Forgot Brake Caliper Bolt

I recently picked up my truck after having a front differential seal replaced. A day later when about to hit the road for my long 4th of July road trip I heard a weird noise in the front passanger tire area. I inspected and found the brake caliper was missing a bolt, pics with damage at the time.

I originally thought the shop that fixed my seal was to blame, but they claim they only detached steering knuckle and it's possible it was me as I had done a lot of front end suspension work & changed brakes. Confident I put the bolt back, maybe forgot to torque & it backed out. Bummer all around

 

I had this happen to an Isuzu Amigo that I had taken to Just Brakes a long time ago. Same type damage and they did not want to replace the wheel. It had a 1/16 inch groove in the aluminum wheel and not much wrong with the caliper other than missing the bolt. I had a good friend attorney write up a nasty letter sent to corporate and got my replacement wheel in a couple days. My biggest concern was this groove could cause stress cracks in the wheel and jeopardize my families safety. Hope you don't have to go through all the BS I did to get it fixed. Good luck!

 

I had a caliper bolt fall out and damaged a wheel just like yours. I've been running that wheel for at least a year with zero issues. The tire/wheel balance won't be off as the material is removed evenly just like it was done on a lathe.

 

Oh man, that must’ve made quite a racket. I snapped one of those and drove slowly .2 miles to a mechanic…. Clanking all the way.

At this point, you’ll want to replace both bolts..My caliper was fine, no damage other than the snapped off bolt.

No excuse to leave it out. Hope they pick up the tab for you.

 

Yes they should buy you a wheel

 

Super clean truck. Do you like the disconnecting sway bar end links?

 

Thanks & good eye- I actually haven't used them yet, had just installed and was going to give them a test up on some southern Colorado trails near Ouray, hopefully we can still get up there & will just be delayed the one day!

 

It's counterintuitive for any mechanic to just leave a bolt out. It only happens on GM assembly lines Most likely the bottom bolt was hand tight and he forgot to zip it down with the impact.

The caliper is steel, so no worries there. Get the rubber cap replaced on the bleeder.

Alignment doesn't change with something like this.

As for the wheel, I've done worse after just an hour on the trail:

 

I would have asked the shop to check the torque on the upper bolt.
I love my electric impact guns. But there are still some bolts I recheck by hand, just to be sure.
Caliper bolts are one of them. Run them up with an impact and finish it off by hand. (Or torque wrench)


The first time I removed my calipers, someone had use red threadlocker on them.
(I bought the truck used)
Seriously, I have no idea why? I used blue on them when I put them back in. And I don’t think I used anything the 2nd time I had them off.

 

These days I find myself using an impact to to remove bolts.. but rarely to tighten. It's better for the fastener to tighten by hand, less risk of pulling threads out.

And also, I'm working on cars that other mechanics have already had their hands on. If the last guy almost ripped the threads with an impact, If I'm not careful i can easily be blamed for his negligence.

 

That’s crazy, if they don’t immediately offer to foot the bill and offer free services in the future then threaten to call corporate. I work at a tire place that also does oil changes, brakes, alignments, etc. and if we fuck up an oil change we usually fix the problem and offer 3 free oil changes. Then whoever messed up gets reamed out by the manager (depending on if it was actually their fault or not) then they have to do retraining.

 

Update- Shop claims they did not unbolt calipers when changing diff deal. Since I cannot prove they did, I must also put it out there that it is possibly my fault as I had changed the brakes, steering knuckle, control arms and installed the axles myself. I really thought I torqued everything down, but if they really didn't do it, then logically it must have been me.

 

Which diff seal did they replace?

 

Passanger side

 

You can do axles and seals all day long without removing calipers or rotors.

Sorry but it sounds like you were the last one to touch the brakes

 

That being said, the shop probably should have noticed a caliper bolt backing out

 

Sounds like you also pull the 2 ball joint bolt, tie rod end, brake line hold down bracket, then pull the knuckle out and pry the axle out.

I always had a hard time getting the axle back in by myself that way. But if you have a buddy to shove it in while you hold it in place. It usually goes pretty good.

 

Not even tie rod end

Just ball joint and brake line bracket. Have a helper swing knuckle to the side so you can get a straight shot putting the axle in. Couple smacks with a dead-blow hammer, done..

 

You mean I been taken the tie rod loose for no reason.
That’s what I get for thinking, I mean, I was successful so I just kept doing what I did last time.

 

Never even needed a hammer to seat the half shafts back in the diff. But I’m just good at getting it in lol. Seriously tho, I find getting the axles back in to be kinda fun