scary situation today

[ehummelman]

I noticed some faint clunking over bumps this morning and thought maybe my ball joints or tie rod ends were starting to go. After dropping off my daughter at school I reversed out of my spot and heard a nasty metallic growl when turning the wheel. Moving forward again it sounded fine. I went straight to my favorite alignment guy and had him put it up on the lift. Turns out the upper bolt holding the caliper to the bracket was gone and the lower bolt was not even finger tight. You could just flop the caliper around with your hand. WTF?? The two bolts were drilled for safety wire but obviously not wired. I'm assuming no Loctite either since they just backed themselves out. Time to invest in some safety wire pliers for me. That was enough of a scare.

[cheapthrillz]

Had the same thing happen to my Supra one time.... very scary.... I used loc-tite after that lol

[Tony_SS]

After chasing down a front end clunking to find out is was the calipers rattling on the bolts and needing new bushings, I'll never forget that sound.

[jpgolf14]

This is why I always safety wire caliper bolts. I have gone extreme lately wiring almost all of my steering, suspension, and brake bolts. It is not hard to learn. You can even get the pliers and wire from your local Harbor Freight.

[ehummelman]

Agreed, I plan on going cuckoo with the safety wire now.

[jpgolf14]

Agreed, I plan on going cuckoo with the safety wire now.

Cool. If you plan on drilling your own heads, I can highly recommend McMaster Carr part number 8882A13 dill bit. I have tried a lot of different bits but these are the only bits that last for me. Solid carbide is a must on the hardened bolts. Buy two so you have an extra when you break one.

[Rod]

had the same thing happen after a track day, lost a bolt and the caliper was just smacking the rim on the track, kinda freaks you out, now I do a complete suspension check before and after every event

heres the back of the brake
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2012/09/GEDC9662-1.jpg

and the rim
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2012/09/GEDC9664-1.jpg

[jpgolf14]

had the same thing happen after a track day, lost a bolt and the caliper was just smacking the rim on the track, kinda freaks you out, now I do a complete suspension check before and after every event


Nice thing about lock wire is you can visually nut and bolt the car in a few minutes rather than checking each one for tightness. Another option is to use Torque Seal so you can visually determine if the bolt has turned. I use this stuff in applications where lock wire is not practical. Between lock wire and torque seal, I can nut and bolt my whole car is just a few minutes and with out lifting the car. For super critical bolts, I will actually lock wire and torque seal. Cheap and easy to do both. But I have gone nuts with my bolt retention. :)

You can see the torque seal here on the two nuts on the right of the picture.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2012/09/7941738046_5ba0b2b5c3_h-1.jpg

[ehummelman]

Interesting stuff, never seen the Torque Seal. So simple, it's genius.