Tighten your caliper bracket bolts!

So my truck developed this weird clunk/rattling noise on the passenger side when going over bumps. I was thinking that my ball joints were shot or that the spindle nut had back off and that I was hearing the axle bearings hitting in the race.

I pull the wheel off and crawl under the truck and find that my friggin' brake caliper bolts were loose. The noise was the brake caliper rattling against the steering knuckle Maybe I shouldn't have put never-seez on the caliper bolts...

Luckily this noise only started yesterday and I fixed it this afternoon.



Edit. the bolts referred to in this thread are the 15mm head bolt holding the caliper bracket to the spindle--pictured above

This is not uncommon,
It happened on my truck also--

I moved this to stock 2nd gen forum-

It would be a good sticky if there were pics

jtsmith said:

I moved this to stock 2nd gen forum-

It would be a good sticky if there were pics

Click to expand...

ha, want me to go loosen the bolts and take pics?

Hokie said:

ha, want me to go loosen the bolts and take pics?

Click to expand...

If you don't mind--

jk
actually I was hoping to get the attention of a member who posted this same thing-with pictures. Since then, it seems it has happened a few times-that I have heard of.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164571&highlight=caliper+bolt

no pictures, but you are not alone

Happened to me to except for my bolts were gone......Caliber was just hanging there.

I believe that a lot of this is coming from not getting the bolts quite tight enough. Those bolts are the strongest in the vehicle for their size. They need to have at least the same torque as lug nuts, about 80lbs.ft. Locktite would not be a bad idea, but really the key is that people are a little afraid of getting them too tight.

It is possible to break anything, but I'd suggest just taking more time to be sure that they get very tight.

I've had one caliper bolt found a hair loose one time, my fabricated big brakes. My spindle/caliper bolts are stock, they work well, and haven't become loose. But the actual special bolts which attach my caliper to my custom bracket are slightly smaller and grade 8 bolts. I was careful when tightening them but I didn't want to overdo it the first time. I likely had them about 50-60lbs.ft. tight, which is evidently not enough. The threads are in aluminum calipers and those need special care. I have made them tighter since then, but I use the locktite for those. Good luck,

jtsmith said:

If you don't mind

Click to expand...

Yeah, I can get pics, doesn't take that long to get the wheel off and get under the truck.

xFatcatx said:

Happened to me to except for my bolts were gone......Caliber was just hanging there.

Click to expand...

My dad bought a used '02 XLS that had the same thing. The people had been driving it like that for a while

CDW6212R; said:

I believe that a lot of this is coming from not getting the bolts quite tight enough. Those bolts are the strongest in the vehicle for their size. They need to have at least the same torque as lug nuts, about 80lbs.ft. Locktite would not be a bad idea, but really the key is that people are a little afraid of getting them too tight.

Click to expand...

Obviously I didn't tighten them enough. I put never-seez on the bolts b/c it was all I could do to get them off when I did the brakes. Now i'm rethinking the never-seez decision.

That's exactly why I haven't used the locktite. But I use a long flex head 3/8" ratchet to loosen those bolts. It's longer than a 1/2" ratchet. Below is a picture of my first test fit of a Corvette caliper onto a Corvette rotor(The offset wouldn't work well with wheels, so I altered the bracket and made custom rotors).

The stock caliper bolts are clearly seen there, going into the back of the spindle. A bolt similar to the grade 8 seen there is what I had turn up slightly loose when I was checking things one day.

jtsmith said:

It would be a good sticky if there were pics

Click to expand...

Sorry for the delay - here's what they looked like. You can see its loose from the steering knuckle

Loose caliper mounting bolts are an all-too-common result of home brake jobs. The torque spec is often much higher than you might guess by "feel". Torque the mounting bolts to spec and add threadlocker if you like. (Example: The short, thick caliper mounting bolts on 98+ Rangers and Gen2 Explorers should be torqued to 85 lb-ft; the long, smaller diameter caliper bolts to 24 lb-ft)

The picture below shows what can happen if a caliper bolt backs all the way out. The victim in this case was a Ranger but its brake parts are common to Gen2 Explorers. It occurred coming to a stop following a long downhill pavement run after a few hours of night wheeling. The owner lost a wheel and had to scrounge a bolt to get home - obviously, the consequences could have been a LOT worse.

I got lucky that I was able to hear my caliper rattling and found the problem the next day!

I had both of those happen to me. I used blue loctite and torqued them down and they havent backed out since. On the bracket to spindle bolts you could also use a lock-washer.

That picture above from Brett shows the caliper bracket with the caliper removed.

Why does anyone remove the caliper from the caliper bracket, ever? Those caliper bolt boots are very critical and sensitive to moisture, dirt and thus easily damaged. Please leave them alone, do not ever separate the caliper from its bracket.

Simply remove the entire bracket/caliper assembly with the two main bracket bolts. Only if the calipers become damaged(those boots having dirt or water in them), should they be touched to replace the caliper. It's the same for most brake calipers, try to leave the caliper always attached to the bracket. Regards,

CDW6212R said:

That picture above from Brett shows the caliper bracket with the caliper removed.

Why does anyone remove the caliper from the caliper bracket, ever? Those caliper bolt boots are very critical and sensitive to moisture, dirt and thus easily damaged. Please leave them alone, do not ever separate the caliper from its bracket.

Simply remove the entire bracket/caliper assembly with the two main bracket bolts. Only if the calipers become damaged(those boots having dirt or water in them), should they be touched to replace the caliper. It's the same for most brake calipers, try to leave the caliper always attached to the bracket. Regards,

Click to expand...

Two reasons...

1) Haynes tells you to remove the lower caliper bolt (the ones that go to the boots) and rotate the entire caliper up for a brake job

2) For that picture I was actually removing the caliper slider pins, cleaning them and regreasing (with synthetic caliper slider pin lube) as they were hanging up and causing horrible MPG's and premature pad wear

(Doing so I got the truck back to the stock 15-18 mpg, instead of the 10-13 mpg I was seeing)

That is the problem, the manuals are causing the issues with the sticking slider pins. Those pins will remain lubricated possibly for the life of the vehicle, if they are not disturbed.

Removing the bolts is disturbing those sealed lubricated parts. If you stop following the manual telling you to do that, the problem may never happen again. No offense meant to you, but I have little respect for the writers of the manuals for any products. They seem to research the concepts, and then interpret them into what they think is best. A real mechanic would tell you the same thing, they know the real tricks to make tasks easier and better.

Unless there is real evidence of contamination of any brake caliper slider pin/bolt, do not loosen it or remove it. Leave it tight, and simply remove the caliper bracket bolts. Regards,

This also happened on my Mustang, and one of the bolts came out and shredded my five-star on the drivers side front. Another thing, I've heard that reusing them can sometimes cause problems? Anyone know about this? Heard it had to do with the loctite on the ends... I don't reuse them anymore- I rarely pull them off for anything but a brake job, but now if I pull them off for a service, I use new bolts.

As Bob also pointed out above, the torque required for those bolts is as much as lug nuts. Most people will not achieve that much torque at the odd angle which most wrenches will get in those bolts.

Every one needs to be very careful to gain enough leverage with a proper large enough tool, to get those bolts tight enough. They are top grade bolts, very strong. You should have a very hard time breaking them. Do not try to break them, risking stripping out the threads by over tightening bolts is not smart. If you worry about the proper actual torque, use a torque wrench, simple enough. Make sure the threads are in good shape in both parts, they should last as long as the vehicle.

I'm not sure mine is the same, but mines sounds like a old bed springs when going over bumps 25MPH +. If so, I'm free tomorrow. I'll do mine because its been like that since last winter!