesdude** » March 13th, 2006, 11:13 pm

Thanks for the info happy... I was planning on getting the brakes checked out soon - but i will try out your suggestion of starting the car in neutral before that. But if the wheels do start spinning (with the engine) in neutral - does that mean bad tranny/clutch/bands?

ariesdude · Post by **ariesdude** » March 14th, 2006, 12:28 am

Also in case the brake pads are on too tight against the disc plate - is there an easy way to loosen them? I looked at online manual page p-32 to p-35 - there doesnt seem to be any adjustment bolts down there....

happyclown · Post by **happyclown** » March 14th, 2006, 11:50 am

But if the wheels do start spinning (with the engine) in neutral - does that mean bad tranny/clutch/bands?

That was my thought! If it does not spin than there should be nothin wrong with the tranny what not.

You said that you could spin them, but it was very hard. Does it get easy in spots? My though there would be uneven wear in the rotor. Maybe you need to get your discs resurfaced or replaced.

As far as giving more room between the pad and disc, I dont know how that could be done. When I was workin on my breaks everything was so rusty I bearly get the pads to move at all... I would say grease the sliders real good, maybe sand them to get any rust off. There is a superpaperclip lookin thing that kinda seperates the pads... maybe that really does do something and yours are missing? I almost didnt put mine back on cause they looked so useless.

Good luck!