My 170 will occaisionally emit a rubbing sound from the NSF of the car, its similar to the noise I had on the FRP when the NS caliper squeezed the disc on full lock. However this only occurs sporadically in the 170 and not necessarily on lock, possibly a sticking caliper but she brakes straight an true everytime. Any ideas please?
I was thinking maybe an ARB component or similar...

Thanks

 

Is your ST170 lowered? And when does it make the noise, under hard cornering?

 

Can't remember if they have metal backing plates for the discs on the front or not. If they do, could be worth checking its not been bent a bit and is catching.

 

Thanks for the replies,its not lowered (not that Im aware of anyway ) I have checked to see if anything rubs but it doesnt necessarily happen when on lock, I reckon its the caliper sticking as its wheel rotational related. It will also happen in reverse, similar sort of rubbing noise to rust build up on the discs after washing the car.
Its going in for a cat replacement next week so I will get it checked out then.

 

Rich might be on to something, when i changed the front wishbones on my ST170 i acidentally bent the metal dust cover that protects the bottom ball joint and this ended up rubbing the disk and took me ages to find!!

 

Yeah its easily done, I've done it before!

 

Ok fellas I will check it out this morning, thanks.

 

FYI

Right, my 1.8 zetec started doing the same thing also. Took it for an MOT yesterday and they had to replace a worn droplink bar (from the anti roll bar down) NSF.
The car came back from the garage and is now quiet again. With this in mind I removed the NSF wheel on the 170 to find my droplink bar rubbers had also perished, problem sorted. I have purchased and fitted a new pair and the noise has gone

 

Drop links clunk and knock when they go, they definately do not rub?

 

Thats what I thought, my droplinks went on the ST200 and knocked, the noise Im trying to describe was more like a groan rather than rubbing the sort of noise a knackerd shock can make. Apologies my initial post was misleading, I had narrowed the causality down to parking on a slope and turning right. Like I said it was intermittent not as you would expect from a droplink especially when travelling over bumps, I would of picked that up straight away mate.

 

My st170 has started to make a similar noise since i had new discs and pads fitted. Still doing it after 500 mile run in too but can't find any marks on the discs!

 

Sure its not the flimsy metal backing plate catching the disc?

 

I would have thought that would have made a mark on the disc if it was scraping it. No marks on mine,gonna paint brake calipers and front shockers for FordFair so will have another look when i do that. Thanx for advise though mate...