oh, and out of curiosity. neighbor had HORRIBLE noise coming out of his WRX front wheel. he thought car's dead and he is looking at major repairs. other neighbor found that he simply had rock stuck between dust shield and rotor. took screwdriver and poked it out.

 

Wow, I'm not sure how to take this.

1. Yes, a hunch. No, I didn't do a bearing check - I used a bit of deductive reasoning. I pictured in my mind what would be different with the wheels a degree to the left, vs centered, vs to the right. I knew that I would be taking a gamble, and it paid off. I never claimed to be a mechanic. Why? Because I'm a computer programmer, not a mechanic. But I'm not a programmer who makes enough money to pay someone to work on my car if it is something I can do, because I'm fairly new at it, because after 10 years as a paramedic - a job that can rob you of your mind, and led me to a suicide attempt - I decided to go back to the computers that I loved as a kid. I used to build cars on an assembly line, and I have rebuilt a few engines when helping my dad as a kid, and I have done a lot of my own work. But the major work I've done was more than two decades ago, when it was still possible to do most everything yourself.

2. I've had a bad bearing before, and changed it. Just not on a modern, Japanese car. It was on a 90s Chrysler minivan. I've heard at least one noise it can make, and now I've heard two.

3. When there is no regenerative braking, and you're used to having it, the brake pedal IS going to feel different, because you're going to have to push far enough for the pads to engage, rather than just far enough to engage whatever sensor they use to signal the motor to reverse and become a generator (first place in the state of Indiana in 1986 in a competition among high school students, in Industrial Electronics - I know how motors and generators work. Oh, and in the Navy, I was a nuclear power plant operator on a submarine - more generators and motors). When the regenerative braking started working again, yes, the brake pedal DID go back to feeling "normal" because now the car was slowing as I was used to it. What this taught me is that the regenerative braking actually does a LOT more than I had thought it did. If you don't think the lack of regenerative braking will make a difference in how the brake pedal feels as you stop, then you haven't tried it.

4. Of course the ABS sensor was removed - it would have needed a really long cable when I took the hub assembly to the shop to have the bearing pressed out/in otherwise. My mode of transport is one that I would never have thought of had I not seen it more than a decade ago while working in the Honda Service Center (at the Honda plant, not a dealership) when the mechanics working on an employee's car had to move it with no other way to move it. They had a better jack than I had, though, so their job of moving it was much easier than mine.

5. Creative? Yes. When you can't afford to have someone who knows what they're doing fix it, you do what you can to learn it yourself. How many times did I start? Not three times consecutively, well, depending on what "consecutively" means. Did that do it? I don't know. Maybe it did. But I used what I could find. I'm nothing if not resourceful. Why didn't I move it with both front wheels up? I didn't see a need, and I only have one jack, and I didn't see a good place in the center to jack it up, and also wanted to keep it low to the ground as possible to keep it as stable as possible.

I'm not sure what invoked such a snarky reply, but if snarky is what you want, I can do snarky, too.

 

In the old days, this reminds me of a clean Avis rent car I bought used with 18K on the clock. It was a simple 307 V8 with a power-glide transmission. I drove the 30 minute drive from garland to downtown dallas where I worked.

On the way the engine started messing up big time. It not only missed but sounded like a intake valve stick or maybe a broke valve spring. The engine would kick back though the carburetor at times. I called my dad before I left work to meet me at my house as I was planning on pulling the head on the bad cylinder side.

I arrived and dad was already their waiting to help. First I pulled all 8 plugs and sat them on a towel on each fender. Ah, here is the bad cylinder, it's #5 and the porcelain insulator in that plug was black and wet.

The valve spring looked ok and was not broken. I could barely push it to slightly to open the valve on both intake and exhaust. I took a gamble, then went into the garage and took out a rather clean used AC spark plug. I put that plug in along with all the others. I cranked the engine and it ran just like new. I had a completely fouled plug. I think it was a champion plug that included the radio suppression resistor. Using a ohm meter set to high sensitivity it had no reading from the electrode to where the spark plug wire attached. The very next evening I changed out all the plugs to a new set of AC-44s which was common # for the small Chevy V8's for many years. That cylinder never failed again and ran well till I sold the car years later.

 

Hi I am having what seems like the exact same problem after changing rotors/pads and bleeding the Brake lines as well as even spinning the wheel manually in neutral on my 2007 Toyota Camry hybrid. Ive now got the same warning signs and some soft brakes with no regeneration.

I’ve tried everything with the links above connecting the ports on the obs 2 and pumping brakes 8 times to no avail. It shows me “vsc 45” just like yours. Any tips? Any particular order on the time that worked for you. Thanks Austin.