brake sabotage?

[quack]

Not sure if this was sabotage, but all of a sudden my rear ps wheel started making a horrible grinding noise when backing up (not a pad issue). I took it to the shop and they were like uh, there's nothing holding the caliper on the brakes. The caliper bolts were missing! (both of them) How can this happen, suggestions were that they vibrated out. Sabotage? Or possibly missing since i grabbed the car a year ago, but I drove it millions of miles since and the brakes worked fine. Visually everything looked ok. Anyways cars good now.


quack quack

 

[C-speed]

Yikes... that is bad! Its not something that "can't" happen... but for both bolts to go missing and especially when you (or anyone else) hasn't touched them before, that is very odd!

I've seen bolts go missing at some of my races/track events before... but those are usually due to the heat cycles and/or install error. And even those times, its only one that falls out and you realize something is wrong and pull back into the hot pits.

But for 2 to go... ick.

You don't any enemies? hehe :biggrin:

Buy some new bolts, Torque wrench + Loctite is your friend.

 

[SWIFTVISION]

There is no way on Earth that happen "naturally".

 

[quack]

Yikes... that is bad! Its not something that "can't" happen... but for both bolts to go missing and especially when you (or anyone else) hasn't touched them before, that is very odd!

I've seen bolts go missing at some of my races/track events before... but those are usually due to the heat cycles and/or install error. And even those times, its only one that falls out and you realize something is wrong and pull back into the hot pits.

But for 2 to go... ick.

You don't any enemies? hehe :biggrin:

Buy some new bolts, Torque wrench + Loctite is your friend.

I see, so it is possible for them to fall out. Perhaps one fell out (for months even) and I didn't notice until the other fell out. I barely noticed an issue except from backing up noise, braking still seemed even. Well It's good to know its was an edge case possibility and not a definite sabotage attempt.

 

[scorp965]

I have heard a car with one caliper bolt missing, everytime the brakes were applied it made a horrible clunking noise as the caliper rotated - you would definitely notice.

If they were replaced with inferior hardware, the bolts could have sheared, but there would be evidence of this - they were just gone? It seems very odd, perhaps a theft attempt, I know certain civics, etc. use rear nsx calipers as an upgrade, if you park on the street, perhaps someone tried to get your calipers for free.

 

[Ski_Banker]

I'm far from an "expert" but maybe when one bolt/nut came loose naturally, it created vibrations in the caliper causing the others to loosen. Sounds reasonably possible to me.

Besides... unless your enemies are very smart, very weird, or very creative, I can't imagine that they'd resort to such obscure terrorist tactics. High school kids just slash tires and pour sugar in the gas tank.

 

[lrsudog]

I have had this happen on another vehicle. Only the noise of the loose brake caliper rubbing the inside of the wheel (on braking) alerted me. When I stop to check the horrible noise, I found one bolt missing, and the remaining bolt only holding on by a few threads. The caliper was basically only in place because of the brackets attached to the spindles.

Both had been loctighted in originally.

 

[mickeylex]

What do you mean by sabotage? Did you have the brakes worked on by this shop and are thinking they didn't put it back together correctly?

 

[White92]

I'm far from an "expert" but maybe when one bolt/nut came loose naturally, it created vibrations in the caliper causing the others to loosen. Sounds reasonably possible to me.

I agree. Vibrations on your nuts and bolts will definitely loosen things up.:biggrin:

 

[Briank]

Those don't loosen up unless they were not properly tightened following servicing. They should be tightened to 36 ft/lb

 

[Cairo94507]

Conspiracy theorist......

 

[sahtt]

Not a very good technique if they were trying to. You'd want to go for the brake fluid, not a single caliper. You can stop a car with 3 calipers pretty easy as long as you don't panic.

 

[White92]

Not a very good technique if they were trying to. You'd want to go for the brake fluid, not a single caliper. You can stop a car with 3 calipers pretty easy as long as you don't panic.

Could be neighborhood punks too. They will do thinks "just because". No reason, just because. I hate kids like this. It never fails this time of year. School starts getting out for the summer and you'll see an entire neighborhood that had their windows busted out. It happens almost yearly around here, right around this time. (note to self, don't park outside)

 

[quack]

Interesting replies, Of course I don't think it was a shop. The best idea I read was that one was loose, and then the constant rattling moved the other bolt off. The bolts were completely missing not sheared off. And again it wasn't moving around when driving, I even tried to move it with my hand as that was my suspicion but it felt solid as I never removed the wheels or tried to rotate (flip the caliper up) with the wheel on. I agree It's way too much work to be sabotage, the sugar in the gas tank would be much easier as mentioned. Although if it were sabotage to do me in, It would have worked if I were in the hills or something but if the lines were cut it would pretty much be figured out right away.