cpl_allen

Luckily I have 2 days off in a row, because I ran into some unexpected troubles today.

It all started with a noise. I have been driving with the windows down a lot lately thanks to the weather, and while cruising with the breeze blowing in my face, listening to the soft chirp of the locusts in the trees, enjoying- wait.. locusts? Im in the city. And there are no trees. What the hell is that sound? It stops when my car stops moving.

I dont know if its a wheel bearing, or if its coming from the engine, but it SOUNDS like its coming from the drivers side rear wheel. The best way I can describe it is that it sounds like a locust chirping, and the noise slows as my vehicle slows.

But then I noticed a lot of engine chatter the past week. I just replaced the TCT less than a year ago, and didnt think that it would be possible for it to be going bad again, so I figured I would do a valve adjustment.

I attempted this once before, but got discouraged and quit. I went all out tonight and recorded this.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJwYtAWTMak [/media]

But at least I have the comfort of knowing that my valves are all in good timing, because they were all out of spec prior to adjusting.

I thought I would take it for a test drive to see if the locust sound was still there, and it was, however, I did find that the engine chattering goes away with any throttle, so I am pretty sure its the TCT again, which I will try to get the wormgear sandblasted tomorrow.

So while on my test drive, I go out to an empty road (its 2am by this time) and I give it some hard runs from 2nd to 5th, as the valve adjustment DID seem to make the idle a lot smoother. I am on my return home, and open it up one last time. Right after I shift into 4th, I see something glimmer in my rear view, and to my horror its SPARKS. I immediately brake and they go away, and I coast to a stop.

I am thinking several things at this point.. maybe my T1R exhaust caught on fire, or something horrible went wrong with my valve adjustment and metal parts are shooting around the engine and out the exhaust, or that locust noise was the impending sound of something at the rear wheels breaking since I dont have drive shaft spaces....

I didnt have any CELs, and I didnt hear anything irregular with the engine, and there wasnt anything glowing coming from the exhaust or under the car.

So I immediately drive to Jack In The Box and order 2 tacos, a big texas cheeseburger, and a sprite, and then head home. (it was on the way home.)


I pull in the garage and take a walk around the car, and then see THIS







The entire passenger front caliper was dangling and almost touching the inside of the wheel. I could see where it WAS rubbing against the wheel, which was the source of the sparks. The top bolt that holds the caliper in place was just sitting there loosely, and after removing the wheel, the bottom bolt was almost backed out all the way.

Luckily, nothing was damaged really.. and needless to say, I checked all the other bolts on my brakes to see if they were at torque specs.

I will NOT be returning to Break Specialist Plus for any services.

After all that fun, I also found out that I was missing 2 nuts that hold the header in place, and that the others were pretty loose.. I guess I need some locktite.




So any ideas on the locust sound?

ahrmike

If header nut are loose, the exhaust pulses that escape _COULD_ sound like locusts/crickets. Currently, my TP is leaky (no donut gasket) and I get a raspy "squeak" every now and then. header leak will be more pronounced since the exhaust velocity is higher and its more intermittent.

Okay, i just listened to it..and I'm hella confused. sometimes it sounds like a exhaust leak and other times it sounds metallic. How "off" were the valve tolerances? if they were off by a LOT most likely you did the adjustment wrong... (made it worse)?


Anyway, how the hell did those brakes get loose? who worked on them? Post up info cuz that is dangerous.

triddle

^ That dangling caliper is why I keep my speeding excursions short and infrequent. Good god, that's nightmarish.

I hope this is a super freakish occurrence.

charliec225

Wow. Is this them?

http://www.bbb.org/central-texas/business-...austin-tx-41250

cpl_allen

Yeah It was them. They forgot to put the rubber caps on the bleeder valves too. This was maybe 4 months ago. That noise on the vid is most likely the TCT, but I will see later today. The gaps on the valves were a lot wider than they were supposed to be. I could have fit 2 no go gages in. I did the valve adjustment by the books.

TJF

You were lucky.

About 10 years ago, I was driving a friend's Viper RT/10. It was late and we were on a back road. As we came up to a turn, I went for the brakes. There was a loud bang, and the pedal went to the floor--no brakes, not even a little bit.

Turns out, the two halves of the front caliper completely seperated and all the brake fluid immediatly dumped out. The car had been in for a brake servoce a week earlier, and they obviously got something VERY wrong.

I eventually got the car shut down using the e-brake and downshifting, but it was very scary.

Ever since then, I am RELIGIOUS about checking brakes before spirited driving, and I do all my brake work myself--its just too important to trust to a some nameless tech making minimum wage.

cpl_allen

I am sick of this tct stuff.. Today I started the car with the rear jacked up slightly and let it run for 15 minutes without a single noise. I back my car out behind my garage later on in the day, which is slightly inclined, and I can hear a different noise.. it sounds like the timing chain is just rattling around.

Is it possible that this is just due to the amount of oil getting to the chain, or is this something different? How do timing chains become stretched, and is there any way for me to diagnose this without taking it to a stealership? I inquired about getting my worm gear sandblasted today, but everyone has a minimum sandblasting fee that is half the price of a new tct. I need to just buy a billman tct if he is still selling them, and see if this fixes the noise.

Robert O

Yet another excellent reason that I don't trust a brake shop to perform brake work. Pathetic.

Nick.

i am an ASE certified auto technician and i make a hell of a lot more then minimum wage. just becuase one tech left a bolt loose doesn't mean you should bash the entire industry. have you never made a mistake at work? the unfortunate thing about working on cars for a living is if you make a mistake, it could put someones life in jeopardy.

i think your comment is an absurd generalization, if the caliper split into 2 pieces it sounds like it was the manufacturers fault and not the shop that installed it. also, any decent repair shop will stand by the work they do and fix whatever mistakes they have made, if not then you should bring your car somewhere else.

TopGear

Have you listened to videos of bad wheel bearings?

Here's mine from a few months ago about about 10mph

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsw_EwnUcGU [/media]