mashed driveshaft?

[STORM 2 0]

:( A very gutted man this morning...

I was returning home from a fishing trip last night when my front O/S wheel hit the mother of all potholes down a country lane. I then heard a noise akin to a loose cat cover or exhaust dragging for about 200 yards until I braked. Then I heard a bone-chilling grinding noise (bit like when ABS activates) and lost forward drive. It was like trying to drive with the handbrake on except it sounded much worse. Reversing was OK though.

Looked outside and saw the front O/S caliper grinding into the inside of the alloy :eek: see picture.

Car has been recovered to VW - have to call them this morning to get an idea of the damage, but am I looking at a broken driveshaft? More worryingly, could I have caused secondary damage to the gearbox?

[coolrado 0]

I had this happen on a company van, it turned out to be the muppets at the garage hadnt bothered to tighten the brake caliper bolts up properly, and one fell out, the caliper had come away at the top and hinged forward, so as the wheel was spinning it acted as a sort of ratchet mechanism, it locked the wheel up going forward and was fine in reverse.

 

and the more you apply the brake the more it would force the caliper into the wheel.

 

its unlikely you have damaged anything else other than the wheel and that will probably only need a respray, VW driveshafts are made of sturner stuff, it's not a fiat :lol:

 

you may have had a loose bolt or it may have sheared when you hid the pot hole.

 

mine happened at 60mph on a coast road above a 100ft drop and i only managed to keep it on the road by yanking the handbrake on, needless to say the garage where made to pay for their mistake :bad-words:

[STORM 2 0]

thanks for that coolrado...reassuring indeed.

I will keep all informed as this saga unfolds - maybe there's a lesson in it all (looking on the positive side :) )

[coolrado 0]

maybe there's a lesson in it all (looking on the positive side :) )

Yeah if you want a job doing properly, do it yourself :D

 

The incident with my brakes and a few other issues are why I will never take a car to a garage to get work done, a couple of weeks ago after taking my company van in for some work to be done i noticed it didn't feel right in the corners and after a couple of miles got quite a lot worse, when I got home I was going to jack the van up and check what was causing it, but when I went to slacken the wheel bolts off a bit before jacking it up I realised they where allready loose and only in by a couple of threads each, and they are supposedly a reputable garage.

[aclwalker 3]

maybe there's a lesson in it all (looking on the positive side :) )

Yeah if you want a job doing properly, do it yourself :D

 

The incident with my brakes and a few other issues are why I will never take a car to a garage to get work done, a couple of weeks ago after taking my company van in for some work to be done i noticed it didn't feel right in the corners and after a couple of miles got quite a lot worse, when I got home I was going to jack the van up and check what was causing it, but when I went to slacken the wheel bolts off a bit before jacking it up I realised they where allready loose and only in by a couple of threads each, and they are supposedly a reputable garage.

Yep, that's the lesson that's sadly come my way the few times I've got a garage to do anything.

[STORM 2 0]

Quick Update

 

Turns out it was the caliper after all - the car failed an MOT due to rusty front metal brake lines and had new ones made up and installed by the same garage 10 days ago. VW found a caliper bolt missing and seem to be of the opinion that it was either not fitted at all or was not correctly torqued up.

The only reason I didnt attempt the brake lines because I have no means of liftage.

 

So would the MOT place have removed the caliper in order to replace front brake lines (metal ones) and bleed the whole system?

 

I'm looking at 2 hrs labour+new wheel+new caliper+balancing /realigining etc

[aclwalker 3]

Quick Update

So would the MOT place have removed the caliper in order to replace front brake lines (metal ones) and bleed the whole system?

I don't think it's necessary in theory to remove the caliper to replace a brake line, but in practice, with the age our cars are, then it's possible that they had to replace the flexible hoses too due to corrosion or age, so it is entirely possible that they would remove the caliper.

 

You need to watch with the caliper bolts. They have a locking compound on them when new (a kind of blue rubbery material) and are probably single use. You get new bolts with new pads anyway, so most people end up with lots of spares for these bolts.

 

But it could have come out if not torqued up correctly.

 

The other thing you need to watch out for is that the bit the caliper bolts go in to rotates freely as they are slider pins that allow the caliper to move with the wear of the pads. If this has not been held properly with a spanner while the caliper bolt has been tightened, then this could result in it not being tight enough. You need to watch out that the rubber bellows for these caliper pins aren't perished (which they surely are on a lot of Corrados, given the age). If these are perished then the grease on the pin quickly dries out leading to a seized caliper (NOT piston in the caliper).

 

This will eventually result in the inner brake pad only giving contact to the disc and you will end up with normal (or accelerated) disc wear on the inside and rust on the outside. Likewise the inner pad will continue to wear but the outer won't as the caliper won't be able to move to take up the wear.

 

This happened to me on my rear caliper. It was very difficult to get the slider pin out. I had to hammer it quite hard to get it out.

 

Unfortunately you cannot buy replacement pins. You have to buy a new caliper frame, which is quite expensive. You can buy a repair kit though, which includes new rubber seals and new grease for the pin, but it is also quite expensive at around £12 per caliper. These are available from the dealer.

 

I've just thought that your problem may have been a missing caliper frame bolt, although these are actually very tough bolts and I would be surprised if they come out themselves, unless it's sheared.

 

I would advise anyone doing brake overhauls to inspect the caliper slider pin seal integrity, as the hassle of a seized caliper slider frame is quite substantial.

[coolrado 0]

why do you need a new caliper, i would have thought the worst that would have happened to it would be some scratching where it touched the wheel, I'm guessing from the picture it was the top main caliper carrier to hub bolt that was missing, there should have been no sideways or twisting forces so it should just be a case of replacing the bolts and it should be fine, you also shouldnt need alignment as there is nothing there that would effect it, even when the wheel on my van locked up solid at 50mph it didnt disturb the alignment, the caliper can be changed without disturbing anything.

Is the wheel really that bad that it needs replacing? or just a respray?

 

And as far as the garage removing the caliper to do the pipes and not putting the bolts back in properly, i wouldnt be surprised but good luck proving it or getting them to accept liability.

[STORM 2 0]

It was the top caliper----->carrier bolt and so the caliper hinged forward on the lower bolt once the impact of the pothole translated into the instability inherent in a single-bolt-system.

 

There are actually some significant gouges on the inside of the alloy. If someone has to raid a roof to get enough lead to balance the wheel, I suppose i'd better replace it.

 

Still, I am grateful that the damage wasn't worse. I was trundling along at about 10mph just exiting the fishery when the proverbial hit the fan.It didn't take long for the wheel to lock fast. I shudder to think what would have happened at 70-80 on the m'way :shock:

 

So I suppose the lesson I take away is to inspect the caliper carrier and rubbers regularly especially after returning from a monkey with a MOT stamp. :roll: