My Bad

This is one of those "You Live, You Learn" moments.

I was on my way back from Iowa in Big Red yesterday and while I was driving, I drove over an expansion joint on a bridge and started hearing a rattle. The rattle progressively got worse and I pulled off the highway and took a look underneath. I was looking around looking for something dangling down, but what caught my eye was that the driver side rear caliper was missing the lower slide bolt. So I climbed over and saw that the upper slide bolt had also come out but was being held in place by the leaf spring.

I was luckily only a few miles from a NAPA and I was able to buy some new caliper bolts. I could only get the lower one back in and couldn't get the upper one out due to the leaf spring, but couldn't get it threaded either. Well it was in there for now. I checked the slide bolts on the passenger side and they were ok. I got back on my way and noticed a grinding when I stopped, but I figured something got out of place, so I figured It wouldn't be too big of a deal. I assumed an anti rattle shim was damaged.

So I dug into the rear brakes and didn't find anything that would look like grinding. The inside of the wheel was tagged by the caliper. The anti-rattle shims were shot, so I replaced them. Everything went back together fine.

Then, I decided to check on the passenger side:

Well what the hell? How did this happen? I start looking at the caliper and see that the upper caliper bracket bolt fell out and every time I would brake the forward motion of the rotor would push the caliper into the wheel. Now I need another caliper bolt.

So, who was the last one to replace the brakes? I was.

I found out after all this happened, that GM says that you need to put Loctite on all the bolts for the brake system. That I did not do and now I understand why they want you too.

My Bad.

damn... in all my years never lost a caliper.. that's scary and I glad nothing untoward happened

This happened to me on my way to The Vintage 2015. Lost the right front caliper on the M2 & destroyed a decent tire & a good panasport wheel in the process. Yep, I was the last one to replace my calipers too.

Glad you caught it!

Now I'm thinking about how I didn't use Loctite on my 99 when I did the brakes last.

In reply to Stampie:

I put about 4000 miles on my truck before this happened.

Hmm ive never used lock tite on brake bolts. Normally use anti seize and have never had an issue. But i also coat the pads in the antivibration coating so maybe ive got lucky. Scary stuff for sure.

In reply to dropstep:

Apparently it's specific to HD trucks.

Had this happen on a Ford rental van on a trip from MN to Detroit. Rental company sent another van on a flatbed and exchanged it.

Had this happen to me when I was changing brakes in my ranger too fast in my parents driveway. Yeah. Stupid

I'm just jealous of your rear discs.

This happens more often than you'd think.

Wow. Certainly a learning experience...

Knurled wrote: This happens more often than you'd think.

So, what is it about rear disc brakes that cause this on some vehicles, but not others???

I once had one of the bolts on a front caliper on my Nissan truck disappear. Yup, I had done the last work on it. Nope, didn't use lock-tight

So, will that wheel need to be rebalanced?

I'm lucky that none of my cars needed locktite with the brake hardware.

Esoteric Nixon wrote: So, will that wheel need to be rebalanced?

I don't know, there wasn't enough material that came off that worries me. There was no vibration driving, but I won't know until I put another trailer on.

Mr_Clutch42 wrote: I'm lucky that none of my cars needed locktite with the brake hardware.

With all the cars I have owned in my life with disc brakes, I have never needed Loctite. This was new to me.