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Cause of the caliper failure on my Camaro

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Old 05-22-2006, 10:23 PM
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Only way to really know for sure would be to have the caliper (or possibly the whole car for that matter) inspected by a facility such as www.polytechnic-inc.com. They do failure analysis for machinery and hydraulic components, among other engineering services. From what I understand, they usually deal with law firms or insurance companies, as the work is very cost prohibitive; not even sure if they would deal with a private individual....I guess for the right price anything is possibile. But bottom line, if you wanted to know exactly what happened, they would likely be the best equipped lab to make that determination in the Chicago area.

Last edited by RPM WS6; 05-22-2006 at 10:28 PM.
Old 05-22-2006, 10:25 PM
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You can stand on your brakes all day in your driveway, nothing will get hot. Friction is what heats the brakes.
Old 05-22-2006, 11:14 PM
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are you saying the two halves of the caliper literally came apart? as in the one half blew off the slider posts?

that happened to me in my garage while putting my 12 bolt back in this year, but there was NO fluid in the lines.

also when I changed my WRX's front pads recently I couldn't pull them apart to re grease the posts until i had pulled the lines off so they were empty.

I'm no general mechanic but from those two experiences if that caliper blew apart then sounds like maybe you lost your brake fluid somewhere prior to trying to step on the brakes. anything you can think of that could have cause that to happen?
Old 05-23-2006, 01:42 AM
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i was at matts accident site tonight, i found a peice of the caliper bolt and part of the bracket bolt, bolt are broken. and the caliper slides i also found, plus i have 2 brake pads from the front. im thinking they came off the side the caliper blew out.
Old 05-23-2006, 06:51 AM
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What does the inside of the rim that the caliper blew apart look like? Does it have marks/gouges from the caliper on it? Possible one of the caliper guide bracket bolts or caliper mount bolts either broke or backed out, taking the caliper out on the rim.
Old 05-23-2006, 07:42 AM
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I'd vote for the bolts breaking being the issue. I could be wrong here, but doesn't GM say to replace those bolts when you remove them? I know I read that somewhere, but wasn't sure if it was for the rears or which bolts they were for that matter. I know one thing, if and when I ever get my car back, I'll be checking that out!
Old 05-23-2006, 08:33 AM
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Originally Posted by 88monte
your a nerd
no, i just slept through physics 3 times.
Old 05-23-2006, 09:03 AM
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I would have to go with the caliper coming loose and hitting the rim theory, Even a ground caliper, if it were to fail due to the thinner material, it would crack maybe leak but not explode.
Old 05-23-2006, 09:07 AM
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Do you have the caliper? If so can you post pics of it?
Old 05-23-2006, 09:41 AM
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I have part of it and I believe Rich has the rest. I looked at the car yesterday and the caliper is hanging by the lines.
Old 05-23-2006, 12:27 PM
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i have a feeling when you burned out the stress of holding the front tire in place either blew it there, or broke the bolts and the hanging calipur whacked the rim and exploded, the second one is probably what happened.
Old 05-23-2006, 09:04 PM
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If he did lose the brake fluid there would be a trail of it somewhere throughout the run.
If you go with the burnout theory. Just my 2 cents. I hope that the problem can be figured out exactly, to prevent any other incedents.
Old 05-23-2006, 11:38 PM
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actually, you can compress oil one-half percent of its volume. so technically, fluids can be compressed, but the result is minimal.

...sorry to hear about the car, i hate having mysterious **** like that happen, especially when it involves the compromise of life.

good luck with the recovery process.
Old 05-24-2006, 10:11 AM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by ibanez7
i didnt know your setup..

I agree the heating to cooling definitely did it or atleast contributed.

I could run it through solidworks and cosmo and actually do an analysis of it. Showing the breaking point.. LOL
Not without knowing the exact status/rendering of the caliper and accurate temperature changes post grinding.

I don't think the linelock temps would change since the wheel nor the brakes are moving when doing a burnout. I would think it's from something else.
Old 05-24-2006, 02:03 PM
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I'd like to contribute to the broken bolts theory that happend on my s-10 pass side caliper bolts backed out the caliper fell on the rotor and before i could slow down it rode on the rotor jammed it and actually broke the rotor machined surface away from the rest of the hub hear my warning GREASE YOUR SLIDERS at every brake job not only will it increase life and performance but it will keep them from getting stressed and breaking or backing out. sorry to hear about the car matt i was there the night you beat the blown malibu fun times especially afterwards when you DROVE your car home lol.
Old 05-24-2006, 08:42 PM
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I'd like to buy your fenders and bumpers if you end up parting this car out.

Glad you're ok though!



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