Sweetheart, how long has your car been making that noise?!?

[Mike C.]

Wife to husband: "Oh, for quite a while now.... why?"


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http://i.imgur.com/XlrLp.jpg

[Michael]

:jawdrop: Seriously I did not think that would be possible to that extent!

[Dangermouse]

You know I saw that and wondered.

If it was caused by the calipers, it wouldn't have done such a neat job, firstly, and secondly, the rotors have been turned all the way up the hub, beyond where the calipers would reach.

[Bitsyncmaster]

You know I saw that and wondered.

If it was caused by the calipers, it wouldn't have done such a neat job, firstly, and secondly, the rotors have been turned all the way up the hub, beyond where the calipers would reach.

Good eye. The pad could never eat that much metal from the rotor but it's not uncommon that brake problems on the wife's car go to metal to metal brake contact for a few weeks.

[Silverbullet]

fake.....:rolleyes1:

[Mike C.]

Of course its fake... trying to lighten the mood up in here....

[Silverbullet]

Then WELL DONE! :wink:

[Shep]

It's not fake. Here's one I came across on a Volkswagen forum a few years ago, from a mechanic who said the customer complained of "brake fade":

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=13512&d=1348457466
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=13511&d=1348457079
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=13513&d=1348457468

Yes, that is just a tiny 1/2" ring of the rotor still wedged in the caliper, and yes, the other side is perfectly intact (as seen in picture 2). Evidently the rest got chewed up. There's even worse ones here (http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4534625-Customer-complaint-of-brake-fade), including some where the disc separated from the drum entirely and others where all that's left is the drum and the dust shield.

[Mike C.]

it's not fake. Here's one i came across on a volkswagen forum a few years ago, from a mechanic who said the customer complained of "brake fade":

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=13512&d=1348457466
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=13511&d=1348457079
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=13513&d=1348457468

yes, that is just a tiny 1/2" ring of the rotor still wedged in the caliper, and yes, the other side is perfectly intact (as seen in picture 2). Evidently the rest got chewed up. There's even worse ones here (http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4534625-customer-complaint-of-brake-fade), including some where the disc separated from the drum entirely and others where all that's left is the drum and the dust shield.

nice!!!

[Nicholas R]

Interestingly enough, in the same thread that that^ is from, someone posted this picture of a new beetle in a mall parking lot:
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/9409/dsc00469be1.jpg

Perhaps the original post isn't as impossible, just improbable.

[Shep]

Interestingly enough, in the same thread that that^ is from, someone posted this picture of a new beetle in a mall parking lot:
[snip]
Perhaps the original post isn't as impossible, just improbable.I'll be honest, ever since I saw that thread two or three years ago, whenever I'm in a parking lot and I'm walking by the cars, I try to look at as many brake rotors as possible. Thankfully, I haven't seen any abnormal rotors. It's nice to see many cars have rear disc brakes nowadays, but what's more surprising is just how many cars still have steel wheels (even brand new ones!)

Stuck calipers can do that. The reason for the hula hoop one I posted most likely is because it's a rear wheel, and the additional braking force wasn't noticed until it was gone, at which point the driver noticed it was no longer stopping as fast as it used to (since 10% was braking all the time), and brought it in due to "brake fade".

[stevedmc]

Stuff like this makes me glad I'm not married.

[SIMid]

Should add around an extra 10hp to performance ........

13593

[Nicholas R]

Should add around an extra 10hp to performance ........

13593

http://picardfacepalm.com/updown.gif

[thirdmanj]

Stuff like this makes me glad I'm not married.

If you're dumb enough to marry a women that dumb, you had it comming. Of course you'll be lucky enough to find any woman that shares your affection for green pimp suits, carburetors, ghost chilies, and noodle baths.... Yeeesh, I bet THAT woman would be a sight to behold.

*opens new window (www.peopleofwalmart.com) to find Steve's ideal woman...

[DniveK]

Should add around an extra 10hp to performance ........

13593


Reminds me of my highschool friends dad doing his own brake job. He thought the anti squeel gel went on the brake pads and rotor! After putting it together he took it for a drive around the block, coming back with red glowing rotors and rims.

[Shep]

Stuff like this makes me glad I'm not married.Have you ever thought about, you know, telling her? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to explain to anyone who doesn't already know that when the car squeals while braking, the brakes are bad and needs to be taken care of immediately. In fact, I just did. If you can't figure out how to explain something that simple to your hypothetical wife... to be honest, I don't even have a punchline for that one.

And besides, if you look carefully at the one I posted, in the third picture you can see there's still quite a bit of pad left, which meant that there was no squealing, hence no reason to believe anything was wrong. It could very well have been a car enthusiast who drove that one, and perhaps that's why it was noticed at all -- they knew cars, and thus they knew that something was up.

Last year in my daily driver Civic, the left front caliper seized up. It would brake, but it wouldn't release fully. The pistons rusted enough that it was blocked from full release, but still had enough movement to brake. It was the front ones, and the only reason I knew anything was up was a god-awful smell I would get when I got out of the car after driving. It was like that for a week or two before I finally thought maybe it wasn't just a "hot" smell from the engine running, and perhaps something was wrong. I popped the hood, smelled around, and couldn't pinpoint it. I started to walk away, and suddenly it was much stronger. I turned around and traced it to the driver's front wheel. I drove it straight to our local mechanic and dropped it off, but not before I had one of them come out to smell it himself for much easier diagnosing and initial speculation (which was, correctly, the brakes). Turns out both fronts were rusted quite bad. Had I neglected it much longer, I have no doubt my rotors would've wound up exactly like the one Mike posted, perhaps even worse. And I've been a car guy for years, well before that point. It simply didn't seem like the brakes. The side exhaust being right in front of the hula hoop wheel helps explain why the smell wasn't noticed by that guy -- he probably smelled the exhaust (or what he thought was the exhaust) and didn't think it was a symptom.

It's a simple equation:
(brand new, average pads + cheap, used and/or scored rotors + seized calipers = rotor disintegration with zero squealing) + time = demolished rotor with plenty of pad.

Although for the record, I'm single too at the moment. :wink:


anti squeel gelDoesn't this defeat the whole purpose of the brake pad indicator? :confused0:

[Dangermouse]

It could very well have been a car enthusiast who drove that one,

err, it was a Mercury Grand Marquis, so maybe not.

Deaf owner, well quite possibly.

[Shep]

err, it was a Mercury Grand Marquis, so maybe not.Correction: broke car enthusiast. Chris Burns has been wanting a DeLorean for years now, and simply cannot afford one, but is still arguably one of the biggest enthusiasts on this forum. I don't see him trading his daily driver for any other kind of car, regardless of what it is. Maybe this guy's in the same boat.

Who knows, his other car may be a DeLorean :shhh:


Deaf owner, well quite possibly.But see that's the thing: the brake pad was very much intact, which means it didn't wear down to the indicator, so it would not have produced any noticeable sound. If it had generic steel wheels, it's actually impressive it was noticed period, considering how bad it was. Once it gets to that point where there is zero rotor left for the caliper to grab, if the owner doesn't realize there's a difference, it may very well only be noticed when the tires are replaced or the owner gets a flat.

[DMCMW Dave]

Reminds me of my highschool friends dad doing his own brake job. He thought the anti squeel gel went on the brake pads and rotor! After putting it together he took it for a drive around the block, coming back with red glowing rotors and rims.

Funny - I always thought it was crazy that they had to put on big letters on the package to NOT put that stuff on the pad surface. I guess is wasn't clear enough!

[Dangermouse]

Correction: broke car enthusiast. Chris Burns has been wanting a DeLorean for years now, and simply cannot afford one, but is still arguably one of the biggest enthusiasts on this forum. I don't see him trading his daily driver for any other kind of car, regardless of what it is. Maybe this guy's in the same boat.

Who knows, his other car may be a DeLorean :shhh:

But see that's the thing: the brake pad was very much intact, which means it didn't wear down to the indicator, so it would not have produced any noticeable sound. If it had generic steel wheels, it's actually impressive it was noticed period, considering how bad it was. Once it gets to that point where there is zero rotor left for the caliper to grab, if the owner doesn't realize there's a difference, it may very well only be noticed when the tires are replaced or the owner gets a flat.

First part was a joke. Could be a
Mercury Maurader!

While the outboard pad is intact there is nothing left of the inboard one as far as I can see. Otherwise, what wore the rotor away?

So there must have been some sort of grinding noise as the pad was consumed including the wear indicator, if fitted. And then through the backing pad. I'm surprised there wasn't some smoke and sparks too.