Frozen Caliper Bolt

TexasLexus94 · May 14, 2004

I replaced the disc pads on the front brakes yesterday, and everything went smoothly until I tried to remove a right side caliper bolt-the ones with the rubber sleeve around them. No way I could get it to turn. The other 3 were no problem.

So what's the best way to get this bolt loose? Spray PB type stuff? I'm petrified that I'll shear the head off. In construction, we used to heat up frozen bolts with a torch to loosen them. Don't think that will work here.

On a related issue, I almost couldn't get the tires off. I had them balanced and rotated at Sam's Club right after I bought the car. The fairly new tires must have been put on by a wrenchead with the wrong torque. It took me an hour, and for 2 of the bolts, I had to put the jack underneath the lug wrench, and then jump up and down on the wrench. This is not the first time tire dealers have over-torqued my tires-imagine being out in the country with a flat....

tansupplyman · May 14, 2004

Guys, learn from this: if your wheels are being 'air wrenched on' at a tire dealer you just may be in deep 'd0-d0'; besides warping the rotors, if you have a flat on the road, more than likely you will NOT be able to take the tire off. the Lexus lug wrench has the shortest handle of any I have seen. Reminds me of something I and you need to do: get a piece of pipe that will slip over this handle[1+ ft long and probably 1/2" or so(measure)--will give better leverage.

Anyway, buy a torque wrench and take it with you to have tire work done-or retorque when you get home..can get a clickable one at Harbor Freight for less than $10. or something close.

soak the bolt in penatrating oil; think you can also spray the thread end of the bolt.

I had a bolt strip when I put it back in; had to get a courser thread bolt and retap the caliper--yes I used Locktite then. You can't buy the bolts(grade 8) or any in the extra fine threads--even at a 'big' bolt house.

SKperformance · May 14, 2004

You will have to heat it up .is the bolt part of the slider on the caliper assembly or the ones that hold the bracket to the hub?

It is more than likely someone who changed brakes didn;t know to remove all slider pins/bolts then clean and lubricate them before reasembly.

Difference bettween a technition and a mechanic.

Have a word with sam's club about the over tightening ,they should have special sockets which are used with an impact gun but flex when a torque setting of a socket is reached.

vyhanh · May 14, 2004

Hi,

The CAR-X guy who checked my son 91 LS400 brake rotors yesterday used a device that he attached to the air gun. He said that the device would torque the lugs at 80. He showed me that the lug stopped spinning once the torque was reached.

TexasLexus94 · May 14, 2004

Thanks for the replies. Now it gets worse. I decided to check my rear tires, and YES-There is one bolt I CANNOT get off-even with a pipe extender. I'm going to Sam's later today. Hope I don't get a flat on the way....

The caliper bolt is the one that you take out-top and bottom-to remove the old pads. The one I can't remove was on the bottom, but I could tilt it back to allow me to replace the pads. I'm concerned that the bolt won't move-for sure-but it's not snug tight as well. I replaced the pads due to a squealing noise, and now I'm thinking that the frozen bolt, being loose, allows the caliper to tremble upon stops, and thus allowing the squeal. The point is, the new pads squeal, and I know I did the install right, including new anti-squeal grease. The rotors were ground 2 months ago, so it's either the frozen bolt or I need new rotors. Any other ideas?

Thanks.

TexasLexus94 · May 15, 2004

UPDATE !! I went to Sam's, told them about the frozen lug nut, and after they confirmed I had actually been there before (Grr...), they had me pull in to a bay, and a young fellow ran over with his impact wrench. I took the center cap off, and showed him the lug nut, which I had painted with gold paint.

"Aroom, Aroom". No luck. Thought I was screwed. He ran back, got a larger and longer socket, and "AROOM'...The nut was loose. But get this-Then he proceeded to push a button on the wrench, and refastened the nut-and turned around and said "There you are, it's set to 80 pounds". Luckily, I had already gotten the Chrome Lexus mini-wrench out of the trunk, so I said "Wait a minute, let's see if I can get it off".

You know the rest. The nut wouldn't budge. So I told him "Just loosen the nut, please. I'll do the rest". And so it went.

The obvious point is that we all need to be able to remove our own lug nuts. I will bet that 3/4 of all Lexus owners couldn't put a spare tire on the car on the highway if they wanted to-and the remainder of us can-but many of us will still be screwed anyway, if we used those Bozo Tire and Brake type companies..

Check those lug-nuts, Baby.

tansupplyman · May 15, 2004

Still say that you and everyone should get a clickable torque wrench; then you would know for sure what the torque was when he set it. Where I get my tires rotated etc, the workers think that 80 psi on the air line means 80 ft-lbs on the wrench----really. Don't know what they do for Ford 150's: 100'-#'s

SITE:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Disp...?itemnumber=239

anyway--youall have at it: 1/2"socket; 10-150 ft-lb clicker torque wrench in a special case==$9.99

I have been using one for probably 4 years [better than the bending beam torque wrench !!!

SKperformance · May 15, 2004

If you have a tremble it is more than liekly the bolt is frozen and the rotors is warped

the caliper is not being able to float like it is designed ince one bolt is stuck

this will also cause uneven wear on the pads and squealing

VBdenny · May 15, 2004

I don't think you have to remove the bolt you are describing. You only need to loosen one bolt and then the inner caliper assembly rotates out. PM me with your email and I'll send you pictures with descriptions on which bolts you need to remove. They are not actually stuck, they are made with counteracting threads so they don't loosen I believe.

And oh yeah, when I first tried to remove the lugnuts, no way. I slipped a long peince of conduit over the Lexus lug wrench and used my brains to loosen them.

basher_boy · May 21, 2004

Learn a lesson here. Different cars have different lug nut torque requirements. Generally the more lugs a car has the lower the torque is for the same weight car and wheel. Alloy wheels require lower torque, than do steel wheels generally. If you over tighten or worse unevenly tighten lug nuts you can warp rotors, damage bearings, hubs, and braking systems, even possibly crack a wheel.

My old 90 Jetta GLI with alloy wheels was supposed to be at 140 ft/lbs, The LS400 with alloy wheels is supposed to at 76 ft/lb (I believe). The only way to correctly torque these things is with a calibrated torque wrench. Impact wrenches can be set to tighten to an approximate torque value, but this will be inaccurate from nut to nut. (Our worst enemy is unevenly tightened lug nuts remember?) It would be better to over tighten than to unevenly tighten.

My girlfriend has a 2003 Pontiac Grand Am SE--5 lug alloy with torque specs of 88 ft/lb I think. This model of car has severe severe severe problems with brake rotor warping. The service bulletins tell the dealers to make sure they tighten the lug nuts "correctly" to the correct torque. This is to torque the bolts to 30% of the tightened torque in a "star" pattern, than 75%, than 100%.

I could not loosen the lug nuts on that car after the dealer had gotten done replacing the rotors, pads, and calipers due to a major failure. I was not using little wrench either. I got 75% of them loose with a 3/8" breaker bar, the others came off with my 380 ft/lb impact wrench, for one I had to borrow a 500 ft/lb impact wrench. (Impact wrenches are cheap and I don't know what I would do without them) If you think that your Lexus dealer would be any more careful I wouldn't count on it, not to mention Sam's club.

My Lexus dealer replaced my brake pads without replacing, turning, or even burnishing my rotors. You can be damn sure that the Brake fluid has never been changed since the cars were new. Service manual on most cars recommend every 60K you have your full system flushed and bled. Water gets into the fluid, and can damage parts of the brake system, not to mention making brakes more prone to fade. Ever have a seized caliper? Often this is due to old water logged brake fluid.

basher