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So this is a little scary... (loose brake caliper)

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Everything I see indicates that the bolt has been missing for a long time. The threaded hole on the caliper looks as though it was never used.
 
Ok so the tow just now picked it up. Ford Roadside had the ETA at 6:08PM. Oh well, no big deal. It would have been too late to get it in to the dealer tonight even then. He'll drop it off in the morning and my brother will give me a ride to the dealer to get a loaner

We'll see how things go...



edit: I was thinking the same about how the threads look, it would make sense that if there was a bilt in there any time recently that the threads would look different, but they're the same level of oxidization or whatever from what I could tell
 
smackababy said:
I don't think it would have extra wear, simply only wear on part of the pad. You'd still have to replace the pads at the same interval. That is just a guess though, I could easily be wrong. All I know is that the last place I got my brakes done at would be getting a very angry me showing up now.
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I meant on the pads that were half-on/half-off the rotor. There would be uneven wear across the face of the pad, which could lead to pulsating and noise. Could also unevenly load the caliber piston.
 
rust can form overnight. so its a bad indicator of when the bolt came lose right. the pad will be a much indicato

i'd also have them check the wheel. might have a nice wear pattern there
 
SparkyJJO said:
You're certainly free to do so, but I've seen caliper bolts back out before (not on my car but others). Any bolt can back out if not tightened properly.
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As noted by phucheneh if anything the factory would tend to over-torque with a power tool, hell, when my car came out of warranty I started to do my own oil changes, the dealer had the drain-bolt on so tight I had to put the car on stands to gain clearance to use a breaker-bar to loosen the drain bolt!. Also the rust is a dead giveaway that a bolt was never present. OP, I would nicely ask for completely new rotors and pads on all four corners since the fuckup will now cause uneven brake and rotor wear, it's the least they can do for putting your life in danger!..
 
I think it's very likely it left the factory that way. On the Focus ST forums, I've seen:

- the wrong spoiler installed
- a tan moonroof cover in the completely black interior
- cloth back seat in a car with full leather

Obviously the caliper bolt was potentially much more serious than these cosmetic things but it does make you wonder how thorough the QC at the factory (and dealership) is.
 
While I know a little about how cars are generally built in the factories...namely, bins of parts, to include subassemblies whenever possible, are assembled by unskilled labor...I can't speak for QC on that end.

But on the dealer end...it's pretty nonexistent. Pre-delivery inspections are nothing to a tech but a quick bit of easy money. They don't want you to find problems. When we had cars constantly coming back with vibration complaints, and I started flagging tire issues on new cars...people were not happy.

I can't say I would've caught that missing bolt if the car seemed normal during the test drive, which I'm sure it did.
 
Finally got it back this afternoon. The tow actually took it to the wrong location, "John Doe Lincoln/Volvo" instead of "John Doe Ford" like requested. Oh well, same company and I was still able to get a loaner.

They replaced all 4 corner caliper bolts, and new pads and machined the rotor on the wheel affected.

I also had the rear right bumper reflector fall out a few weeks ago and asked them to replace it, but they told me since I didn't have it to turn in they wouldn't cover it. Makes sense if my transmission went out, they'd want it back, but a little reflector? They wanted $110 to replace it and another 2 day wait. I can get it on rockauto for $32 so screw that
 
Pretty crappy about the reflector, seems like they would try to make it right. I am sure a different dealer would do it for free, just depends on the place.

Did they replace the pads and turn the rotors on both sides of the back? That stuff is supposed to be done together. I would've pushed for a new rotor, turning it make it thinner and more likely to warp, and if nothing else will have reduced its life.
 
yh125d said:
I also had the rear right bumper reflector fall out a few weeks ago and asked them to replace it, but they told me since I didn't have it to turn in they wouldn't cover it.
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Ask them if they want a news story about a guy getting run over on the damn freeway because he was trying to pick up a reflector that fell off. That's just absurd on the dealer's part.

ZV
 
Hey, come on now, they gotta cover themselves. You never know when the manufacturer might call for a failure analysis on bumper reflectors. 😀

I'd bring them in the whole bumper and say 'here ya go, this thing was falling apart on me.'
 
So yeah this happened again. Rear driver side this time. Didn't bother to take a picture, I knew what it was before I pulled over. Took it back to the dealer this morning, they said they're swamped and probably won't get to it today. Need to keep it over the weekend. Then the guy asked if I needed a shuttle ride or if someone was going to pick me up. I told them I need something to drive if it's going to be the weekend. He got me a rental and they're waiving the fuel.

This is the same dealer that fixed the first one, and they replaced the bolts on all 4 corners at that time. Going to look at my papers tonight to see if that was documented on the work log anywhere.

Oh, and it has like 37036 miles right now or something, so it's into the CPO warranty which means $100 deductible

Thinking about raising hell, or calling Ford.
 
SearchMaster said:
I think it's very likely it left the factory that way. On the Focus ST forums, I've seen:

- the wrong spoiler installed
- a tan moonroof cover in the completely black interior
- cloth back seat in a car with full leather

Obviously the caliper bolt was potentially much more serious than these cosmetic things but it does make you wonder how thorough the QC at the factory (and dealership) is.
Click to expand...

I saw one on the lot that had two different front seats. No one noticed or cared, from every point from the factory to the guy putting it on the lot for sale.

Some people are really getting lazy these days.
 
phucheneh said:
Not always. Actually...more like 'almost always not.' Loctite (or similar) is typically for bolts that receive less torque and may be more prone to backing out over time. Caliper bracket bolts are big and get a lot of torque, which generally negates the need for such.

You won't see it on subframe bolts either. Or most A-arm bolts. Ect.
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I know its a year later and this guy is banned, but what he said is nonsense. Plenty of manufacturers use loctite on caliper bracket bolts, specifically Ford. More often than not subframe bolts will have thread-locker and its not that uncommon for suspension pieces either.

OP, I'd be interested to see if the dealer who replaced all four bracket bolts last time used any sort of thread locker. You'd be able to see residue on the threads of the remaining bolts. I don't think its unreasonable considering this is your second massive brake failure to demand to watch them put some blue loctite on there and use a torque wrench to tighten them to spec on all four.
 
I still can't wrap my head around how this has happened twice now. Once I can see as an assembly/manufacturing fluke or something but twice?
 
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