Salvage yard brake swap nearly killed me at the Pick-N-Pull in Denver last month

2 comments

2 Comments

Which car were you pulling brakes off of and what did you put them on? I've done a few yard swaps myself and never had issues but I bet the caliper bolts came loose. Did you check torque on everything before you drove out of the lot?

wren2177d ago

Actually missed something big here nobody is talking about. If he pulled brakes off a yard car, those rotors could be warped or rusted in weird ways that mess with the caliper alignment. Even if the bolts were tight, a warped rotor can push the caliper piston back unevenly and cause brake drag which then overheats everything and makes bolts loosen up from thermal cycling. I've seen it happen on a beater Civic where the guy didn't resurface the rotors and his caliper bolts backed out after a hard stop. Also yard cars often have missing shims or clips that keep everything seated right, so the pads can shift around and put sideways pressure on the bolts. This is why I always clean up the mounting surfaces and use a little thread locker on caliper bolts even if it wasn't stock.