2007 Prius making grinding sound after offroading

Now that you've got it up on jack stands under the rocker panels or some such kind of thing start the car up and put it in gear and make the wheels turn You don't have to try to drive a hundred miles an hour just barely touching the gas turn the steering wheel nothing can happen your drive wheels are in the air Make sure nobody's standing in front of the car what's happening now you can leave it in gear and actually get out of the car while the wheels are turning don't forget not to touch them and you can look right at the wheels while they're spinning The wheel bearings and the drive axles and all that see you're here anything out of character? How many miles are on your car 2007 should be around 200,000 it's about time in reality for wheel bearings I don't change them till they start groaning and I hear them regularly almost to the point where I've blocked it out and I don't change them because I don't hear it but I change them

 

Maybe "grinding" noise isn't the right word? As in both the exhaust shielding and dust cover plates next to the front disks are the biggest noise makers under a Prius but they make a rattling sound like tin metal, not a grinding sound.

 

As I do the wheel bearings on all the cars that come through here I remove the brake dust plates or the brake backing plates I don't use them so I have a whole stack of them here if anybody needs any before I throw them out there are also two different styles of these things I didn't know that I have pictures but they don't post but anyway there are two different styles of the front brake dust shield / backing plates I have both sitting right here they'll both bolt in place of each other I don't know why there's two different ones maybe one is pre 06 and one is post '06.

 

Isn't there some way to reinforce them so they aren't so noisy?

 

Yes you can tweak them the noise isn't the problem I just take them off it gives more airflow around the brake rotors. I guess I could also cut some out of the heavier gauge 10 or steel or even aluminum like that diamond plate sheet that type of thing maybe without the diamond plate but you get my drift but they don't seem to do anything I've never had any rocks or anything get caught in the brakes and I do a lot of that kind of driving so I just figured while I had the hubs apart delete them but it seems everybody wants them.

 

My left front has been rattling for more than 180K miles. It's one of those things that if you shake it, then it goes away for a while! Lol... Can't believe I put up with it for so long!

I wonder if I should cut them off with metal shears when I'm doing shocks and brakes next week?

I can see how they'd be valuable to have on salty roads but all we got out west is rain and rare snow when no one goes anywhere and no salt.

 

Up north in the salt those things just rushed right off and fall off before you do the brakes the first time which is a long time granted but they just get ate up yeah you can trim them off usually I just do it when I'm doing wheel bearings I'll have to bust them apart anyway but yes you could trim them and where you can't get your shears and can get your Dremel or whatever

 

Wheel bearings on these cars in the front are easy as all get out to do It even if you only have a half inch breaker bar it takes me about 55 minutes aside with the breaker bar and if I have the luxury of having my half inch drive DeWalt electric impact gun knocks off about 10 minutes The hardest thing is making sure you get your castle head steering nuts undone carefully and then to get the tapered shaft through the steering knuckle I you use a dead blow hammer on the outside of the aluminum the shock is what undoes the tapered shaft not beating on the threaded end of it with the nut on that's a no-no It's a very quick job delete your backing plates while you're doing this for those of you with backing plates that are rattling if you just roll the car up on ramps lay down on your back under the car and look at your backing plates grab them with your hand and gently bend them gently towards you if they bend real easy and almost fold over you know they're rusted and fubar you may be able to just bend them back and forth until the piece comes off and throw it into the trash Make sure you check the other side The backs don't give you any of this trouble it's only on the disc brakes.