here ya go

 

Man you never know which direction a thread is going to go! LOL, funny stuff.

Anyway, I almost hate to tell anyone what the noise was but here you go. I hadnt taken the wheel off when I looked at it last time as I was under the car inspecting the suspension. I took the wheel off today.....you know the two screws in the rotor that are always frozen and just about impossible to get loose? Well, they were both quite loose allowing the rotor to shift which made the metal to metal popping sound. Put some urea grease on them, tightened them....quiet. That freaking simple. Guess the guy who owned the car before me wanted to make SURE they didnt freeze up!

 

Some people run without those screws and don't get a popping noise. The clamping force of the lug nuts would prevent movement so maybe the real problem is or was loose lug nuts?
BTW some aftermarket rotors don't even have holes for those screws.

 

I have read that people run without them too. The lug nuts were torqued to specs, I checked them once as did the tire place I took it to earlier. I agree with what your saying but I could easily reproduce the sound before and now I cant. Maybe it will return, but I dont think so. The sound stopped when i hit the brakes and that would go along with this as well as that would stabilize the rotor. Perhaps if the screws were removed it would have been fine or if they were installed and tight it would be fine....but with them installed and lose it was an issue.

Should I just remove them all together instead of grease and tighten them?

 

I know you said itwas the rotor screws but,
did it make noise after you tightened down the sway bar mount?
seems weird that having those screws loose would cause a popping noise with the wheels torqued

 

I run without those screws, cause they always rust to shit and bind!!! :S

 

Yes. It made the noise after torquing the sway bar mount down. I drove about 10 more miles last night after tightening those stupid screws and it's quiet as can be. I can only assume the screw being so loose was spacing the wheel out leaving a tiny gap for the rotor to pop under a load. All I know is after 16 miles its quiet so far.

Agreed its weird, but this was the problem and solution. I didn't take the wheel off initially because it couldn't be something like this I told myself. It was though. Going to put it through the ringer today driving. I will repost if the problem returns but I don't think it will.

 

that makes sense about the wheelspacing.
good job man!