What in the world happened?! Stranded at school.

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Joined
Jun 8, 2011
Threads
90
Messages
801
Location
Charlotte, NC
A friend helped me narrow it down to either a loose brake pad. It just all of a sudden it went bad. No prior symptoms other than a warped rotor. I was turning and applying the brakes and all of sudden I hear pop pop grind sorta noise. Slowed down to try and listen to what it was but slowing down only made it worse. Looked underneath and found a oily/greasy washer from my leaking birfied. I was on the way to class so I tried to make it in time and park it in a parking deck. It gets worse as I apply the brakes. Sometimes it seizes up and I can no longer move forwards so I go in reverse a little bit and then I can start moving forwards again. After I get into the parking deck, I inspect the tire again and I hear a hissing sound of an air leak. I didn't think twice about it so I just went to class. I come out after class and I found the cruiser sitting on the rim on one side...
 
If I had to guess you lost a caliper bolt. Post up a pic of the offending area.
 
If I had to guess you lost a caliper bolt. Post up a pic of the offending area.

Agreed completely. Washer probably came out from behind the bolt that is no longer there. Can't go forward sometimes because the caliper flips out and jambs between the rim and knuckle.

I'd get under there and look, but I wouldn't drive till it's fixed.
 
ok thanks guys.
 
Update?
 
Yeah had to finish putting a teraflex lift on a buddy's jeep. But yeah got it figured out. lost a caliper bolt which swung the bottom of the caliper to the outside when breaking which grinded my rim down to cause tiny pinhole leaks where it was grinding... you guys are too smart.

A chunk that wasn't grinded off yet.
20140703_001221.webp


Its all the way around the rim.
20140703_001221.webp


Chrome inner lip rims anybody?! The cool kids are doing it nowadays
20140703_001226.webp


How the caliper kicked out.
20140703_001307.webp


Normal
20140703_001309.webp


One of the bigger air leaks... I figured it would be a lot thicker but nope.
20140703_002615.webp
 
Yeah had to finish putting a teraflex lift on a buddy's jeep. But yeah got it figured out. lost a caliper bolt which swung the bottom of the caliper to the outside when breaking which grinded my rim down to cause tiny pinhole leaks where it was grinding... you guys are too smart.

A chunk that wasn't grinded off yet.
View attachment 913522

Its all the way around the rim.
View attachment 913522

Chrome inner lip rims anybody?! The cool kids are doing it nowadays View attachment 913523

How the caliper kicked out.
View attachment 913524

Normal
View attachment 913525

One of the bigger air leaks... I figured it would be a lot thicker but nope.
View attachment 913526

Damn man. Note to self, make sure to properly torque the caliper bolts!
 
Not just proper torque but use some of the lightest thread locker also. Not the strongest stuff out there but the lightest so it can still be undone down the road with a wrench or socket.
 
same thing has happened to me, except it was the top bolt. Definitely thought I lost a birf with the clunking...
 
Mine popped out 100' from a mechanic. I slowed down with the tranny but still had to brake turning into his shop. A couple guys came running out to see what the hell was making that $$$$ noise! I crawled under it and saw the empty hole immediately. They were nice enough to let me jack it up and take off the wheel to survey the damage in their lot. I pulled the other bolt so they could match it but they didn't have the right length. One of them came out to compare a close-sized bolt, fished around a bit, then handed me the missing bolt saying that he just found this "on the A-arm" and "We don't have anything the right size. And it's a good thing this other bolt down there didn't do any damage". Ha! I was lucky that day. Pad damage was so minimal that I didn't worry about it. Seems the dumb mechanics are usually real nice. I still slipped them some cash for good karma.
 
Mine popped out 100' from a mechanic. I slowed down with the tranny but still had to brake turning into his shop. A couple guys came running out to see what the hell was making that $$$$ noise! I crawled under it and saw the empty hole immediately. They were nice enough to let me jack it up and take off the wheel to survey the damage in their lot. I pulled the other bolt so they could match it but they didn't have the right length. One of them came out to compare a close-sized bolt, fished around a bit, then handed me the missing bolt saying that he just found this "on the A-arm" and "We don't have anything the right size. And it's a good thing this other bolt down there didn't do any damage". Ha! I was lucky that day. Pad damage was so minimal that I didn't worry about it. Seems the dumb mechanics are usually real nice. I still slipped them some cash for good karma.

If a shop did my brakes and the caliper came off 100' from their shop, I wouldn't be sending them any cash, I'd be demanding a new wheel, new caliper, new pad and new line cash in return! That's messed up.
 
If a shop did my brakes and the caliper came off 100' from their shop, I wouldn't be sending them any cash, I'd be demanding a new wheel, new caliper, new pad and new line cash in return! That's messed up.
Let me clarify... It happened near a shop I was driving by. It was completely my fault since I was the one who last tinkered around down there 6 months earlier. The shop was just nice enough to let a non-customer to jack up and work on his own vehicle on their property. Could have been an insurance nightmare if anything bad had happened.

An extra caliper bolt is a good thing to have in the spares box. It'd suck to be stranded by a simple bolt.
 
Let me clarify... It happened near a shop I was driving by. It was completely my fault since I was the one who last tinkered around down there 6 months earlier. The shop was just nice enough to let a non-customer to jack up and work on his own vehicle on their property. Could have been an insurance nightmare if anything bad had happened.

An extra caliper bolt is a good thing to have in the spares box. It'd suck to be stranded by a simple bolt.

Oh, I gotcha. Good on them then!

You could carry spare caliper bolts, or you could carry some vice grips and clamp the soft-line to give you three-wheel brakes, which should suffice till you can get to safe place where you can get the work done. Then again, I guess you wouldn't be driving very far with the caliper banging around between the wheel and rotor anyway.
 
There is always a spool of bailing wire. Amazing what you can do with that stuff.
 
Happens to the best of us.... me it happened to at 70+ mph on a desert high way in my camaro.... had to "trail fix" it in my work pants, shirt and tie before heading how to change cars and change. I easily could have ended up in the dry creek bed to my right if I hadn't been able to wrangle it under control.

Just be glad it happened at a relatively low speed.
 
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