Hi all, I am running a 2004 XJ6 and have a grinching noise when coming to a dead stop. Had a look at the rotors and pads, can't see anything untoward but then I discovered that if I took hold of the wheel lugs, that I could rock them side to side a couple of mm in the holes that they are sat in. Is this normal please and if not can anyone please advise as to what needs to be replaced/repaired.
Cheers.

 

it would still pay to check them for tightness all the same , but yes it is quite normal to find the stainless cover on the wheel nuts loose . as they stretch with use . it is well documented on the forums about this . as a lot of people have been left stranded with a flat tyre and a nut that only spins the stainless cover without coming undone .
like many i have swapped all my spinomatic wheel nuts for solid chrome steel nuts .
sorry im no help with your noise . but id be checking your brake pads and wheel bearings front and rear.

 

Cheers datsports, i don't think i explained it too clearly, so with the wheel off if I grab the lugs i find i can rock them from side to side a couple of mm.

 

understood . here we call them studs . no they should not wiggle in the hub but the disk rotor may wiggle around them . if you can wriggle one stud/lug at a time there is a problem! if all five go back and forth in the disk at once then no problem !
the disk is literally a top hat that flanges between the wheel and the hub so it can't move when the wheel is tight .

 

Oh i feel a clot now. Of course that is the wheel hub i am moving. Had i put a bit more effort in i would have spun the whole thing. And the reason it didnt happen at the back. Had the park brake on. Time to lie down.

 

I have got a groaning noise just before the car comes to a stand on braking. Checking this out at my independent, shows it to be the brakes, and there seems little I can do about it other than change the pads out or even the discs. NOt something a high-price luxury car should do, as my wife's New Beetle and my MG TF don't do this.

 

Hi Fraser, I agree with you 100 per cent. never had this sound on any car I have ever owned. The pads produce a of dust, so I am thinking they have been changed for an inferior set. Will put up with it until they need to be changed again.