precautionary tale

[Joderest]

I consider myself to be a fair old school mechanic, meaning i can do most things involving sockets, spanners and screwdrivers, although now at an age that i do not take gearboxes or engines out any more (used to, but not now) Anyway, here goes.........
The better half's Mini needed new discs and pads all round, as MOT man said that it did, mileage is at 90,000, and we got it at 40,000, so this may be its first set of disc's ( i have changed pads before on it).
So, set a Saturday morning aside, sods law, pouring with rain, but hey ho, large umbrella kept most of it off, had to drill out 3 of the four small disc retaining screws and re tap thread, which slowed me down a bit, but four hours later, back indoors, cup of tea, sofa nap ( as you do at my age !!!!)
Two weeks later, wife complained of a "clunk" sometimes, i drove the car, could not hear anything, so thought "its just her", then Thursday just gone wife said "that clunks getting worse", so i thought i better remove myself from the sofa and have a look. Jacked up each corner in turn, removed wheel, checked tightness of calliper bracket bolts, and retaining bolts, no issues seen until last wheel came off at off side rear, went to check tightness of calliper to bracket bolt, errr, no bolt !!!!!, looked at bottom one, half out. no wonder she said there was a clunk, calliper almost off the car. Made a bolt to fit and lock tighted in. I have now found the correct bolt and will fit that.
Moral of this tale.......
1) check your work, there is no doubt i did not tighten these bolts up, due to rushing and the weather, i admit to this, its the only explanation
2) believe what other half says !!!!!

I am going to remove all four wheels again, take the bolts out, loctite and put back in, just for piece of mind.

 

[Nat]

School boy error quickly rectified.
Not sure if the moral of your story is to listen to the wife, double check everything or do it in the dry - no fun in the rain that's for sure. Or all 3

 

[zipdip]

A suspicious person might think this was a assassination attempt that failed,suggest you check that the sugar on you morning cereal is not in fact powdered glass I think these things come with the age of the beast,I know I make silly mistakes now,ok brake caliper not tightened on a slightly grander scale than my usual c--k ups,my latest one was fixing one of those tv brackets to the wall all went well put the 49 inch tv on the bracket and everything was fine for a couple of weeks then I noticed the tv was leaning forward,had a look and I had not screwed home to top screws holding the bracket,of course SWIMBO was quick to suggest she now checks all my DIY.

 

[grober]

Its when you're fatigued that you lose concentration and make mistakes.

 

[wu56Shoozz]

If your reusing the bolts then yes, Loctite is the way to go. Usually you Get two new bolts with the "blue" blob on the thread - its them you are supposed to use..

 

[John N]

We have all been there and done something very similar, I take my hat off to you for owning up, and your secret is safe with me!

 

[Joderest]

regarding bolts coming with pads, appears thats a thing of the past, sometimes you get 1, as swing calliper, fit pads, 1 new bolt.
I remember that MINTEX used to supply the bolts, not any more.
on ebay, cheapest i could find was £2,47 plus 2.99 postage, for one bolt !!!!. went to local garage and pinched one from them for nothing.

 

[MD5]

Let us know if you are taking her sky diving in the near future?!

 

[Joderest]

oh ha bl**dy ha. ( anyway, no life insurance !!!!)

 

[Joderest]

As i said, for piece of mind, going to check all again tomorrow, take out all bolts and loctite back in place, and put new bolt in i have got (i think the temp one i fitted is not the correct grade steel, so again, just piece of mind)

 

[brucemillar]

OP. Thanks for a good "honest" post that we should all take note of. Whilst in some humour these things can and do, have serious implications. As you say, it is good that you took note of your wife's hearing.

A tip we often employ when working on systems that require "critical" and precise repairs is to create a very simple "Tick Sheet". Yes it can sound like overkill, but can and does save time (and maybe people) further down the line. This is particularly effective & helpful when you have a job that is unintentionally interrupted, either by the neighbour popping in for a man chat or (as in my recent case) where my new ECP pads, Discs, bolts & pins, turned out not to be all of the correct fitment/parts. That led to a "three week" delay with the car on axle stands and bits on the floor and my trusty magnetic pans.

Returning to a job after three weeks can be a challenge to anybody, let alone an infirm old git like me. Simply put... You lose you place and starting up where you left off can be a memory tester. With a "tick sheet" you can see, you were at point "B" before advancing to Point "C".

It is the other reason that I, after years of losing tools, bit the bullet, and now use complete sets of spanners, screwdrivers etc, that all have a place to sit in. I can tell immediately see, if I am missing a spanner or any other tool by the empty gap in the tool drawer. This has found me rescuing many a 10mm socket from the bowels of the engine bay ;^) and more importantly I no longer spend longer looking for the tools I need to do the job, than I would actually spend in, doing the job (we have all done that).

I am not trying to come over as "Mr Perfect" here, far from it. But I really like to hear about real life practical experiences, that save us all so much time, effort and pain.

A caliper flying loose at speed would be unlikely to have a pretty ending. So a job well done and a learning for us all.

Thank You.

Bruce

 

[Monkeylegend]

Another good tip is make sure when you think you have finished that you haven't accrued any spare parts like bolts, shim plates etc that you didn't have when you started.

Well how was I to know

 

[grober]

Referring to Bruce's post, working environments and fatigue when the "kerbside mechanic" always expends precious extra energy is how they have to address the components in question. We underestimate the huge benefit a good post lift, good lighting and an environment shielded from the elements - rain snow wind etc can make to a job. With a powered post lift the ease with which a car can be raised and lowered such that the job in hand can be presented at the optimal working level for access and visibility should not be underestimated in terms of the expenditure of energy to get the job done.
Forget that multiple pumping up/lowering of that trolley jack, the placement of axle stands in awkward places, the neck craneing, the limbo dancing/crawling in the dirt, the soaked boiler suit the skinned knuckles the trapped fingers, that bad back etc - just press that raise lower lift lever and wait for the compressor to startup for the airtools while drinking your cuppa!

 

[brucemillar]

On a recent rip to my trusted tyre shop who has the very latest post and scissor lifts, I was impressed that on the post lifts each leg had a magnetic "bits tray" attached to it. Just that one simple bit of thinking made something like changing discs, so much easier and cleaner. Nothing has to placed on the floor and being magnetic, nothing was left loose, including tools. They still suffer the scourge of the other techs "borrowing" tools without permission which that all hate, but presumably (given some of the comments) all still do to each other.

 

[Joderest]

Hi, thanks for kind replies to what was a bl**Dy stupid schoolboy error that should not have happened but did, thankfully, no cost or damage to car or life. I can only put it down to being tired and complacent.
Today, took each wheel off in turn, took off each calliper bolt, cleaned and loctite. Put back and tightened. I replaced the bolt I had made with proper hardened bolt. Cleaned all inside of wheels, checked and lube where required on suspension and anything else. Road test, all good.

My next job is to repaint all wheels on the w163, as looking a bit tatty. I am going to try a glitter finish!!!!!!!, We will see.
Thanks all

 

[Mactech]

When I joined the motorsport game at the tender age of 26, a blunt Aussie mechanic gave me just one piece of advice:
"It's either on and tight, or on the bench! " He went on to be Allan Jones's championship winning mech. at Williams that little phrase has served me well for many years. It still pops into my head when I'm working on any car from old road cars to Le Mans winning racers

 

[markjay]

I tend to write-up a check list before any job (nit just car related), then tick the items off one by one... I still do miss things but much less than I would of done otherwise!

(PS - I know it should of been 'have' and not 'of' but I think the Queen's English is now changing according to online trends....?)

 

[mounty3279]

Don’t worry about it, whats the worse that could have happened.....

 

[wu56Shoozz]

Ha!! Don't go there... I've had it twice... A wheel came off the car both at low speeds..My first was a CV Joint total failure and NFF by the garage prior to it failing.. the second was a set of wheel nuts by the dealer not tightened.. then the wheel just parted company and no more.. both were unexpected happenings, no feel to either....the CV joint was at 10mph... and the Wheel nut incident 5mph as I rolled to a stop it just keeled over... luck on both occasions..

In days of yore .. when you customized cars back when... we were traveling to a custom car show in the NEC. My mate had a Mirror flaked, supercharged, six wheel mini van.. in those days you could ride in the back happily without plod pulling you.. so there we were belting down the M6 everything going fine.... until someone says "Who's that wheel...: as this wheel shot passed us and off up the embankment at a great rate of knots... then **DOFFF** Followed by heavy grinding... yes, it was ours... the bearing had failed and off it went hub the lot.. I can laugh at it now but it was scary at the time lols!

 

[horatio]

Don't be too hard on yourself - I've had things like this happen after paying garages to do work!