It's a bad thing when smoke is pouring off your right front brake caliper, right? Especially when you're 400 miles from home?
I'll be taking it by the dealership in the AM. Gillespie Motors, where I used to have it serviced, is nearby, but I figure the Bimmer shop is more likely to have parts in stock so I don't have to spend an extra night in Tennessee. Hopefully it's just a warped rotor and all I'll need is a set of pads and a replacement disc.
Since I'm broke, watch for the Big Gun Sale when I get home. :(
Stuck caliper and/or internally bad brake hose.
ReplyDeleteOuch. May have smoked the rotor and pads as well.
Wish I could help....
Smoke is not a good thing, brake material usually doesn't but bearing grease does...
ReplyDeleteGmac
This is a higher power telling you to move back to Tennessee.
ReplyDeleteCome back!!
Could be just a stuck caliper, I've seen it happen a few times. Of course as Carteach said, if that's the case then the pad + rotor are toast.
ReplyDeleteWas this the Bimmer?
Tam, there's something good to be said for a car that lays down on you in a familiar place, not halfway between East Nowhere and home.
ReplyDeleteYou're in a (mostly) friendly town, and the first comment you hear from the mechanic won't be "BMW?? Now that's German, ain't it?"
Crap, lady, you break down, break down closer to here. I'm the car guy, futhuchrissakes.
ReplyDeleteHopefully it's just a hose. Cheap(ish) to fix even on a bimmer.
Sorry to hear that, hope it is a cheap(er) fix...
ReplyDeleteDon't worry Tam, my birthday is this week. It would be an honor to take some of the poor unloved pieces of metal off your hands to pay for your car repairs.
ReplyDeleteKerry
If you feel like parting with a model 36, model 19, or bodyguard "humpback".....
ReplyDeleteLet's talk.
1894C
Bruce from Mass Backwards or David from War on Guns know my e-mail.
Cal me, call me, call me! Loans on E-Z terms: I know where you live. Why sell a gun when you can use it for collateral?
ReplyDelete...Tell me you were the call I missed while I was having supper.
Tam,
ReplyDeleteIf it comes down to it - and I hope it won't - let me know what you have for C&R guns.
It'd be an honor to "babysit" one of the offerings from VFTP.
Plus whatever it is won't get shot much... :-|
Don't dump the MGI upper, new stuff is on the way.
ReplyDeleteCaliper or hose as carteacho said. Hose seems most likely as it seems it took a fair amount of driving to misbehave.
ReplyDeleteThere is sorry I am to hear of your misfortune.
ReplyDeleteAnnnd what Roberta and Jay G said.
ReplyDeleteYup, the professional repair instructor was/is on top of the situation, and I'd give it the works, as he states. Your car tends to sit a lot, if your hints at riding your bicycle are any indication, so your brakes take a lot of abuse in that regard. It's pretty easy for the calipers to get sticky when a vehicle is driven infrequently.
ReplyDeleteThe brakes are the most important system on your car. Without them, you tend to crash into stuff. Besides, if you don't be fix'n it, and happen to, ya know, die because of that, where'd all of us go for our snark fix? :)
Curse of the buzzard, must be.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking for something in a .32 Long......bryant428@att.net
ReplyDeleteI've had two cars do that to me... a crown vic and the shadow. Both times it was brake fluid getting just a little old, and one caliber got hot and started a positive feedback loop that ended with that brake applying itself. In the crown vic's case that also meant the car was trying ferociously to drag itself off the right side of the road, but that was an '89 with "severe service" bits a bit bigger than some... blue radiator hoses are a huge tell for those years (silicone).
ReplyDeleteDollars to doughnuts that if that's what happened, then the same fix applies too... let it cool, it's fine for a while until the brakes get a decent bleeding with fresh fluid refill, unless you've glazed the rotor and then you need it turned and a set of brake pads.
So you're choosing between keeping your gun(s) and fixing your car? Isn't that like choosing which one of your kids you want to keep? Ouch. /not envious AT ALL
ReplyDeleteI hate to ask this, but did you decide not to sell the BMW?
ReplyDeleteYou also write well enough to make money at it...
ReplyDeletehttp://girlonthewrite.com/ for a start. Wendy (I think) makes a enough to make it worth while.
I always offer to buy guns and hold them in trust until the original owner is ready to take them back for the same amount. If you feel the need to part with something, Carcano, Martini and MAS rifles can find a temporary home with me.
ReplyDeleteHope it is something cheap and it won't have to come to that!
Damn. Sorry to hear it, Tam - wish I was in a position to muck in.
ReplyDelete*Sigh.*
ReplyDeleteThe caliper was toast. This won't be pretty...
I hit you tip jar, but even for a beemer that sounds like a lot of money. I hope no ones trying to rip you off. (robertax said 1k)
ReplyDeleteI'm in - must support the snarkmistress!!
ReplyDeletea jackson in the jar for you, slick...wish it could be more.
ReplyDeletejtc
Caliper or hose with an outside chance of a bad wheel bearing. May get the pads or warp the caliper. At least it's not a stuck valve backfire and setting the carburetor on fire. There's nothing quite as disconcerting as a burning carb with 30 miles of utterly vacant road either way. 700 miles from a familiar face.
ReplyDeleteIve worked on Bimmers before and Ill believe 1K for a locked up caliper.
ReplyDelete- New Caliper, $300 (unless its a rebuilt one)
- Rotors $150 (old one will be warped)
- Pads $100 (whole new front set)
If she took it to the dealership they will want to do full front pads and possibly replace both rotors. If the one rotor is warped and needs to be replaced and the other one is just about worn thin you really want to do both. If one rotor has significantly less mass than the other the car will pull to the side with the new rotor in heavy braking.
+ labor (and BMW charges nose-bleed labor rates)
+ shop fees
+ tax
Yeah, I can see $1000 for a locked up rotor.
That sucks Tam!
A light tap on the tip jar.
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought I was the only gentlemanly type that would offer to sell Tam's gunz back for what I paid her.
Well, let's see if the fanboys pony up so she doesn't have to decide which of her children to sell.
What a pain. This is a $300 DIY but being away from home and your tools and someplace to work makes it horrid. I am so sorry.
ReplyDeleteStranger,
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a time when I was hightailing it back to TN with a couple of friends after a week-long string of concert-going in the midwestern states (Michigan, Minnesota). Saturday afternoon it was, and I was zipping along through Menomenie, WI when there was an odd thump in the steering wheel. And another. And then a series. And then it felt like the car was trying to jump off the damn highway.
Thankfully, after some rigging and cursing and a little hoping, I found a Pontiac dealership open... and more than willing to do the work on my '84 Ford Thunderbird, odd as it was.
Odd? All three bolts holding the power steering pump to it's bracket broke clean. Bent the pulley a little too, but I replaced that back at home. The thumping and jumping was the pump battering around, held in only because the mount for it was a concentric ring of steel. I'm still in awe that it didn't throw the belt... as it was I drove home with a bag rubber-banded over the reservoir, it beat itself around so badly that it threw off the cap and soaked the underhood insulation with fresh fluid.
And I *thought* I'd be ok driving my 170,000 mile car on a 2000 mile road trip...