If you guessed I was on the entrance ramp of 33 to 80 and replacing a bolt on the caliper bracket that fell off while I was driving, then you sir (or ma'am) are closely related to god...
The long and short, I went to pick up my room mate to come back to ESU, and I forgot to turn to go pick him up ( :laugh: ) and had to turn around an a half-ass driveway. I noticed I heard some kind of knocking in the supension, kinda like the sway bar broke loose. So I checked the car, drove around, and brought it back to his house. It looked like my wheel well liner had lose a bolt, and we put on back in. Figured okay it was that slapping the firewall/fender.
Well about 30 miles later, I still think something was wrong, and we are merged from 209 onto 33, and we hear something fall from under the car. I figured it was a miscellanous road debre, theres alot of contrustion in the area right now.
At the light before the 33-80 merge I got to stop for the red. We hear a horrible screeching noise, and I'm like of crap. But the car stopped. Against better judgement, I drove off from the red towards the 80 merge. The car won't brake right, and I'm using the e-brake and downshifting. We get into traffice because of the bridge construction and I'm using the e-brake and putting it into park. so we decide to pull over and check it out. As I go to pull over the trans basically locks on the side of the road. The rotor was kinda blue and was hot. I knew from the noise that it was the brakes...
We half called triple A, because my roommates mom called. But I thought I could fix the car there on the road. AT this point I'm assuming the brake pad destoried itself (these are new bendix Tit. Met. II < 1000 miles). So we called her back and said know, cause I have my old brakes and can just swap them on if someone brings me the pads.
We setup and take the wheel apart in the construction part of the merge ramp! There was a constructino foreman Tom! :laugh: He came over to see what we are doing.
So i'm there using the ford jack
blackeye: ) to lift the car on the decline of the merge ramp. We get the car in the air, rim off, and bingo! missing Caliper bolt! Now these brakes have been on since the end of August, and have about 800 miles on them! Not clue, but the wear is horrible on the rotor and brakes. So I need the caliper bolt, which I have, 30 miles back at home. About this time my roommate's sister and boyfriend show up, they were headed to the delaware to go night fishing. So we decided it be best if they took us back to my house to get the bolt, and drive all the way back to put the car together instead of having the car towed :blackeye:
We threw all the peices back together, bolt the tire back on, lower the jack, and get into their truck.We made it back onto 209 using a little short cut :laugh: and made it to an Advanced auto 10 minutes before closing.
By a stroke of luck, we actualy found a grade 8 bolt that matched! It had a 19mm head, so I needed to buy a socket (what a way to get a new tool ). So we head back, re-assmble the whole car and are back on the road in 20 minutes! Although the whole process took about 3 hours... :nonono: That will teach me for having all the parts to do the brakes, but not carrying extra bolts with me.
Needless to say these bolts were torqued, and held for a little over 800 miles, I really doubt that turn around in the crappy driveway knocked the bolt loose, but who knows...I'm just glad we hit the traffic merging into 80, or I would have gone onto 80 without safely function brakes...
What a day...
Oh and the Cavaliar is back on the road :laugh: Just in time for me to pull the Contour apart and go wtf on the brake system...
The long and short, I went to pick up my room mate to come back to ESU, and I forgot to turn to go pick him up ( :laugh: ) and had to turn around an a half-ass driveway. I noticed I heard some kind of knocking in the supension, kinda like the sway bar broke loose. So I checked the car, drove around, and brought it back to his house. It looked like my wheel well liner had lose a bolt, and we put on back in. Figured okay it was that slapping the firewall/fender.
Well about 30 miles later, I still think something was wrong, and we are merged from 209 onto 33, and we hear something fall from under the car. I figured it was a miscellanous road debre, theres alot of contrustion in the area right now.
At the light before the 33-80 merge I got to stop for the red. We hear a horrible screeching noise, and I'm like of crap. But the car stopped. Against better judgement, I drove off from the red towards the 80 merge. The car won't brake right, and I'm using the e-brake and downshifting. We get into traffice because of the bridge construction and I'm using the e-brake and putting it into park. so we decide to pull over and check it out. As I go to pull over the trans basically locks on the side of the road. The rotor was kinda blue and was hot. I knew from the noise that it was the brakes...
We half called triple A, because my roommates mom called. But I thought I could fix the car there on the road. AT this point I'm assuming the brake pad destoried itself (these are new bendix Tit. Met. II < 1000 miles). So we called her back and said know, cause I have my old brakes and can just swap them on if someone brings me the pads.
We setup and take the wheel apart in the construction part of the merge ramp! There was a constructino foreman Tom! :laugh: He came over to see what we are doing.
So i'm there using the ford jack
blackeye: ) to lift the car on the decline of the merge ramp. We get the car in the air, rim off, and bingo! missing Caliper bolt! Now these brakes have been on since the end of August, and have about 800 miles on them! Not clue, but the wear is horrible on the rotor and brakes. So I need the caliper bolt, which I have, 30 miles back at home. About this time my roommate's sister and boyfriend show up, they were headed to the delaware to go night fishing. So we decided it be best if they took us back to my house to get the bolt, and drive all the way back to put the car together instead of having the car towed :blackeye: We threw all the peices back together, bolt the tire back on, lower the jack, and get into their truck.We made it back onto 209 using a little short cut :laugh: and made it to an Advanced auto 10 minutes before closing.
By a stroke of luck, we actualy found a grade 8 bolt that matched! It had a 19mm head, so I needed to buy a socket (what a way to get a new tool ). So we head back, re-assmble the whole car and are back on the road in 20 minutes! Although the whole process took about 3 hours... :nonono: That will teach me for having all the parts to do the brakes, but not carrying extra bolts with me.
Needless to say these bolts were torqued, and held for a little over 800 miles, I really doubt that turn around in the crappy driveway knocked the bolt loose, but who knows...I'm just glad we hit the traffic merging into 80, or I would have gone onto 80 without safely function brakes...
What a day...
Oh and the Cavaliar is back on the road :laugh: Just in time for me to pull the Contour apart and go wtf on the brake system...
