So after all my work and money...

[Jean]

Damn, that sucks man. I hope you work something out soon!

[Jordan325iC]

This happened to me. I don't know how exactly, I can't imagine I didn't tighten the bolt down, and it had been a few months since the last brake job.

This all happened on the highway going 80. It broke the brake line, tore the front caliper off and destroyed my uber-rare 80s momo 5 spoke wheel. Luckily the caliper and tire survived. Took me months to find another set of momo wheels, and I had to buy all 4 of them. So now I have 7 of the same wheel, plus one shattered one. Spares :D .

Anyway, sucks. That's why I don't work on other people's cars. I just don't want to be responsible for anything but my own. Your buddy was trying to help you out. He did screw up, and he should help cover the damages, but I don't think it's anything to end a friendship over.

[Disaster Inc]

seeing as how i didnt know how to trigger the abs unit to bleed the air out, yeah i went to a shop to have my brakes bled.

Huh? I'm confused. Trigger the ABS to bleed? Straight pressure bleed worked fine on my 88 ABS...am I missing something?

[e30Matt]

Sucks, but hey, perfect opportunity to upgrade to bugg breaks.

[Jesse30]

its been worked out, im getting it up on a lift tomorrow to figure out everything that needs to be replaced and then its all getting done sat.

[Jesse30]

so im guessing the sold banner is because of him?

i would hate to have to reimburse you for that.

the sold banner is from my old car. just havent had pics of the new car yet and probably wont for a couple more days because of this delay.

[golde30]

wow. sucks. this has happened to a few people on this board. maybe i should go out and buy some replacement bolts for my calipers in 10.9.

[kellie]

On a car this old, it would make sense to replace all of the hardware when you do a brake job.

My friend worked for Mercedes Benz of Beverly Hills for a few months, and he forgot to tighten down the caliper bolts on a G500. The caliper came off in traffic a few days later, and the customer rear-ended the car in front of him. Could have been much worse, but he threatened to sue the dealership. Amazingly, my friend didn't get fired, and luckily, no one got hurt.

[VacMan]

I am sure his friend feels horrible and will do anything he can to make it right. I'm glad no one was injured, or things might be much worse. It sucks, but there are lessons everyone can learn from it and everything can be fixed.

And at the end of the day, it IS only a car.

[Jesse30]

I am sure his friend feels horrible and will do anything he can to make it right. I'm glad no one was injured, or things might be much worse. It sucks, but there are lessons everyone can learn from it and everything can be fixed.

And at the end of the day, it IS only a car.

yeah, everythings been worked out.

[E30SPDFRK]

pics?

[Jesse30]

i'll snap some tomorrow when i have it on the lift and all apart.

[TwoJ's]

I also had my caliper come off. I did a brake job, replaced all of the hardware with high grade steel, and then about 5k miles later on I-90 one of the bolts snapped while braking for an off ramp at 70-75 mph. I guess I'm luckier than you guys though, one of the bolts held on and all I had to do was replace the hardware.

[Ben Carufel]

While we're telling caliper stories...

I was autocrossing the S50 E30 last year and all of a sudden I would hear a "clunk" under braking.

Got out and inspected the fronts, and sure enough one of the caliper bolts was just gone and the other was pretty loose. Every time that caliper clamped the rotor it would rotate up on the axis of the one good bolt and hit the inside of the wheel.

No damage, and believe it or not a lug bolt fits perfectly into the caliper bolt hole (not the guide pin hole!). I was able to limp it home slowly. I just replaced those caliper bolts on both sides for safety, and it's been fine since.

[FredK]

Yikes. Glad to hear you're OK.

IIRC these are Grade 10.9 custom shoulder bolts with a custom shoulder length. I wouldn't replace them with any old M12 bolt that is similar in length.