Brake caliper bolt fell off, work done from shop.

turbo2086 · 09-17-2006

Okay guys, well few months ago, I smoked a curb bad. Driver side front. I replaced the inner/outer tie rods, sway bar link, lower control arm, and ball joint. My camber was still greatly positive, and very noticable. I brought by the one shop that I trusted to have them look at the frame and what not.

Frame was fine, but it was my knuckle. So my buddy had an extra one lieing around. It had a bad bearing though. Got a new bearing/seal etc. I just brought it to them, and decided to let them do it, they can press the bearing and what not. Get the alignment after all that stuff too.

Well I was on the cruise yesturday (fun stuff, see thread). I was about 10 mi back to Eau Claire when this happened... I pressed on the brake peddle and it was really mushy and I can feel scratching and vibration. I was oh shit, rotors are warped to shit from the cruise...

I went for a walk around the car after my nap last night and found that the brake caliper was halfway off my rotor! I took a pic. The top bolt must have fallen out, so the top half was leaning off the rotor, and the scratching was the caliper scraping the inside of my rim... The bottom bolt was still in.

I'm going to talk to them tomorrow. I want to handle it professionally, not going in and blowing up like some other stupid customer. Any ideas on what I should expect from them? I never bring my car to shop, so I don't know really how to handle one of there services that went wrong.

twack · 09-17-2006

So was it like that the whole cruise? That sucks hopefully they fix it, but is there and damage or do you just need to bolt it back on,

turbo2086 · 09-17-2006

No just about 10mi back to Eau Claire. I looked at it when I took the wheel off. The bolt fell off the knuckle. I got a pic of that too. Only damage is the scraping inside my rim.

A//// Guy · 09-17-2006

So why not just put the bolt back in and tighten it to spec and call it good?

Unless you want to go after the person who "didnt" tighten it enough and want somekind of money back for the damage to your wheel. I dont know if they would do anything about it or not.

**scheides** · 09-17-2006

Slap a zip tie in there and call 'er good!

tpunx99GSX · 09-18-2006

HA HA HA HA, the same EXACT thing happened to me. i pulled over because my car was overheating and the car was like bucking when it was trying to stop. so i thought i blew the motor, and i get out and let the car cool down and just happened to look at the wheel, "WTF???" luckly i had a bolt that i could put in there, hasnt done it since. I know the last time took the bolts out that i tightened them, maybe you have a gremlin like i do?

**Kracka** · 09-18-2006

I'd go in there and ask for all their worked to be checked over and all bolts retorqued. I'd also ask for any damage to your wheel to be paid for. Be sure to bring the invoice from the service.

This is the black Laser right? Clean car, it looked really good!

AJ · 09-18-2006

The very least they can do is make it a point to have people check stuff so it doesn't happen again. It's almost worth it for you to bring it in just so they can "hopefully" referance it and prevent it from happening again as best they can.

YiNYaNg · 09-18-2006

I've always noticed that upset customers always get what they want since most of the time they have a good reason to be upset and the calm ones most of the time don't get there way. Just walk in there calm and if they give you the run around then blow up.

**Kracka** · 09-18-2006

You might be able to get new brake pads out of the deal too if they are worn unevenly at all.

Shane55113 · 09-18-2006

Ha!, this happened to me when i did a brake job. My friend who goes to school at UTI came back for a weekend and he was hanging out as i was doing it and i asked him to finish up my passengers side. Later that day i was driving and i heard a tink and a really loud noise from the front like a rock smashed the inside of my fender wall. i was like WTF! and applied pressure on the brakes and it felt really bad and tried to stop super fast so i let off the brake turned off to a side road and pushed them again and the passengers side locked up. I looked and the lower bolt was missing and the caliper dug a nice ring into my rim. I got a bolt from a local hardware store and put it on. I was pissed, but it was my own fault for not double checking my own car. (ya think a guy going to uti would have done it right huh?)

dumb_ricer · 09-18-2006

(ya think a guy going to uti would have done it right huh?)

Hell no.

turbo2086 · 09-19-2006

Ya it was the black Laser. Thanks.

Thanks for the posts. They were real cool about it. Apologized greatly. They had another bolt to put in for the mean time with Loc Tite. Ordered two bolts from the dealership no charge. Getting those put in today.