Two little mistakes that could have cost me big...
Two little mistakes that could have cost me big...
Hello everyone.
I had a very adventurous weekend and decided to post about it along with a word of warning.
It all started last week. On tuesday, I realized that the end of the month was nearing. I had been struggling to get my car to a somewhat "finished" state because in the September issue of Modified Mag, the editor had invited anyone and everyone to submit their car for a special "Reader's Rides" centered issue in the future. My car is admittedly, a lowly ES, non-turbo. However, I have put about $8,000 (thank you, VISA) in upgrades over the last twelve months, so to make a long story short it has almost everything (performance wise) except turbo and the supporting mods that would accompany that.
Tuesday, I tore down the three remaining brakes that needed repainting. They hadn't been painted in four years since when I first got the car, so they where looking a bit baked, chipped and rusty.
I want to preface this by saying that at the time, what I did in putting them back together didn't seem that stupid at the time but seems pretty dumb in hindsight. I've never had a problem with anything coming lose, but have seen lots of problems with things getting stuck, or rusted into place. I was racing against the sun to put everything back together before dusk and in the process was very careful to put anti-seaze on everything, yes... everything. Mistake #1
On top of that, I was in a hurry to beat the sun which was quickly going down. Mistake #2
I got everything put back together before dusk, which I was very happy about because that usually isn't the case with me and brakes.
We postponed the photoshoot to the next morning. On wednesday afternoon, my fiance and I went down to the port of Tampa to shoot the car. Everything went great with the shoot. The photos came out great. I'll have to post some when I find out what's going on, if anything, with respect to the magazine thing. Anyways, back to the story.
The car ran fine the rest of the week, taking me across town to work and back for the rest of the week. Saturday, we went to Orlando to visit some friends.
On the way to Orlando, on I-4 (probably the worst interstate in Florida) at full speed, some thing went BAM! clackety clackety, and then in my sideview mirror I saw something small and black fly out of the bottom of the car. I was scared at first that I had hit something, but after seeing the thing, just thought that the tires must have picked something up and thrown it into the wheel well for a second. I kept going because the car was still moving. No flat tire or anything like that. We had to stop for a toll on the 414 and in stopping I heard and felt a grrrrrr (grinding noise) along with what felt like what I would image having no inboard brake pad on the driver's side might feel like. The car stopped for me to pay the toll... barely.
I kept going through to two more tolls before we got to our friend's house. Once we got there I found my front driver's side caliper still attached but hanging from only one of the two bracket bolts (not the slides but the mounting bolts that hold the calipers to the car). Instead of being straight in front of the rotor, as the caliper usually would, the bottom end of the caliper was tilted out towards the rim! The thing that I had seen launch out the back was the lower bracket bolt!
Apparently in my rush to get everything back together on Tuesday, I put anti-seaze on the bracket bolts, and also didn't torque them as tight as usual, or check the torque with the torque wrench. On it's own, I think the bolt would have held with the amount of force I used, had I not put anti-seaze on the bolts or if I had torqued correctly and put still used the anti-seaze. It's amazing how much trouble you can get into over one or two little bolts.
From my years in parts sales, I knew that no one but the dealer would have these bolts. Normal parts stores only carry the slide bolts. I immediately called the dealer, who had the bolts in stock for five bucks and some change, BUT where closing in eight minutes from when I called them and wouldn't stay open for the fifteen minutes it would have taken to get there in our friend's car. I had no tools on me, so I went and bought an adjustable crescent wrench to tighten the remaining bolt. My choices where to get a tow and pay big for a sixty+ mile tow or limp it home. I limped it home. I knew it was risky but I didn't see it as having any choice. I limped it home, only going 55 and coasting down to 10 or 15mph at the toll booths and using a combination of hand and foot braking to come to a complete stop.
I limped it to the local Pepboys parking lot and we walked the rest of the way home. The next day the service writers where being hmmm... unhelpful. That's a nice way to put it. They where unwilling to touch it until Monday. I was going to accept that, but before I did, I went and spoke to one of the mechanics, who are more friendly, and in this case was a friend who I had worked with for a long time. He had a drawer full of various bolts and ended up having the right one and even put it in with some Locktite so I didn't have to worry about it on the way home.
To make a long story short: anti-seaze is a good thing, when used in moderation, not on things that should stay together. And, don't rush putting things back together that can later prossibly catastrophically come back to bite you ESPECIALLY if you are going on a trip that involves high speeds. I was lucky, you might not be. My pads and rotor where fine despite the half day of un-even draging, not to mention the possibility that I might have needed to make an emergency stop if I hadn't driven back to Tampa so slowly. Always, always, always check and re-check the torque on critical components. I'm normally much more careful than this but all it takes is one screw up and I could've had a very serious accident.
I had a very adventurous weekend and decided to post about it along with a word of warning.
It all started last week. On tuesday, I realized that the end of the month was nearing. I had been struggling to get my car to a somewhat "finished" state because in the September issue of Modified Mag, the editor had invited anyone and everyone to submit their car for a special "Reader's Rides" centered issue in the future. My car is admittedly, a lowly ES, non-turbo. However, I have put about $8,000 (thank you, VISA) in upgrades over the last twelve months, so to make a long story short it has almost everything (performance wise) except turbo and the supporting mods that would accompany that.
Tuesday, I tore down the three remaining brakes that needed repainting. They hadn't been painted in four years since when I first got the car, so they where looking a bit baked, chipped and rusty.
I want to preface this by saying that at the time, what I did in putting them back together didn't seem that stupid at the time but seems pretty dumb in hindsight. I've never had a problem with anything coming lose, but have seen lots of problems with things getting stuck, or rusted into place. I was racing against the sun to put everything back together before dusk and in the process was very careful to put anti-seaze on everything, yes... everything. Mistake #1
On top of that, I was in a hurry to beat the sun which was quickly going down. Mistake #2
I got everything put back together before dusk, which I was very happy about because that usually isn't the case with me and brakes.
We postponed the photoshoot to the next morning. On wednesday afternoon, my fiance and I went down to the port of Tampa to shoot the car. Everything went great with the shoot. The photos came out great. I'll have to post some when I find out what's going on, if anything, with respect to the magazine thing. Anyways, back to the story.
The car ran fine the rest of the week, taking me across town to work and back for the rest of the week. Saturday, we went to Orlando to visit some friends.
On the way to Orlando, on I-4 (probably the worst interstate in Florida) at full speed, some thing went BAM! clackety clackety, and then in my sideview mirror I saw something small and black fly out of the bottom of the car. I was scared at first that I had hit something, but after seeing the thing, just thought that the tires must have picked something up and thrown it into the wheel well for a second. I kept going because the car was still moving. No flat tire or anything like that. We had to stop for a toll on the 414 and in stopping I heard and felt a grrrrrr (grinding noise) along with what felt like what I would image having no inboard brake pad on the driver's side might feel like. The car stopped for me to pay the toll... barely.
I kept going through to two more tolls before we got to our friend's house. Once we got there I found my front driver's side caliper still attached but hanging from only one of the two bracket bolts (not the slides but the mounting bolts that hold the calipers to the car). Instead of being straight in front of the rotor, as the caliper usually would, the bottom end of the caliper was tilted out towards the rim! The thing that I had seen launch out the back was the lower bracket bolt!
Apparently in my rush to get everything back together on Tuesday, I put anti-seaze on the bracket bolts, and also didn't torque them as tight as usual, or check the torque with the torque wrench. On it's own, I think the bolt would have held with the amount of force I used, had I not put anti-seaze on the bolts or if I had torqued correctly and put still used the anti-seaze. It's amazing how much trouble you can get into over one or two little bolts.
From my years in parts sales, I knew that no one but the dealer would have these bolts. Normal parts stores only carry the slide bolts. I immediately called the dealer, who had the bolts in stock for five bucks and some change, BUT where closing in eight minutes from when I called them and wouldn't stay open for the fifteen minutes it would have taken to get there in our friend's car. I had no tools on me, so I went and bought an adjustable crescent wrench to tighten the remaining bolt. My choices where to get a tow and pay big for a sixty+ mile tow or limp it home. I limped it home. I knew it was risky but I didn't see it as having any choice. I limped it home, only going 55 and coasting down to 10 or 15mph at the toll booths and using a combination of hand and foot braking to come to a complete stop.
I limped it to the local Pepboys parking lot and we walked the rest of the way home. The next day the service writers where being hmmm... unhelpful. That's a nice way to put it. They where unwilling to touch it until Monday. I was going to accept that, but before I did, I went and spoke to one of the mechanics, who are more friendly, and in this case was a friend who I had worked with for a long time. He had a drawer full of various bolts and ended up having the right one and even put it in with some Locktite so I didn't have to worry about it on the way home.
To make a long story short: anti-seaze is a good thing, when used in moderation, not on things that should stay together. And, don't rush putting things back together that can later prossibly catastrophically come back to bite you ESPECIALLY if you are going on a trip that involves high speeds. I was lucky, you might not be. My pads and rotor where fine despite the half day of un-even draging, not to mention the possibility that I might have needed to make an emergency stop if I hadn't driven back to Tampa so slowly. Always, always, always check and re-check the torque on critical components. I'm normally much more careful than this but all it takes is one screw up and I could've had a very serious accident.
He had the proper tools to work with. He just was in a hurry and wasnt thinking. Id say 90% of all tuning issues come from that combination.
Great Reminder to all to double check everything that you work on and take the time to think about everything you do.
Glad everything turned out ok.
Great Reminder to all to double check everything that you work on and take the time to think about everything you do.
Glad everything turned out ok.
Yeah, taking your time and not rushing is always a great idea...same reason I took 11 hours straight on my T-belt install. One being not having the proper pulley bolt tool to remove it and second because I wanted everything prefect as it was before.
He had the proper tools to work with. He just was in a hurry and wasnt thinking. Id say 90% of all tuning issues come from that combination.
Great Reminder to all to double check everything that you work on and take the time to think about everything you do.
Glad everything turned out ok.
Great Reminder to all to double check everything that you work on and take the time to think about everything you do.
Glad everything turned out ok.
From my years in parts sales, I knew that no one but the dealer would have these bolts. Normal parts stores only carry the slide bolts. I immediately called the dealer, who had the bolts in stock for five bucks and some change, BUT where closing in eight minutes from when I called them and wouldn't stay open for the fifteen minutes it would have taken to get there in our friend's car. I had no tools on me, so I went and bought an adjustable crescent wrench to tighten the remaining bolt. My choices where to get a tow and pay big for a sixty+ mile tow or limp it home. I limped it home. I knew it was risky but I didn't see it as having any choice. I limped it home, only going 55 and coasting down to 10 or 15mph at the toll booths and using a combination of hand and foot braking to come to a complete stop.
