Rear Brake Dust Sheilds making noise

[Mark Brye]

I have been having problems with what sounds like the rear brakes during normal/not braking driving. It is coming from the drivers rear. Sounds like a bad screetching/rubing sound like a rock is sitting under a brake shoe. I got under the car tonight and it sounds like the dust sheild on the back side of the rotor is scraping on the rotor itself or maybe a rock or dirt has got up in there. Is it ok to bend the sheild away from the rotor a tad or am I going to create an area for pebles and such to get in there and make for more problems? Anyone have experience with this?

On a better note,
Last week, I had a problem with the car running hot in traffic. I pulled the thermostat housing off and found that it only had a restrictor plate inside. I put a thermostat in and now I have no heating problems at all. I think that the water going through the radiator before did not have time to cool in the radiator without a thermostat installed.