Looking for a little Help. Broke the caliper bolt off in my caliper.

I have a 2017 Tacoma I completed the brakes on one side went to try to break the caliper bolts loose on the passenger side. the top one broke loose the bottom one wouldn’t budge. Used PB blaster then when that wouldn’t work, a torch. and the bolt broke off with about a quarter of an inch sticking into the caliper. I might be able to get it into a shop mid this week. But I was wondering if I could possibly drive on it just using the old pads and rotor until then. Could this harm my caliper at all in anyway. A quarter inch of the bolt is sticking into the caliper hole where the caliper will not come off even with the other bolt out

 

Don't think I would risk it. Maybe move onto the brake bracket and see if you can remove it. That way you just need a new caliper and new bracket...not a new truck because of the caliper coming off inside the wheel.

 

The bolt is not inside of the caliper. the broke off piece is in the wheel hub. That’s what the caliper mounts to. There is no caliper bracket like other vehicles have

 

Until the brakes are correct, you should consider that vehicle "out of service". For your own safety as well as the safety of others.

 

Short answer, No...

Long answer, with the lower mounting bolt missing the caliper can move out and away from the caliper bracket/steering knuckle and catch the inside of the wheel and stop the wheel from rotating, can basically lock the wheel with zero warning...

This happens more often then you would think with brake caliper bracket bolts not being torqued and the bolt falling out...

Can you maybe get lucky and drive it slowly and make it ok, yes, do you really want to take that chance?? I hope not.. You would be safer to drive in reverse the whole way... lol

 

That would be the steering knuckle not the hub, the hub rotates with the wheel bearing and the hub is what the wheels bolts to... just a FYI..

BTW you should not need a new caliper, and a good shop will/should be able to remove the broken bolt.. worst case you buy a new knuckle...

Here is the left knuckle, you can see the caliper mounting bolts towards the right lower big circle/hole in the picture.. should look like yours...

 

There are ways to get it out but you don’t have the equipment to do it..
I would tow it to an old school guy that has experience.
If he’s good, nothing will have to be replaced except for the bolt

 

Yeah I knew it attached to I just didn’t know what it was called. I’m actually taking it to a place in about an hour. I live in Michigan. The roads are really bad. Everybody’s driving about 20 miles an hour. I have everything put back together. There’s a good quarter inch of that bolt sticking into the caliper hole so it ain’t going nowhere.

 

Appreciate the advice. Actually I’m taking it to a shop in about an hourand yes, I’m gonna be driving slow. The roads are really bad. Everybody’s doing about 20 miles an hour

 

I would say this probably happened because I heated up with a torch and the bolt was cold. It’s 7° right now in Michigan. I do have a garage heater, but it ain’t doing shit

 

so everything got fixed. They were able to get the old bolt out. And just charged me 100 bucks. I was expecting to pay a lot more lol.

 

Glad to hear you got it sorted. A good lesson for next time, don't do vehicle repair in horrible weather!

 

That is great news, glad they took care of you... That is what can make lifelong customers...