After getting the brakes changed (OEM Ford discs and pads fitted by a Ford dealer) I now have a metallic scraping sound coming from the front left, but only when I turn right. I've taken the car back and they took the wheel off and removed the disc and pads then refitted but said they couldn't see anything wrong. Any ideas?

In case anyone has the same issue, I finally took the wheel off and solved it myself today - it turned out that the disc guard was bent and rubbing on the disc.

Out of interest, are the disc guards needed? They're quite rusty and I know not all cars have these. I'm quite tempted to remove them...

1 hour ago, TimST2 said:

Out of interest, are the disc guards needed? They're quite rusty and I know not all cars have these. I'm quite tempted to remove them...

If you can slap some paint on to make them last a bit longer and look better then I'd definitely do that before binning them.

Personally I like to keep them on as long as they're in one piece, it stops water being splashed onto the brakes. It also stops any flinged up stones from getting trapped in between the pad and the disc causing a groove to wear in. The last reason I can think of is brake dust, as the shield will stop it being spread all around your wheel arch.

Yeah I understand what they're supposedly for, but my Caterham Seven doesn't have them, and nor did my Lotus Elise.

New ones are £6

On 4/4/2021 at 10:35 AM, MarksST said:

New ones are £6

Thanks, that's good to know. I think I'll remove them for now anyway.

They came off easily enough, although one of the lower bolts was quite corroded and threatened to round-off. The rears looked fine so I left those on.

For future reference, the part numbers for the front disc guards are 1794508 and 1767582.

https://www.fiestastoc.com/forums/topic/314257-brake-dust-shield/

The one guy on that thread who says his ST doesn’t have them has a non uk car.

all 3 of mine have had them.

On 4/4/2021 at 7:33 AM, TimST2 said:

Yeah I understand what they're supposedly for, but my Caterham Seven doesn't have them, and nor did my Lotus Elise.

Both of those cars aren't exactly daily drivers though. I'd imagine you keep ontop of detailing them, and they have probably never seen a grain of grit salt in their lives.

Fiestas, on the other hand, are driven whether its wet, dry, muddy, slippy etc.

On 4/5/2021 at 8:04 PM, Luke4efc said:

Both of those cars aren't exactly daily drivers though. I'd imagine you keep ontop of detailing them, and they have probably never seen a grain of grit salt in their lives.

Fiestas, on the other hand, are driven whether its wet, dry, muddy, slippy etc.

While that's true for the Seven, the Elise was my daily for years before it became a track toy. I used to change the discs myself and never saw any issues.