I'll try to make this as short as possible without leaving out any important details. My sister got married this past weekend down in the wonderful driving state of Virginia (Virginia Beach to be exact).

The day before arriving at our stay, I felt a click in the brake pedal and could hear, almost feel that it was coming from the front drivers side. Being on the road I figured whatever, if it gets worse I'll take it to a shop my sister knows and see whats wrong. The next day the wife, daughter and I are headed to my sister's apartment, when I hit a huge pile of patch going across my lane and I hear a what sounds at the time a piece of road hitting my wheel well. I drive about another 5 miles before I have to slow down to merge to an exit. I go to hit the brakes and I hear a snap, followed by the most excruciating grinding noise I have ever heard. Now the car won't stop and the pedal is vibrating like a son of a bitch. I was able to get off the highway to the shoulder and to a stop safely. I get out to see the matter.

My caliper is wedged to my rim. Rim will not budge. Call tow truck. Wait an hour. Tow truck picks up car. Go to Checkered Flag Audi (worst Audi Dealership I have ever had the experience to deal with). I ask to see if my car can get looked at. Got a "well we're pretty busy today." Told me to wait, I'll see what I can do. Wait at Audi for another hour before he can look at the car. I show him the damage, he can't believe what he's looking at.

I leave my car and about an hour after that, Audi guy calls to say they fixed the problem. Caliper cage bolts SHEARED OFF. I stood there amazed at how that could happen. He told me all the mechanics there came by my car to see that this actually happened. $128 to tap and set 2 new bolts and I was off. They did wash my car though.

What are the odds of this **** happening? Scariest ride of my life. Point to the story: If you feel a click when you depress the brake pedal. GO TO A SHOP. You'll be in for a wild ride if you don't.

 

that's scary, I'm glad to hear everyone is alright and there was no major damage to your car. I've never heard of that happening.

 

the tech said that if it wasn't for the fact that the front brakes were upgrades with the A8 rotors, the caliper would have had more room to roam and cause even more damage.

 

Holy **** man, I thought I was the only one!

That happened to me, I was on the highway, and I hit the brakes, and I heard a loud thud come from my right rear wheel. I thought "That was weird" (I just bought the damn car). I get home, and my roommate was walking out of the garage to his car. I hit the brakes to stop, and he just happened to be looking at my wheels, (beautiful S4 rims lol). He says "Bro, your caliper is shifting!" Thats what the thud was, one bolt sheared off, and the second one was within an inch of it's life (It sheared off when I tried to take it off a bit later). I have never seen anything like that in my life! I just pictured me needing to panic-brake, having both bolts shear off, which grabs onto the rotor, which rips of the brake line, I lose all pressure and have no time to pull the e-brake.
Needless to say, I went out the next day and bought 8 caliper bolts from Audi. And BTW, WTF is up with $7.75 for a single bolt?????? Is there a special caliper-bolt factory in Germany that I need to keep in business? lol

-Brian

 

I'm glad mine didn't get to the point that the brake line broke. Thank God.

I just can't grasp how a strong bolt that is and it just sheared off. Someone was telling me that the bolts they use for the caliper cage should in theory hold up the weight of the entire car. I don't know how true that is but I figure it still has to be one of the toughest bolts to break.