SwampThing

Ok, if someone can identify what the heck happened here, I'd really appriciate it.

I was drivin downtown today (about 30mins away from my house in light traffic) to get my ss card replaced (most god awful place besides the dmv this side of hell) when all of the sudden I hear what sounds almost like driving with a broken cv shaft (closest thing I've ever heard to this sound). It sounded like metallic pops and clangs and metal grating on metal. Well right as I pull into the building's parking lot, the brake starts to feel really spongy. I go "Hmm", park, pop the hood, and check my brake fluid level. It was good. I shrugged and went inside to take care of my business.

Anyhoo, I leave the building, start up the swampthing, and getter on the road. The brakes were still feeling spongy, and it was still making the horrible noise in my front right side which up until then I thought was blown cv shaft.

Well... About the time I merge onto the highway, I hear a loud metallic BANG, and was like "WHAT THE ****ING ****!"

So then I thought maybe somehow the cv shaft got torn completely out (dunno how, but that HAD to be the sound). Well, bout the time traffic was slowing down, and I went to go tap on the brakes. Well... Without taking the time to write all the curse words I said, I found out that I had NO brake responce whatso ever. So I had to sail down the shoulder downshiftin for dear life (cause there were street sweepers slowin down the traffic that just happened to be cleanin the shoulder that I'm tryin to slow down on).

Well, after one of the most nerve wracking trips I've ever driven, I got it to my buddies offroadin shop (did NOT want to take it any further than absolutly necessary). I looked at my front, and to my suprise, nothing looked the slightest big wrong. CV shaft's just dandy, no missing componets, only a little brake fluid seeping from somewhere onto my tire. Only thing is, is that my bud is booked solid for a few days, and wont be able to look at it for a while, so I thought I'd get some ideas and try and take a look at it myself.

Any thoughts?

4banginRunner

this maybe off the wall but my dad drove a ford pickup home once and had the same sounds and senerio u have...turned out the rotor split in half and twisted itself (like opening a jar type twist) on the vented part, this caused all sorts of bangs, pops, spongy brakes, loss of brakes a few more miles and it would have locked up and that would have been scary...just a thought

SwampThing

Hmm I'll have to check the rotar out. Seemed fine, but I just glanced at it for a few seconds before my ride got to the shop...

4banginRunner

my dad gave the rotors a quick glance at first as well, then pulled the wheel and it still took a while b4 both him and i noticed that the vents on the rotor looked weird, then actually turn both halves of it seperatly...like i said, just a thought, good luck!

91_4x4runner

Check the calipers. Something could've somehow become lodged between the rotor and caliper (IE: small rock). Where were you at when it happened?

SwampThing

281 & 37 downtown by commerce and durango. Drove all the way to blossom to outback offroad. Scared the holy hell outta me man!

Yotapup

Leaking fluid:brake caliper!

Targetnut

There's no such thing as a "little" brake fluid leak.

Any brake fluid leak means one thing......Imminent Brake Failure

.... But I guess you already figured that out.

Sounds like you need to get off your duff and do a real brake inspection and stop talking about it

I'm sorry to be so harsh, But there are only two things a vehicle has to do.

Steer and stop

everything else is incidental

CJM

I drove home once and (no idea if its the same as your truck) the spreader for the brake pads (that piece of metal that fits inbetween the caliper pins) had come off and was hanging on...but i had brakes...

Sounds to me like the calipers failed somehow..

SwampThing

Well, I've never seen it leak anything other than a little oil (doin the timin cover with night comin on makes the whole process interestin) prior to this afternoon (after the brake failure), so i really had no indication that my brakes were bout to fail...

CyMoN

I had the same thing with my ford it was the break pad sucker had worn down then pulled out when when I had slammed on my breaks.
when I pulled over one of my pads where missing and the caliper was grinding on the rotor.

drew303

You dont have a parking brake? Not hooked up?

Wont stop you quick but definetly quicker than down shifting!

:/

LS1Steve

i'd take a closer look at it all, if it made that big of a noise there has to be something obviously broken/out of place

SwampThing

Appearantly one of my caliper bracket bolts came loose, which caused the horrible noise. The loud bang was my brake pads flying out and hitting the brake line making a small hole which caused the brake fluid to leak. Some scary stuff folks! My advice, make SURE you use locktite on the brake caliper bracket bolts...

SwampThing

And coincidentally enough, I just started my new job at brake check today! Haha...

GSGALLANT

I guess another lesson here is that if you hear a loud noise coming from the front of your vehicle, and your brakes start to feel spongy, maybe consider pulling over instead of driving on, hoping that nothing is "really" wrong with your braking system.

surf4runner

"i heard a funny noise...so i just turned the radio up louder." mom

lucky you didnt plow into the sweepers