Rear Driver Side Brake Pad Fell Off!

Gageraid · **Posted:** Tue Oct 13, 2015 10:49 am

First start of the day this morning, I put it in gear and before I even left the driveway I heard this awful sound! Applied the brakes and it sure felt funny!
I immediately backed it up in my driveway and I'm on my way to the parts store by foot.
I looked where I parked and there was a brake lying there on the ground staring back at me! :shock:

NAMoulton1 · **Joined:** Tue Aug 12, 2014 7:01 pm **Posts:** 1054

Well...that's new haha.

lfhoward · **Posted:** Tue Oct 13, 2015 4:06 pm

Whoa!

Is the caliper intact? It shouldn't drop the pads on the pavement like that!!!

Phil + Neela · **Joined:** Sun Oct 23, 2011 5:19 pm **Posts:** 73

I'm assuming the pad fell off the bracket? I've seen that once before...but not on a consistently used vehicle.

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Gageraid · **Posted:** Wed Oct 14, 2015 12:02 pm

Caliper is in tact still.
Now I'm having one hell of a time getting the wheel spacers off.
Ran out of time today, tomorrow I'll need to buy a rubber mallet and see if that works.

lfhoward · **Posted:** Wed Oct 14, 2015 4:19 pm

Gageraid wrote:

Caliper is in tact still.
Now I'm having one hell of a time getting the wheel spacers off.
Ran out of time today, tomorrow I'll need to buy a rubber mallet and see if that works.

Spacers rusted to the rotors? Or lug nuts refusing to budge? If it's the first, a rubber mallet will work wonders.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Fri Oct 16, 2015 1:45 am

lfhoward wrote:

Gageraid wrote:

Caliper is in tact still.
Now I'm having one hell of a time getting the wheel spacers off.
Ran out of time today, tomorrow I'll need to buy a rubber mallet and see if that works.

Spacers rusted to the rotors? Or lug nuts refusing to budge? If it's the first, a rubber mallet will work wonders.

I had to go to Home Depot and get a torch! Spacers finally came off with lots of heat and a hammer. The rubber mallet wasn't doing much.
Now I have to adjust the star adjuster or whatever it's called to get the rotor off.
It's been a slow process since I assumed it would be the same as the front brakes.
I remember you adjusted this at my house, so I know I can get to it.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Fri Oct 16, 2015 12:59 pm

It's been one hell of a brake job.
Finally got the rotors off, but broke the star adjustment wheel on the driver side in the process.

lfhoward · **Posted:** Fri Oct 16, 2015 7:40 pm

Dang.

Looks like another trip to Napa.

Sorry to hear about that. My rear brakes were a challenge also. I think my rear brake thread from last fall is there in the tech section in case it might help.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 9:20 am

lfhoward wrote:

Dang.

Looks like another trip to Napa.

Sorry to hear about that. My rear brakes were a challenge also. I think my rear brake thread from last fall is there in the tech section in case it might help.

Making more progress. About to go pick up the star adjustment wheel.
I hope I'm able to adjust them properly. I've got a hot date on Sunday, so it needs to be in good working order!

lfhoward · **Posted:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 11:29 am

It turns out the adjustment I did to the start wheels at your place wasn't quite enough. Since then, the parking brake has loosened quite a bit, so it no longer holds the Jeep in place. Need to adjust them again.

Also, my front pads are down to 4mm (2mm being the minimum thickness), so I'll be doing my front brakes within a month or two. I do a lot of coasting like you, so my pads tend to last a lot longer than average. The last time they were done was at 50,500 miles. Now I'm at 114,500 or so.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 1:15 pm

I'm not a big fan of the adjustments needed to do the parking brake.
Ran out of time, but tomorrow morning I just have to install the calipers and test drive.
Lauren, a blind man can do the front brakes so there should be no worries at all.

lfhoward · **Posted:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 2:23 pm

Gageraid wrote:

I'm not a big fan of the adjustments needed to do the parking brake.
Ran out of time, but tomorrow morning I just have to install the calipers and test drive.
Lauren, a blind man can do the front brakes so there should be no worries at all.

Sounds good. The rears were definitely a pain. Let's hope my front calipers don't decide to seize up like the rears did...

Gageraid · **Posted:** Sun Oct 18, 2015 10:53 am

lfhoward wrote:

Gageraid wrote:

I'm not a big fan of the adjustments needed to do the parking brake.
Ran out of time, but tomorrow morning I just have to install the calipers and test drive.
Lauren, a blind man can do the front brakes so there should be no worries at all.

Sounds good. The rears were definitely a pain. Let's hope my front calipers don't decide to seize up like the rears did...

Speaking of that... Looks like my rear driver side is seized (the one that had the brake pad break). The piston is stuck all the way out, I tried to compress it with a tool, but no luck.
Seized?
So incredibly irritated right now!

lfhoward · **Posted:** Sun Oct 18, 2015 6:53 pm

You may have already tried this, but open the bleeder and then try to compress the piston. It'll be a bit messy but there should be less force opposing you. When you're done you might have to bleed the brake on that side to get rid of any air in the system.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Sun Oct 18, 2015 11:55 pm

lfhoward wrote:

You may have already tried this, but open the bleeder and then try to compress the piston. It'll be a bit messy but there should be less force opposing you. When you're done you might have to bleed the brake on that side to get rid of any air in the system.

I thought about trying that, but I'm seriously done with it. Too much frustration this week. Getting it towed tomorrow to a shop and replacing both calipers.
That's why the brake pad broke. :banghead:

Not the first time we've heard about a caliper seizing up on this forum. I didn't think it would happen to me or the way it happened.
The funny thing is that it's been sitting in my driveway for like 4 days with a full tank of gas. Good thing I bike to work.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Mon Oct 19, 2015 11:05 am

Tow truck came a few minutes ago to pick up the Jeep.
I'll keep this updated with more info.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Mon Oct 19, 2015 11:54 am

Just got the quote. Ouch!

Gageraid · **Posted:** Wed Oct 21, 2015 12:49 pm

Got the Jeep back. Everything seems to be okay but I hear what I think is the rear driver side dust shield when I take a sharp left.
I've been bending it a little bit, I'll have more time tomorrow to hopefully fix it.

Scar0 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 21, 2015 1:39 pm

So what was the cause of the pad falling off?
The only way I can think of this happening is if the caliper came loose or the brake pad backing metal plate broke, or the metal plate notch (where it sits on the caliper) was completely worn off.
I would also guess the caliper not going back in was because without a pad in place, applying the brakes would push it out of the socket.

Rear Driver Side Brake Pad Fell Off!

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