Brake parts missing or falling off after service
Mechanics occasionally leave behind loose hardware like slide pin bolts and clip wires, which can fly off while driving and cause strange noises like trilling against the rims. Missing components leave drivers wondering if their vehicle is safe to drive at high speeds or if they should wait for replacement parts.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Texting the repair shop with pictures and waiting for them to reopenDid this help you?
- 2Getting a replacement bolt from a junkyard or auto parts store and torquing it to specDid this help you?
- 3Waiting until a replacement bolt comes in before drivingDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I now know that the 'trilling' I heard when I picked it up from the shop/drove to work yesterday is from the silver wire that's clipped in hitting my rims, due to the one on my right wheel flying off today and the noise stopping on that side.”source ↗
“Sweet... that's terrifying. I've driven 75mph on the interstate with it like that. I had no idea.”source ↗
“I did that once. Fortinately nothing happened. Went to the junkyard, got a new bolt, and torqued to spec”source ↗
“And damn if the locking bolt for one of the slide pins isn't missing! The bolt for the bottom slide pin is there, but the top one is not. Now I'm wondering if it's okay for me to drive the vehicle without that bolt, or whether I should wait until a replacement bolt comes in?”source ↗
Where this came up
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