HELP! Please.... 1st day didn't go so well

GimmeTheSpeed

Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Posts
246
Reaction score
0
Location
Sacramento, Ca.
HELP! Please.... 1st day didn\'t go so well

Talk about going from a high to a low.... first day with the new Viper... I was driving on the highway, when I heard a big clunk from under the car.... figured I'd ran something over.... well.. the rattle noise that I THOUGHT was the fan rattling in the fan shroud, is now twice as loud.... it's a metalic type sound and is only present when the car is in gear and moving.... sounds kinda like I was dragging some soda cans from a string from the front end... when in motion and I hit the brakes it goes away.... and at a complete stop it's gone.... here's the scary part, the car does not want to reverse naturally... it fights me to reverse.... in neutral the car does not roll back..... any advise would be great.... please help guys!
 
OP
OP
G

GimmeTheSpeed

Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Posts
246
Reaction score
0
Location
Sacramento, Ca.
Re: HELP! Please.... 1st day didn\'t go so well

Took the LF wheel off, noticed that the top caliper bolt WAS MISSING! lol... when I hit that bump on the highway, the clunk was the caliper coming off at the top and knocking into the rim.... the metalic noise was obviously the caliper rubbing on the rim.... it was fighting me in reverse as the top of the caliper was loose and would grab when rotating counter clockise, it was actually locked and just dragging the FL wheel when reversing.... can you imagine what it would have been like had the bottom bolt been missing... the bottom could have kicked out and caught the wheel, it would have locked on me clockwise! ugly! a ton of bricks off my chest.... back to enjoying the Viper!
 

plumcrazy

Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 9, 2003
Posts
16,243
Reaction score
7
Location
ALL OVER
Re: HELP! Please.... 1st day didn\'t go so well

this did not show up on the test drive or inspection of the car?
 

FE 065

Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 3, 2001
Posts
2,292
Reaction score
0
Location
MI
Re: HELP! Please.... 1st day didn\'t go so well

Glad you discovered the problem! Tighten them up as GB advised..
 

RedEnuf93

Enthusiast
Joined
Feb 14, 2002
Posts
2,591
Reaction score
2
Location
Lancaster, PA
Re: HELP! Please.... 1st day didn\'t go so well

"can you imagine what it would have been like had the bottom bolt been missing"

Yes.

It happened to a friend of mine. He lost the brakes due to this, luckily he did not crash his car.
 

Vic

VCA Venom Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2000
Posts
6,763
Reaction score
0
Re: HELP! Please.... 1st day didn\'t go so well

I always wondered if I really need to torque down my caliper bolts hard, which is my habit. After hearing this story, I will continue to do so.

Sheesh! Glad your ok, "G/T/S"!
 
OP
OP
G

GimmeTheSpeed

Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Posts
246
Reaction score
0
Location
Sacramento, Ca.
Re: HELP! Please.... 1st day didn\'t go so well

Thx guys, I'm back on the road... double checked all sides for security.... and this was not noticeable in the test drive as the caliper sat fine in place.... but being the bolt was missing, as soon as I hit that bump... it kicked the caliper out and up against the wheel.... scary situation. Really lucky
 

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
153,218
Posts
1,682,078
Members
17,715
Latest member
SKY1960
Top