Knowing How to Fix Your Car is Still a Beneficial Skill!

Most of us drive our cars and don't know what is under the hood. We have become complex and the simple cars of the past have given away to something a little different (Just wait for electric!). Knowing some mechanical skills can save you a ton of money!

A few months ago I paid $350 for new brake pads and a caliper for my Chevy Equinox. Worked great for a  month or so until I slammed on my brakes to avoid UP deer (Upper Peninsula of MI).  

According to an article on  MLive approximately 48% of car accidents in the U.P. involve deer. Dee UP Accident

You could see this deer bouncing out of the field and running up the embankment giving me just enough time to guess his jump. A narrow miss!  A day later the sticky caliper and a little crunchy odd sound while applying the brake. 

I took off the brakes (...by the way the wheel hub lock nut doesn't help up in the UP of Michigan. I'm more worried about not being able to change my tire on a lonely blizzard road than protecting my tires from theft.) and greased the caliper. 

What I did found was...

1. One shoe out of bracket (The bracket was put in wrong). 

2. A sticky caliper (Not enough grease and/or wrong grease on pins). 

3. A track groove in the rotor (Likely from slamming brakes). 

4. Dirty brake brackets that I cleaned and greased. 

5. The rotor placement nut stripped (likely why there was no recommendation to change the rotor. I drilled the center of it and pulled it out.)

The total cost me about $60. $50 of that cost was from having to remove the special lug nut (It was more expensive to buy the tool than to have someone take them off.)

The rest was for grease and a the right size socket. The rotor was $70 and it is maintenance to change them from time to time and this seemed like a great time to do it so I could eliminate possibilities. 

The biggest culprit was the brackets that weren't greased causing the pad to stick sometimes but not at other times leading to all types of cause confusion. It also may be part of the crunch noise when stopping and occasionally a small vibration when first releasing the caliper. 

Once they were greased it all went away! (The simplest and easiest step!)

Knowing how your car works can help you in all types of situations. I like the outdoors and will likely be doing lots of more outdoor stuff. Knowing your car and having some technical skill makes sense in emergencies. It can also save you money! Now I'm looking for a $1000 old pick up for horse and/or boat stuff. If I'm lucking it will come with working brakes.