Scary Brake Failure

[tacollie]

Driving to lunch the other day and went to stop at a light and had almost no brakes. SCARY! Was able to stop. Found that the bolt that connects the brake line to the caliper had loosed. I didn't know what to think so I went home and torqued all the brake component bolts I could find. Every thing seemed fine. Driving through a rural neighborhood yesterday and it came loose again and I stopped and tightened it again. Nobody is out to get me to my knowledge and no shop has touched the brakes since January when Slee put on some stainless braided lines. The only thing slee and I could think of is when the wheel is at full droop the angle it was pulling on the line pulled it loose. I changed that angle and am intensly waiting to see if it worked. I am running RaceRunner 2.5" coilovers up front. Anybody else had this problem. I have an 02 taco.

 

[Clark White]

I have an 00 Taco that did the same thing. Driving down the interstate, exit, and the breaks went straight to the floor. Pumped them and pulled the e-break, down shifted and went off the side stopping right before the busy road I had exited on. When I started looking around, I found the same bolt you mentioned was loose and spewing fluid. I tightened it and bled the breaks when I got home and haven't had any trouble for a year now, but it scared the hell out of me. No idea what caused it. I'll talk to the dealership guys and see what they say.

 

[calamaridog]

What about some loctite?

 

[slooowr6]

Driving to lunch the other day and went to stop at a light and had almost no brakes. SCARY! Was able to stop. Found that the bolt that connects the brake line to the caliper had loosed. I didn't know what to think so I went home and torqued all the brake component bolts I could find. Every thing seemed fine. Driving through a rural neighborhood yesterday and it came loose again and I stopped and tightened it again. Nobody is out to get me to my knowledge and no shop has touched the brakes since January when Slee put on some stainless braided lines. The only thing slee and I could think of is when the wheel is at full droop the angle it was pulling on the line pulled it loose. I changed that angle and am intensly waiting to see if it worked. I am running RaceRunner 2.5" coilovers up front. Anybody else had this problem. I have an 02 taco.

Jack up you truck let the wheel fully drop and see how the line is pulled, the bolt only needs loose a little for you to loose brake. Maybe RaceRunner has more travel and the brake line is not long enough? Scary.

 

[CYi5]

It's your banjo bolt getting knocked loose by the lower coil bucket of your coilovers. Was a pretty common problem with donahoes awhile back. Make sure you tap your brakeline into the caliper (Step 9).

 

[pray4surf]

Had the same problem with the banjo bolt hitting my 2.5 SAW's. Wheeler's Off Road offers an after market (Goodridge) front brake line set for $66.50. This solved the problem on my truck....

http://www.wheelersoffroad.com/9504tacolines.htm

Rick

 

[tacollie]

I checked to see if it hit at full extension and it didn't, but I may bend it over if I can. ReceRunner and Wheelers didn't think it should have anything to do with the coilovers.

 

[devinsixtyseven]

YIKES!

Tacollie, what style of brake line are you using? It should be the type with the rotating collar at the end of the braided line, going to a metric adapter. Granted, I wouldn't think Slee would sell anything less than that .

The design is meant to allow the ends of the line to twist, but once installled it takes quite a bit of force to twist the rotating piece vs unthreading the adapter. I left the stainless lines off the front of my truck for exactly that reason, the routing of the soft lines to the calipers puts a twist during steering and articulation along the braided line I didn't like. The rubber line can take the twist. The only place I'm using braided stainless is in the rear to the axle, and from the axle to the calipers (for convenience)...they remain stationary with respect to their fittings.

The only thing I can think of is loctite and/or tighten the !@#$ out of it, but neither are elegant solutions! Can you still run the OEM rubber pieces?

CYi5 and Pray4Surf, this is a side note, but I didn't think Toyota used banjo bolts on any of the late model front calipers? Offhand the only banjo bolt on my truck is the fuel line to the engine, the 2UZFE. My front calipers have the same hard line fittings as the late model Tacoma I saw the other day, the ones that take a 10mm wrench and go straight and direct to the caliper body.

-Sean

 

[tacollie]

I threw some locktite on there so we will see how it holds up. I am also going to double check my clearences at full extension. I don't really want to go back to the oem hose but that is better than brake failure.