Ok, so remember at the track after the 3rd session, I said there was some sort of weird slight steering clunk? So I decided not to drive the rest of the day and just get the car home.
But on the way home, I had to make a stop in Davis first. It seems to drive fine on the highway but I could still hear an occasional slight knock beneath the floorboard. When I exited and stepped on the brakes, the brakes sounded awful, like a grinding sound. I didn’t think much of it because the freeway off ramp pavement was rough and I thought it was just tire/ road noise. As I was driving locally at low speeds in Davis, the knocking and clunking got worse! It seems to come from the front of the car and it didn’t necessarily correlate with speed or braking, it just happens randomly. So I jack up the car on one side and check as best I could and didn’t see anything funny.
I decided to drive all the way back to SF and luckily I made it without any problems. I did notice that anytime I braked hard, there was something wrong. Sounds like a grinding or scraping sound. And seems to clunk more after I step on the brake. So I’m thinking that I definitely overheated my pads at the track (Axxis Ultimates), and either cracked my pads, guide pin came loose, or sheared a guide pin.
Anyways, on Sunday, I got in there to take a look. The brakes look fine! Everything was in place, no loose parts, nothing broken. The pads seem fine, maybe one had a slight hairline crack in it. The rotors seem fine. Calipers and brackets seem fine.
Then I crawl under the front of the car and look at everything else. Last weekend, I replaced my front control arms, tie rods, and bushings. So I check those again and all the ball joints to make sure they’re tight. I checked the sway bar end links and mounting points, engine mounts, transmission mounts, X-brace. Seriously didn’t see anything wrong. The only thing I noticed is the foam insulation in the drivetrain tunnel is sagging more than before. And the driveshaft has a really clean spot where newly paint chipped off of it.
So right now I’m at a lose on what the problem is. I haven’t checked the rear of the car yet or the guibo. I was way too tired on Sunday to do anymore. So now the car sits in the garage and I’m driving the e30 this week.