So I decided to do my first brake job. OMG!!!

6 lug nuts/studs broke, 3 on each side. So I took off brake pads, caliper, and bracket off torque member, hammered the studs out, replaced new studs using washer method. I put it in neutral while the car was under jacks, and spun the hub to get to the right stud, put it in park and tightened it. Did this for all 6.


On to brakes... I changed the front pads to Hawk HPS and had to replace my front passenger caliper. So I replaced caliper and bled the brake fluid only for that side, and changed all front pads.

Here's the wierd part... I jumped in the car to hit the brakes in order to seat the caliper and there is this wierd clicking noise+feel when I hit the brake pedal. I feel a click in the pedal and it is real stiff. So i decided to start the car and then to hit the brakes, and it will not F**kin start. What happened????

When I put the key in the ignition and turn it once, to ACC (accessories), it turns everything on in the car, but when I start the car it won't start. It makes a click noise when I turn it over, and it feels sluggish and it won't start. I tried hitting the gas pedal during turn, and no go.

1) Can't be battery because under ACC, lights and music works. But I did have the doors open for awhile so maybe batteey needs more juice to turn the car over?????

2) Can it be the starter? Because when I try to turn on the car, it makes a click noise once, rolls over a lil and stops, feeling sluggish. When I hit it the second time, it doesn't roll over at all, but if I hold the key all the way, it makes several continuos clicking sounds: tick, tick, tick, tick. That sound is what, the starter or ignition?

3) Transmission??? Not sure why I said tranny but when I tightened the studs on, I put the car in park while it was under a jack, and tighten it. Was this ok? Could tightening the stud on while in P, put force to where it damages the tranny enough to have it not start?

Help me out guys, I am scared ****less, because I have no money, house is goin in foreclosure, and this car is all I have. Any insight is appreciated. Thanks

 

Got a V.O.M.?

 

1. Don't panic.
2. try jump starting your car with jumper cables. Your battery might be low.
3. Does it crank? Or just click and then dead. If so, try cleaning off battery terminal. I had the same issue as you did, the terminals were dirty and no contact.
4. Did you say you switch your car to [D] drive, then [P] park while working on car? That might be the reason why car wont turn over, it might think its still in drive and it WILL NOT START.. safety measure.

Sluggish start... probably ur batt.

"I put it in neutral while the car was under jacks, and spun the hub to get to the right stud," --- I think that is your culprit.

 

brakes causing the car not to start its not the transmission... turn everything off for about an hr and try again... sounds like batery even though you had things on (weirder things happen)... or if you want, you can use a broomstick and knock on the starter then try turning it on, (see if your starter is going bad)

EDIT: or like stated above... you can use sandpaper to kinda grind off the battery terminals, or whatever gets it clean and better contact

 

yeah brakes won't cause your car not to start silly goose. Just because the lights work doesn't mean the battery has enough power to crank the engine. I mean come on, will a small light bulb need as much power as a V6 engine?

Starter? no dude, just jump start your car, you'll be good.

 

i dont think you should try and make the guy look stupid though... he obviously is trying something for the first time, its o.k if he panics a lil bit, just teach and move on bro, all cool round here

 

my bad, i wasn't trying to be condescending. but in all fairness, no need to panic. usually the problem isn't as big as we always make it out to be.

 

sounds like you're low on blinker fluid....

no seriously, don't stress, take a 15min break and grab a beer. I know nothing is worse than a 2-3hours job turning into a 2 day event. All of us have been there before.

As others have said, start with the simple things, jump the car and see what happens. Make sure shifter is in the park position also.....yes, I've done that before lol

 

blinker fluid? lol oh yeah i need to get a new order of that as well as my radiator blanket! haha

 

understood

 

Id try and jump it...or if ya got a battery tester you could test it and see if its low on juice.

 

Think I would lean to the battery just not having enough juice to start the car, I have done this a few times while working away on the car and having the music playing away ... then go and try to start up the car and yes there's that wonderful tick tick tick noise telling you that your battery is pouched. Turn every thing off and let the car sit for 20 mins. or so and then tried and everything started right up. (and yes I know I need a new battery) just haven't gone out to get one. Sounds like you encountered just about every problem one can have doing a brake install.

 

It could also be just loose battery cables. I had to jump start my car 3 times this past week but then i inspected the battery, and then tightened the cables, no jump starts since.

 

accessories should work under a weak charge.

my alt only charges 11 volts and all my stuff works just fine

 

First all I want to thank all u guys, honestly your posts made me feel at ease. Problem was indeed the battery. Terminals were clean. I just disconnected battery for an hour and needed a jump, but I should fill u guys in with what my mistake was....

Alright, so this is what I think happened... I disconnected the battery from the negative term. before working on brakes, because in the haynes manual it says to do this if the car has ABS. I then changed driver side pads, and for some dumb reason reconnected the battery before working on the passenger side (I think my brain was toast because of the studs cracking and I was pissed and not thinking str8). So then when I depressed caliper with C-clamp on pass. side, I heard a weird electrical noise coming from around the area and was not sure what it was. After the pads on pass side was put on and I tried to start, it wouldn't start.

Conclude: I think the ABS turned on when I depressed caliper because battery was connected and that electrical noise was probably the ABS initiaiting, and this sucked the juice out of my battery. And the stiffness and noise the brake pedal was making, sure felt like an antilock brake system. So I know why Haynes says to disconnect battery if ABS is on the vehicle.

 

Even though you figured it out already, FTR starting the car uses A LOT more AMPERAGE than the headights, aka if your headlights are on it doesn't mean anything.

 

Yeah I also vote battery. Had the same thing happen to me with my amp install, doors were open for quite sometime as well as the trunk (6+ Hours) and all those little interior lights add up juice and when I was done I couldn't start my car. Not to mention I also had an old battery which was too small for the car but that's all fixed now.

 

i doubt that was the case. I have done this job several times without ever removing the negative battery terminal and have never had an issue. ABS causes all 4 wheels to lock up, the compressing of one caliper should not cause this.

 

Glad you solved the starting problem, but what about the clicking when you hit the brakes? Is it gone, and are your brakes cool now? I'm gonna replace my pads for the first time too, so trying to make sure I know what I'm getting into.

Edit: About your clicking on the brakes...I just remembered I heard it yesterday when I had my front wheels raised. My brake pedal was stiff (normal if I pump while in park), but the clicking noise I think is just some switch or relay activating...should be normal.

 

Sounds like you got things back in order. Glad to hear that.....

But I think the bigger problem here is how the hell did you break 6 studs just taking the wheels off?!?!?!

 

Thats what I was wondering??! Maybe dont put your bolts on so tight this time...

 

Here is good website for wheel lug torquing.

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/...jsp?techid=107

 

I'd get the battery checked, could be towards the end of its useful life if leaving the car on ACC for an hour or two runs it down enough so that it won't start.

 

You could always use some anti seize on your wheels studs especially if your car see's alot of rust where you live. I love this stuff and put it on almost every bolt I remove from my car and put back on aside from actual engine bolts.

 

As far as lug nuts/studs cracking, lol.... Man, oh man was I mad!! I bought the car used (2000 i30t) at 100K and the hub, exhaust, and some elements were severly rusted. Car was driven in North Cali for most of its life before I bought it and brought it to the best rust free environment, Arizona. So the rust and the fact that I seen some jackass at a discount tire use a impact wrench to tighten my bolts a few months ago, explains them braking off. Damn kids! I would go back and chew them out but whatever, i know not to take it to them next time.

Ridinwitha35,
Yes the clicking is gone and everything works really good. Note: On the Hawk HPS pads I used the CRC spray anti-squeel, instead of Hawks gooey anti-squeel that came with the pads. No sound, so far at least. I say this because I read several past posts that people say HPS pads make noise. And I used no OEM shims on mine because the HPS already have shims and adding the OEM shims in addition, I would think would have a too tight of a clearance between caliper and rotor. I tried to use them and fitted the brake pads with them, but felt like they were not needed.

Scottwax,
That's a good point!! Ima check it out for sure.

This was a great lesson for me and I give myself an A- overall. A because I learned some new things, everything feels great mechanically, and I saved a crap load of money, but the minus because I did flip out a few times and my professionalism was substituted with rage. haha. Thanks to u guys tho you put me back on track.

 

Listen man, if you can replace the wheel studs all by yourself, you are way ahead than lots of other shade tree mechanics! Give yourself a pat on the back!! No, seriously, you should not have panicked.

I had craig-list mechanic replace my pads and when *he* broke a stud, *I* panicked!! I had to do emergency run to parts store to get him new stud for him to install (not to mention, pay him more for the privilege of braking and fixing the stud)

- Vikas