Strange noises from underneath car

Hebrews12

There's been a rubbing kind of sound coming from underneath (possibly towards the rear) of my 2015 Zafira Tourer which happens mainly, but not exclusively, when I brake.  I took it into a local garage and they said they couldn't hear a sound (which is crazy because it's very frequent and quite noisy) and then I took it in to get the brakes checked at another place and they said the brakes were fine.  I've got a couple of long motorway journeys coming up and it's making me a bit anxious. Any ideas as to what sort of things I could look for under there please?

sheslookinhot

On two separate occasions I had differing noises from the rear of my Civic. On both occasions the noise was caused by loose/corroded rear brake covers. Parts were removed and noise disappeared.

sevenhills

Hebrews12 said:

There's been a rubbing kind of sound coming from underneath (possibly towards the rear) of my 2015 Zafira Tourer which happens mainly, but not exclusively, when I brake.  I took it into a local garage and they said they couldn't hear a sound (which is crazy because it's very frequent and quite noisy) and then I took it in to get the brakes checked at another place and they said the brakes were fine.  I've got a couple of long motorway journeys coming up and it's making me a bit anxious. Any ideas as to what sort of things I could look for under there please?

If you told them exactly what you have told us, it cannot be the brakes as it sometimes happens when you are not braking.

So if the just tested the brakes, they wouldn't find anything.

quantum173

Its difficult to look underneath a car without a ramp or pit.
You need to get a garage person to come in the car for a ride.

RogerPensionGuy

sheslookinhot said:

On two separate occasions I had differing noises from the rear of my Civic. On both occasions the noise was caused by loose/corroded rear brake covers. Parts were removed and noise disappeared.

Another intermittent noise or grinding or buzzing can be cause with a bit of debris or a stone getting lodged near or possibly under disc covers.

These issues can be very intermittent and can really sound bad and then okay, in my experience, if getting noise at slow speed, stop car and reverse a good bit, the noise may change tone or stop, but this may indicate it's sumthink that changes with rotation direction. 

Hopefully the garage you took it to jacked all the wheels off the ground and spent lots of time just spinning the wheels, all 4 wheels, backwards and forwards. 

Good luck sorting it out.

I also suggest putting in model of car and what you notice and Google it, you may find a few sites very helpful I suspect. 

chrisw

As a couple of garages have checked it over and found nothing wrong, it's unlikely to be anything serious. I wouldn't worry about the upcoming motorway journeys it might be a good opportunity to try and work out what exactly is causing it.

Veteransaver

Those noises can be hard to pin down. Could be the bushings in the suspension arms, or something in the shocks/springs.

Goudy

I've seen a few Zafiras that have had the rear brakes start binding.

The caliper guide pins rust and seize so the caliper can't operate smoothly.
They start making a racket and after a drive, if you touch the rear wheels they can feel rather hot.

It's a very common problem with this model (and the one before).
There's plenty others with the same problem.
It even makes the Haynes guide for this car.
Vauxhall Zafira Tourer common problems (2011-2018) | Haynes Publishing

The fix is to strip the brakes down, clean and lube the guide pins with brake grease (not normal grease, that burns with the heat from the brakes) and build them back up.

If it's been happening for a while, you may notice one pad has started to wear out a lot faster than the other, so new pads are advisable at the same time.