Evening all,
I hope it's not just me that finds a simple change brake pads & disks turns from a "quick 2 hours before lunch" into an all day swearing session combined with a sudden urge to hold a garage sale of every tool I posess. It would make me feel ever better if other people also manage to actually worry the brickies three doors down with the language eminating from, say, the OSF wheel arch of a fairly ordinary car. The cursing in my case was mainly aimed at the caliper bracket mounting bolts[1] with their recommended tightening torque of 110Nm but thankful lack of Loctite. Three were ok - I define ok as only breaking the one socket on one and getting two out with mere Herculean effort. Sadly the final one had been attacked by the monkeys with air tools once too often and had lost its corners resulting in more swearing, lots of panic at the encroaching gloom and finally spending a painful hour with an angle grinder to get the bolt head off...
And that's where the head scratching starts. The bolt goes through the steering knucke and screws into the caliper bracket but in removing the bolt head the mating face of the steering knuckle suffered a little colateral damage where the grinder blade's dug in a bit. Nothing serious, it's just not completely flat anymore a light ridging/rippling effect, maybe 1/4-1/2 mm peaks and troughs. So what I need to know is, will this affect the effectiveness of sticking a new bolt in and tightening to 110Nm? Is it going to come loose if it's not a flat to flat mating face? Should I:
a) just put in a new bolt and tighten? b) as a) but with some sort of compressible washer in there? c) as a) or b) but use Loctite on the thread (by default it doesn't use any) d) file the mating face flat first? e) bin the knuckle? (bit drastic) f) something I've not thought of?
All pointers, suggestions and offers of solace greatly appreciated.
Scott
[1] aka the B*s*a*d Bolts[2] [2] ie you spend a lot of time shouting "come off you b*s*a*d!" at them