Brake Failure! Check your brakes!

[mike_nofx]

Just thought i'd share this with everyone, and remind everyone to routinly check brakes as part of your maintenance schedule!

My missus was driving slowly in traffic, doing about 25km/h or so, when the left rear wheel locked up. The car wouldnt budge. I drove out to give her a hand (we live just 2 minutes away) and because she was holding up traffic, i locked in its front hubs and moved (forced) it off the road.

Anyway, got a tow home (thanks NRMA) and took it apart to have a look.
The disc had a chunk missing and the caliper cylinder destroyed itself.

The caliper must have seized on one side a long time ago, because the disc was worn very un-evenly. One side of the disc is thick, and the other side very thin. Also, one brake pad is in good condition and the other completly worn.

Guess this will change my attitude of 'if it aint broke, dont fix it'
I'll probably cop some flaming from this, i deserve it, but I could be stopping this from happening to someone else.

Mike
Ps. This happened to a 100 series

[defmec]

i didn't realize the 100 had such piss ant brakes

[MART]

Looks like the calliper froze on the slides and only one side was able to wear , Cheers Paul.

[Gonzo]

Guess this will change my attitude of 'if it aint broke, dont fix it'

I hope you never plan to travel to remote areas with that attitude.

[oozuk]

Is your wife deaf !?! how did she not hear that grinding for weeks prevous to this

[shakes]

Is your wife deaf !?! how did she not hear that grinding for weeks prevous to this

or pick up that it's sluggish and that funny burny type smell?

[Ruffy]

Is your wife deaf !?! how did she not hear that grinding for weeks prevous to this

X Twentyillion

My god that has been so noticable for so long!

[mike_nofx]

I drive it regularly also. I even drove it today.
There was honestly no noises out of the ordinary. There was no grinding.

I think the pad still had some life left in it. It was probably just because the disc was so thin that it broke. Not because of the pad grinding.

Mike

[Ruffy]

I think the pad still had some life left in it. It was probably just because the disc was so thin that it broke. Not because of the pad grinding.

DUDE!!!!!!!!
The disc was worn so thin because the pad was FARRRRKKKED.. The friction material on the pad was long gone and the metal backing ground the disc away... I've been in the trade for 16 years and i'm fairly sure that when two metal objects grind against each other at high speed, there is noise! Maybe you just didn't notice it.. but holy poo poo's.. boy'o there was noise.. trust me.
I get your point about letting people know so it doesn't happen to someone else.. That's a noble gesture considering how bad it has made you look.. i commend you on that.. and no offence, but seriously, if you let things get that bad, you deserve to suffer the financial consequences in hope that you smarten up!...

[oozuk]

This is also why it's SOO important to regularly service your car because things like these are checked during regular servicing ( not back yard drop the sump plug and change the filter servicing)

[RockyF75]

This is also why it's SOO important to regularly service your car because things like these are checked during regular servicing ( not back yard drop the sump plug and change the filter servicing)

With the amount of stories you hear of places that leave wheelnuts loose, or oil caps off, and so on. I think I'd still trust myself over a 'professional'. At least there's no frustration then with trying to pin the blame. But each to their own

[oozuk]

This is also why it's SOO important to regularly service your car because things like these are checked during regular servicing ( not back yard drop the sump plug and change the filter servicing)

With the amount of stories you hear of places that leave wheelnuts loose, or oil caps off, and so on. I think I'd still trust myself over a 'professional'. At least there's no frustration then with trying to pin the blame. But each to their own

Every trade has rotton egg's in them, it's also the good stories of the good workshops you also need to listen to, (gotta still keep me in the job)
let's not lose faith in the mechanical trade just yet

[RockyF75]

This is also why it's SOO important to regularly service your car because things like these are checked during regular servicing ( not back yard drop the sump plug and change the filter servicing)

With the amount of stories you hear of places that leave wheelnuts loose, or oil caps off, and so on. I think I'd still trust myself over a 'professional'. At least there's no frustration then with trying to pin the blame. But each to their own

Every trade has rotton egg's in them, it's also the good stories of the good workshops you also need to listen to, (gotta still keep me in the job)
let's not lose faith in the mechanical trade just yet

Yeah fair enough.

I drive an old POC though so if I where to take it to a workshop every time it needed something done I may as well just buy a new car each time

So I'm a bit biased

[TRobbo]

thank you for posting mike

[jessie928]

This is also why it's SOO important to regularly service your car because things like these are checked during regular servicing ( not back yard drop the sump plug and change the filter servicing)

With the amount of stories you hear of places that leave wheelnuts loose, or oil caps off, and so on. I think I'd still trust myself over a 'professional'. At least there's no frustration then with trying to pin the blame. But each to their own

x2

my mate dropped his brand new kwakka on the way home from his first service because the knob at the kawasaki shop " forgot" to tighten the sump nut. Oil EVERYWHERE...

Jes

[Dzltec]

The reason it stopped on you was because the caliper piston popped out. This happens when there are no brake pads left.

It certainly would have made a noise, maybe you just didn't pick it up or didn't care. Lucky you weren't driving at speed or wanting to stop in a hurry to avoid an accident.

Lesson learnt I think.



Andy

[jessie928]

Guess this will change my attitude of 'if it aint broke, dont fix it'

I hope you never plan to travel to remote areas with that attitude.

i EDITED the origional posters username...

[coxy321]

Ps. This happened to a 100 series

Thats your problem right there.

All i can say is wow. I cant beleive you didn't pick that up earlier!!

Are you sure it wasn't the slider bars on the caliper that seized, thus only allowing the contact of one brake pad?

[hugz]

I dont think everyone needs to be flaming the original poster so much. He has admitted to his mistake and posted up about it out of kindness to ensure that it doesn't happen to anyone else.

How about we turn this thread back in the POSITIVE direction by people posting up a list of things that should be checked whilst servicing your own vehicle.

I'm sure that many people here do things like oil changes, filter changes, coolant changes, but don't know what else they should be checking at the same time.. so could people please post up
- What things should be checked when servicing your car
- How often? (every oil change or less/more frequently?)
- HOW to do the check (ie what to look out for specifically)

[chunderlicious]

mate i know youve got good intentions in mind but if you need pointers on servicing you shouldnt be doing it yourself.

mechanics need money made from servicing and fixing people vehicles to get by, alot of them also dont earn as much as alot of us do on here so them giving us advice is throwing much needed money away.

you dont ask an electrician how to do house wiring, he wont help except to say hell charge x amount per hour.

take your car to a proffessional if you are not 100% sure you can do a proper job... as said thats not just changing oil and a filter every 10000Ks

[hugz]

mate i know youve got good intentions in mind but if you need pointers on servicing you shouldnt be doing it yourself.

mechanics need money made from servicing and fixing people vehicles to get by, alot of them also dont earn as much as alot of us do on here so them giving us advice is throwing much needed money away.

you dont ask an electrician how to do house wiring, he wont help except to say hell charge x amount per hour.

take your car to a proffessional if you are not 100% sure you can do a proper job... as said thats not just changing oil and a filter every 10000Ks

everyone has to start somewhere.

you're suggesting that people should use mechanics because they need money to get by? that's strange logic. Well I'm an accountant and I need money to get by; therefore everyone who does their tax themselves should pay me to do it for them instead.

You know what? we should just shut down all of the tech sections on this website because instead of people asking tech questions here, they should just take their cars to a mechanic directly. Instead of asking which suspension will work best, they should just take their car direct to ARB. Which tyres are best? Dont ask here! The guy at the tyre shop needs to make money too so go there and pay him instead.

Spend spend spend, do nothing yourself. If you need to ask then you shouldn't be doing it.......

[poppywhite]

I dont think everyone needs to be flaming the original poster so much. He has admitted to his mistake and posted up about it out of kindness to ensure that it doesn't happen to anyone else.

How about we turn this thread back in the POSITIVE direction by people posting up a list of things that should be checked whilst servicing your own vehicle.

I'm sure that many people here do things like oil changes, filter changes, coolant changes, but don't know what else they should be checking at the same time.. so could people please post up
- What things should be checked when servicing your car
- How often? (every oil change or less/more frequently?)
- HOW to do the check (ie what to look out for specifically)

I'm with you hugz,
the man maybe was a bit lax in not hearing developing problem but he has shared his experience with us and we dont need to add to much to his embarrasment, hopefuly we all learn a bit from his mistake and misfortune
Most of us are a bit slack with maintance some time in our lives.
His family is lucky the caliper piston didnt fall out and cause lockup at speed on freeway and also involve other roadusers as well.

[jessie928]

if you check teh guys origional POST, he was not asking for advice.

He simply wrote what he did so OTHER PEOPLE watch out for the same thing happening to them.

it is quite possible that it did not make much noise that woudl be instantly audiable from the cabin of a 100 series truck with possibly very noisy rubber anyway. also being at at the rear of the truckand add to that brake bias and pad backing/disk material softtness.

Jes
.

[jessie928]

I dont think everyone needs to be flaming the original poster so much. He has admitted to his mistake and posted up about it out of kindness to ensure that it doesn't happen to anyone else.

How about we turn this thread back in the POSITIVE direction by people posting up a list of things that should be checked whilst servicing your own vehicle.

I'm sure that many people here do things like oil changes, filter changes, coolant changes, but don't know what else they should be checking at the same time.. so could people please post up
- What things should be checked when servicing your car
- How often? (every oil change or less/more frequently?)
- HOW to do the check (ie what to look out for specifically)

I'm with you hugz,
the man maybe was a bit lax in not hearing developing problem but he has shared his experience with us and we dont need to add to much to his embarrasment, hopefuly we all learn a bit from his mistake and misfortune
Most of us are a bit slack with maintance some time in our lives.
His family is lucky the caliper piston didnt fall out and cause lockup at speed on freeway and also involve other roadusers as well.

why should he be embarresed? he has not done anything embarressing

im sure 99.9 % of everyone here has done many a stupid thing with their cars in the past. I know i have, thats how i learnt, by seeing and living, not by web wheeling.

Jes

[ozy1]

its something alot of people dont realise, preventitive maintenance can mean the world of difference,

while checking my brakes on my GQ the other week and spinning the disks by hand to make sure every thing was smooth, i noticed cracks in the disk, with probably 0.1-0.3mm thick,

not a good think, so in depth checking is really needed in the brakes department.

[mike_nofx]

I agree with just about everyones comments here.

I would like to point out a couple of things tho.
Some people are insisting a loud grinding noise would have been heard, I can assure you this was not the case. Maybe there was a quiet sound which i missed, ill admit that. But i have had pads wear down to the metal before on other cars and i HAVE heard loud noises. Not so in this case.

Also, having just passed a rego check in the last couple weeks, i would have thought they would check brake wear?? And i didnt take it to a dodgy inspector, infact, they are quite strict.

In all honesty, i would imagine at least 50% of people would not make removing all 4 wheels to check pads and discs part of their routine inspections. Hopefully my experience might show at least some people that it should be.

Mike

[coxy321]

In all honesty, i would imagine at least 50% of people would not make removing all 4 wheels to check pads and discs part of their routine inspections.

Mike

I dont know about everybody else, but i check my brakes everytime i change from my work tyres to play tyres. As a matter of fact, my drums need adjusting soon.

I would be querying the workshop that did your vehicle safety check too.

[smccask]

For budding home mechanics: if you have floating calipers with the bolt type slider you need to service the boots/sliders when you change pads (grease them). 4WDs driven offroad will hold water in the boots and they will rust out, seizing the caliper. I've had a very similar thing happen on an EF falcon i had, although the pad wore to metal (disc didn't break), since then i regrease floating calipers each time i change pads on all my cars. Old 4wds (like my old paj) use the ungreased metal on metal sliders, which i think are superior for offroad.

thankfully cars have a lot of redundancy built into their braking system!

[coxy321]

For budding home mechanics: if you have floating calipers with the bolt type slider you need to service the boots/sliders when you change pads (grease them). 4WDs driven offroad will hold water in the boots and they will rust out, seizing the caliper. I've had a very similar thing happen on an EF falcon i had, although the pad wore to metal (disc didn't break), since then i regrease floating calipers each time i change pads on all my cars. Old 4wds (like my old paj) use the ungreased metal on metal sliders, which i think are superior for offroad.

thankfully cars have a lot of redundancy built into their braking system!

Are you sure....

Are you sure it wasn't the slider bars on the caliper that seized, thus only allowing the contact of one brake pad?

[spamwell]

always see this in at work (old work toyota service centre) i think the 100's are just to cooshy and if you have the windows up with ac on you don't hear it lol you hear them coming in the car park and they are like what noise lol.
sam