Fiddled with left rear brake caliper, now the front brakes are grinding?

[steveoscaro]

2002 Saab 9-3

So I've sometimes noticed a strange noise coming from my driver-side rear brake (actually only on cold/wet roads), so I took that wheel off, loosened a couple smaller bolts on the back side of the caliper, then decided not to proceed without having a manual (I haven't worked on the brakes on a Saab before). But now when I drive, the front brakes seem to be slightly engaged, with a rough, rumbling sound. Oddly, when I accelerate it goes away, but cruising or slowing down, there is a very obvious noise. I'm at a loss as to how messing with that one rear brake caused this, obviously I don't understand the system. Can anyone shed some light on this and suggest what I might do to fix this?

[Digger]

The bolts/nuts that one would usually loosen to remove rear caliper should have no affect on front brake operation and I can only guess at what you might have loosened, or if it has anything to do with what you are describing. What you're describing sounds like ABS or traction control is attempting to compensate for binding brake or an erroneous signal.

Raise the car and make sure that left wheel spins free, if you did something to the parking brake you could be dragging a wheel. If the rear wheel spins free pull the fuse for the ABS and see if your front brake problem goes away.

If one of the bolts you loosened was for the brake bleeder, you will need to bleed the brakes before you go looking for a brake controller issue. If you did open a bleeder, might as well pick up a couple quarts of Dot 4 and flush the system, the car is an 02 and who knows if its ever been done.

[steveoscaro]

Thanks for the response. I got the problem resolved. It turns out that the last place that changed my tires didn't tighten the nuts on the front wheel, so when I lifted up the car to inspect that rear brake, the front wheel shifted a bit and then was set down a bit sideways. Just had to raise the front and tighten the wheel.