I hate cars

M

Ms. Advice

New member
Saturday me and my friend change out ALL the springs and ALL the struts/shocks with some IROC springs and Koni Sport Adjustable shocks (VERY nice pieces) and the car was handling great but developed a very, very severe pull to the left under braking. Driving it back home I was scared half to death because it kept pulling me into oncoming traffic every time I braked and I had to be real careful to make sure it stayed in the lane. And then a cop was following me half of the way so I had to drive it even straighter so he didnt pull me over for reckless driving or something.

I figured it was either a brake line or caliper issue.

So Saturday night I throw it back on jackstands again, then I go to take the tires off and realize that I forgot to loosen the lugs before I put it in the air. :mad: I try to improvise and shove a wooden board up under hte wheel since it was barely off the ground, thinking that would keep the wheel from turning as I tried to loosen the lugs. I was leaning over giving it some hard tugs, and the board flies out from under me and I fall right onto my knee cap, it swelled up huge and still hurts like hell. So I ice my knee for an hour, then go out and finish taking the wheels off and I pull the passenger side caliper off the spindle and call it a night.

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THe next day I take the caliper to the store, buy another, and buy some brake lines. I go to put it all back together and I managed to do everything the wrong way to the point where I confused my left and right and put right-side brake line on the left side. I wasted about 3 hours doing all this and trying to make it work when I finally realized that was the problem.

I spend all day getting it all done, lost one of hte bolts I needed, went back to hte store thinking I might have left it in my old caliper, they didnt even have a new one, so I just bought some fresh brake pads while I was there and went home to look for it. Found it later, and after being covered in brake fluid all afternoon, having to take apart and reassemble the passenger side caliper/pads/brake line about 5 times I finally got it right and got it buttoned up. Brake fluid is some NASTY shit, and taking your brakes apart sucks donkey balls because you have to bleed them afterwards and it's messy and brake fluid eats paint and it's sticky and just gross and toxic... yuck. And I was COVERED in it. I even managed to get it all in my hair and it was dripping all over hte place.

Well after all tht, the car DOES brake straight, so problem solved...

But Im driving it tonight since my truck is leaking coolant all over the place and the damn auto parts store wont ever get my damn water pump gaskets in :mfinger: I ordered the motherfuckers 2 weeks ago. So Im driving my car and I notice every time I go in reverse and hit the brakes, I hear a LOUD thudding noise. and then I go forward and hit the brakes and hear a LOUD thudding noise. Something in the front end is shifting around on the front driver's side and I dont like it. Loose strut bolts? Spring shifting around in the spring pocket? Brake caliper moving around when it's not supposed to?

Im leaning towards it being brake-related since it didnt start until I messed with them yesterday, but it was pulling so bad after Sunday when we did the shocks and springs that I never could brake hard enough for it to manifest itself if it was a problem then.

I'll have to put it BACK on jackstands again in the morning and take it all apart AGAIN and see if I can figure out what the hell the problem is. :rolleyes: If it's strut or spring related I dont know of any way to test that and I need at least one other big strong guy to help me pop the spring out and try to index it again and get it lined up properly. Or maybe the strut is loose, or the A-Arm bushing bolts are loose.... I have no idea. But it doesnt do it over bumps or when changing directions (left or right) only when braking after going forward and reverse in quick succession. Maybe it is brakes? DIagnosing mystery noises is about as easy and finding a needle in a haystack.

And to top it all off, my Air/Fuel ratio gauge has completely stopped working. It could mean my oxygen sensor is bad (but Im not getting an idiot light for htat) or the gauge is broke. Either way it sucks. It was a cool piece even if it was mostly useless.

AFGauge.jpg

It has LEDs all the way around that dark part that light up like a christmas tree... it's usually realy cool to watch... Oh well.

And like I said, my truck is dumping coolant everywhere because I cant get the damn water pump gaskets in and my car has something loose in the front end and it's going to kill me. Im screwed either way!

Details on the work I did for the car guys!

Before (notice the sagging front end)
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After:
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My old struts werent even extending anymore. The purpose of hte strut is to keep the spring from bouncing and to keep the spring extended to the proper height also. After we took the old ones out they wouldn't even extend when not bolted up to anything. COMPLETELY shot, offered no resistance to the spring at all. In fact, I think they were factory original, with 190,000 miles on them!

My new struts are adjustable just by opening a hood and removing a little plastic cap for the strut mount. I have 5-turns of adjustment to make the car ride REALLY firm or ride softer. Basically a setting for racing, and a setting that's a little smoother for riding on the street. These are basically racing shocks. Some of the best off the shelf shocks money can buy. They cost $750 a set. (I didnt pay that for them, but that's how much they normally cost)
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Shiny new golden brake caliper (compare to picture of old one above)


But it seems after 2 straight days of working on my car, I'm still not done. I cant even enjoy my fancy schmancy racing shocks. I just hope I can find out what hte problem is tomorrow. Hopefully it's something obvious. Removing and reinstalling springs can be a nightmare of a job. :sad: Struts are pretty crazy too since they require so much torque on the bolts. Seems like I cant catch a break when it comes to my cars. I dont feel safe driving in either of them, which pisses me off since i just put so much time and energy into the brakes and front end, and Im all about fixing my truck but apparently finding the water pump gaskets for it are about as easy as finding a unicorn.
 
The noise isnt anything brake-related, but I did find some alarming greasy looking fluid near the fitting on the brake line near the caliper on the driver's side. So I guess I'll be putting my other brake line on there tomorrow along with a new caliper because if that's brake fluid leaking out of that fitting that's VERY bad news. I dont know how grease could have gotten in there, so Im thinking it's brake fluid mixed with road grime and brake dust.

Scary.... but still not my problem.

I've checked everything obvious, and Im at a loss. :sad:
 
Well, Leehype has it pretty cornered when he says his line about the only thing to fixing cars is taking one part off and putting another on.

And finding the problem really isn't all that hard. If you have a problem with your car and you take it to a mechanic, you'll most likely tell them where the noise, or problem is coming from. "Oh, it makes a clunking noise in the front drivers side whenever I go around a curve"

So you've already, narrowed down the possible problems.

But, knowing what's wrong, and having access to proper tools, and the abundance of time some projects take, is what's prohibitive to most people.
 
The brakes looked fine when I took them off yesterday... but I've come to the realization that this may be what is called "pad shift". The pads moving around inside the calipers. Not sure what causes that or how to fix it. Defective pads maybe? I just put them in yesterday. Maybe I didnt get them seated just right or something...

But it would make sense since I get no noise over bumps or when Im forcibly bouncing the car up and down trying to reproduce the noise. But reversing and hard braking, then forward and hard braking will do it almost every time.
 
You know how water goes down the toilet the wrong way down-under? Same thing with auto-design.

But the glove compartment has eyes. And it can read. And it will let the rest of the parts in the car know when it's time for something else to die, because the schmuck can now afford to repair it.

Any tool dropped automatically rolls under the vehicle to its exact geometric centre. The probability that it will hit your foot en route is directly proportion to the mass of the tool.

Any small nut dropped on the ground bounces to a minimum of seventeen feet, before instantly camouflaging itself into its surroundings.

If you have a full set of socket spanners and Allen keys, your new vehicle will be held together with torx bolts, which can only be tightened by an air wrench. And air wrenches can tell when they are being used by amateurs.

The purpose of WD40 or any similar product is to make the head of the fastener so extremely slippery that it has no noticeable effect on seized threads.

The weight of those spare screws you had was absolutely vital for the balance of the rear suspension.

And my favourite axiom:

Every good do-it-yourself project requires the purchase of at least one, moderately expensive, specialised tool. Avid mechanics collect these oddball tools and display them proudly on their garage wall to alert the entire neighbourhood that they possess a #4 manifold alignment jig and a full set of carburetor torque pawls, for the win.
 
Wahahahaha, I cant rep you again, but that was hilarious!

I especially love how everytime you need to getu nder your car, there is instantly a downpour of years and years' worth of road grime, and it always falls in your 1. eye 2. mouth 3. nose


Hell, for reasons I still dont understand, I managed to get hot motor oil in my eye one day just taking the drain plug out. I couldn't do that again if I tried! I was at least a foot away from the plug, and in the other direction of the flow! WTF? I think it actually SPLASHED ... Ugh...



By the way, Im thinking my heavy thunking noise was the front brake pads on the driver's side moving around inside the caliper. Decided to take the oppurtunity to replace that caliper and brake line while I was at it.

Unfortuntely I had a hell of a time with it, since the brake line I bought was binding on a piece of the caliper, and when I would tighten it down, the caliper would catch on a part of the fitting on the line, so even though I torqued that sumbitch down HARD, it wasn't properly sealing. Talk about a frustrating freak problem... No matter how hard I torqued it down, it would keep leaking, and I couldnt figure out why. After getting another caliper and still not solving it I finally figured out it was the line when I replaced it with another new line that sealed fine. Made a 45 minute job last 4 hours.

So after all my frustration in regards to the above, I havent managed to make it clunk again yet, but I'm sure it will be glad ot manifest itself again first thing tonight when I leave. :o But if it's just the pads moving around in the caliper it's not a huge deal.
 
All right, I would check your engine and trany mounts first and foremost. Those are always a clunking sound and I have caught one sounding like the rear bumper. My next bet would be pad shift. Best way to check is to get a weak paint (nail polish works great) and slop some in the corners. If it gets kicked out, pad shift, if it don't, bigger problem.

I noticed that your sway arm bushings look new (and poly, noice) hows the rest of the joints look? A ball joint wouldn't be out of the question, however you mostly will have some kind of steering issue along with it.

I would also suggest rechecking the struts. I have seen those back out (and have cought my jeep spitting out bolts every 3 months.)


Good luck.


And every "leehype is coming" comment is getting reped :lol:

EDIT; except Gea, apparently I don't rep enough...
 
Been driving the car around all night, no sign of the noise. I'm thinking it was just pad shift after all, although Im confused about why they would do that.

The sway bar bushings are the only poly bushings on the car. I plan on doing a front-end rebuild within the next 6 months with poly everything, except maybe the lower control arm bushings. The rest of the parts look fine. Im sure they could stand to be replaced, though. But it seems as though they're not the problem here, so it's a moot point. Good idea on the transmission mount, but that was actually one of the first things I replaced on the car! :D Got a nice poly piece, so it should outlast the car.
 
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