# Front caliper bracket bolts



## aaron.terveen (Mar 30, 2017)

montess1 said:


> Who has replaced the front caliper bracket bolts when changing rotor's ? Did you reuse the bolts ? If not where did you find them.


I painted mine & was told by a master tech to just use the old ones!









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## Blasirl (Mar 31, 2015)

I think you are supposed to replace them as they stretch when you tighten them, but I reused mine. I will probably replace next time though. Actually I'll probably do a little more research first to get a definitive answer.


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## aaron.terveen (Mar 30, 2017)

Blasirl said:


> I think you are supposed to replace them as they stretch when you tighten them, but I reused mine. I will probably replace next time though. Actually I'll probably do a little more research first to get a definitive answer.


Yeah they are supposed to be replaced! 

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## montess1 (Oct 13, 2012)

They should put the bolt's in the hardware kit's!!


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## dhpnet (Mar 2, 2014)

EDIT: I checked my 2014 Cruze Service Manual. It does not specifically say that the Caliper Bracket Bolts need to be replaced. 

They are TTY bolts. Most of the TTY bolts in the service manual reference a caution in the cautions section of the manual that says to replace the bolt. The caliper bracket bolts do not reference this caution. I am not sure if that means they don't need to be replaced.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

One car I recall replacing the front caliper bolts on was my 92 DeVille, were metric, and when I removed them the threads on the yoke they bolted into came out with them. Thank you for using road salt.

Rather than replacing the yoke, $$$$, tapped them to the next larger size SAE bolt size and used grade 8 bolts, also had to open the size of the caliper holes, they were as solid as a rock, torqued to around 45 ft.-lbs as I recall.

As long as they are clean and the threads are good where they screw into, and can reach the proper torque, just reuse them. Never recalled replacing bolts on 30-40's vehicles, seems like back then they use to know how to make good bolts.

TTY bolts? Very common when trying to screw an aluminum head with seven times the expansion rate as the cast iron block.

One thing I like to replace is the rubber boots on both the torque plate guide pins and load them up with silicone grease as well as that caliper piston boot, also loaded with silicone grease. They dry up get stiff and let road salt get in. As long as the guide bolts are clean, reuse those as well, torque to 21 ft.-lbs.

Pads have to be able to self center, and that piston with vacuum when you release the brake pedal has to be able to slide back in. If not, get brake drag, not only kills your economy and toasts your rotors.

Road salt and brakes do not get along very well together.










People are planting flowers in potholes because the city is not repairing them. Back in the 70's were blaming studded snow tires on this, and they still are. Sure have a ton of these now, officer, I am not drunk, just trying to avoid potholes. Latest thing after over 40 years of this BS, finding our fresh water lakes are becoming like the oceans of this earth.

Not only the lakes, the roads, your lawn, but the brakes and your unibody, also use to be your exhaust system, but at least they are using stainless steel now, 04 Cavalier lasted ten years, but another spring job, replacing your exhaust system. Had to get rid of many good runners, because the rocker panels rusted away, with nothing left to weld new ones on. Center of the vehicle was sagging and couldn't even open the doors.


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## carbon02 (Feb 25, 2011)

The 2012 AllData manual shows they are Torque to yield. You can get Raybestos and AcDelco at Rockauto.com

I agree you can probably make them work for 1 or 2 changes, and for $3.00 per bolt that seems high, but safety is at stake.


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## pontiacgt (Jan 12, 2011)

You do not need to replace these bolts. You can use them over and over unless you have stripped the heads. I have never replaced any bolts on brakes i have changed and never have had a single problem. I have friends who change their own brakes and they haven't done this before either. If the treads look bad or the bolt looks beat up then i can see it but if they look that bad where the **** have you been driving your car. 

MY ATV that goes through MUD, Water, Dirt i can reuse the bolts so on a car it should be of no concern.


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## theonlypheonix (Oct 8, 2015)

pontiacgt said:


> You do not need to replace these bolts. You can use them over and over unless you have stripped the heads. I have never replaced any bolts on brakes i have changed and never have had a single problem. I have friends who change their own brakes and they haven't done this before either. If the treads look bad or the bolt looks beat up then i can see it but if they look that bad where the **** have you been driving your car.
> 
> MY ATV that goes through MUD, Water, Dirt i can reuse the bolts so on a car it should be of no concern.


:iagree::th_dblthumb2:

I always use anti-size on the bolts and torque to spec any that can be exposed to "SALT" !:hope:


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## montess1 (Oct 13, 2012)

carbon02 said:


> The 2012 AllData manual shows they are Torque to yield. You can get Raybestos and AcDelco at Rockauto.com
> 
> I agree you can probably make them work for 1 or 2 changes, and for $3.00 per bolt that seems high, but safety is at stake.


Do you have a part number,all I find at Rockauto are for the rear.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

carbon02 said:


> The 2012 AllData manual shows they are Torque to yield. You can get Raybestos and AcDelco at Rockauto.com
> 
> I agree you can probably make them work for 1 or 2 changes, and for $3.00 per bolt that seems high, but safety is at stake.



Must need new glasses, checked my shop manual and rockauto.com, didn't see anything about TTY bolts. But not only the bolt, also what it screws into.


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## montess1 (Oct 13, 2012)

I am still looking for info on the front bolts


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## aaron.terveen (Mar 30, 2017)

That's everything on the front drivers side!









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## aaron.terveen (Mar 30, 2017)

Just for this!
















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## montess1 (Oct 13, 2012)

I still would like to know if these need replaced if they are TTY bolts ? The two bigger bolts that hold the bracket to the spindle.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Only if you CANNOT tightened the bolt to the required specification for any of a given number of reasons. These bolts are hardened unlike say a water pump bolt going into aluminum, put a wrench on them to remove them and the head breaks off.

You lost the bolt, head is rounded, keep on turning it and it doesn't get tight. Was talking to my 43 year old son on this yesterday, had to clean the brakes every spring, not necessary replacing them, just cleaning off the rust so the pads are free to and return to the home position. 

Did this on my Cruze every spring, torque plates were very poorly plated and rust would build under those clips, would have been nice if they plated the backing plates, tips would be rusty, two ways to bind the pads. Just cleaned them off and coated with anti-seize, good for another year. No reason to replaced the bolts, but they were also anti-seized and could be torqued properly. Did this four times, before it was totaled by a drunk.

Wife and I are downshifters, practically no pad or rotor wear. Darn road salt is the problem.

One spring job seemed to be eliminated, replacing the exhaust from the cat back every spring, On our 04 Cavalier, exhaust lasted ten years. Cruze was just as good. So why not the brakes?

Ha, recall on my 85 Honda SEI, cat back was every year, purchased cat back from Carquest the tail pipe with a resonator and the muffler was guaranteed for life, only had to buy that short output muffler pipe.

At first, with the very old receipt in plastic, had to return both parts to get new ones, but then they started this recycling BS, so they didn't want them anymore.

Ha, always heard the comment, why don't you get rid of this car, tired of giving you new stuff every year! Just replied, if you gave me a muffler and a tailpipe that wasn't made from crap, wouldn't have to. This went on for 15 years.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

TTY bolts for the torque plates, pad brackets, caliper support, caliper bracket or whatever you want to call them seem to be a GM thing.

Read several GM boards on this issue, certainly a lot of confusion to put it mildly, old guys like me are saying TTY bolts are only used on cast aluminum parts to cast iron, those torque plates are certainly not made of aluminum, forged steel is more like it.

Tried to find TTY bolts at gmpartsdirect, don't even show bolts for what they call the caliper supports, no luck either on ebay. Toyota is the inventor of the torque plates, nothing about TTY bolts in there, for my 88 Supra, torque for these bolts is 77 ft. lbs, 74 ft. lbs. for the Cruze, 66 ft. lbs for other vehicle torque plate bolts.

Like using an old fashion analog torque wrench, really don't like the crackers, not sure what cracked, the wrench or the thing I am fastening. Soon as I hit around 35 ft. lbs on these things, the needle goes way up, but that bolt sure doesn't turn anymore. 

Have one other option, go to your Chevy dealer and see if you can buy TTY bolts.


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## theonlypheonix (Oct 8, 2015)

NickD said:


> Did this on my Cruze every spring, torque plates were very poorly plated and rust would build under those clips, would have been nice if they plated the backing plates, tips would be rusty, two ways to bind the pads. Just cleaned them off and coated with anti-seize, good for another year. No reason to replaced the bolts, but they were also anti-seized and could be torqued properly. Did this four times, before it was totaled by a drunk.
> 
> Wife and I are downshifters, practically no pad or rotor wear. Darn road salt is the problem.


I'm with you on this (old fart also). Anti-seize on the bolt threads and high temp grease on the guides, slides and backing plates.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

On the subject of TTY bolts and in terms of automotive history, very recent. Never fully understood why, Germans and Japanese were not using TTY bolts when they started putting an aluminum head on a cast iron block engine.

88 Supra has an aluminum head on a cast iron block, head bolts are reusable, same with other German and Japanese made vehicles. Only guys that had head gasket problems are the ones are the screwed around with increasing compression or fooling around with the waste gate valve on turbo powered engines. Otherwise, these were more than 200K mile engines.

Maybe they know something about aluminum we don't, Ford 3.8L V6 had all kinds of head gasket leakage problems putting an aluminum head on a cast iron block. Aluminum tends to expand seven times greater than cast iron.

The cure for this was to invent TTY bolts. They are more plastic and tend to expand more. Another good question is why they can only be torqued once. Must exceed Young's modulus of expansion where they can't return to their original form.

Sure charge enough for these throwaway things.

Tell us they are using aluminum heads to save weight, not exactly the true reason, they are cheaper, aluminum melts at less than half the temperature, can be investment cast to save on machining. But not without more problem, with an engine overheat, the heads will crack where cast iron will not. Steel inserts have to installed for the valve seats, use to fall out. For little four cylinder, what, about 5 pounds?

Same thinking with a compact spare, really bad with ABS, you don't have it if you need it, saves about ten pounds, ha, take that off your gut.

Perhaps the reason with calipers is they are made out of aluminum is the reason why for TTY bolts, but the pad brackets sure are not made from aluminum. To keep them from rusting, could add about 0.5% nickel to the iron.

With aluminum, over 500 different alloys, want to know where you find the highest grade? Look at a throwaway pop can, FDA has a say on this.


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## carbon02 (Feb 25, 2011)

NickD said:


> Must need new glasses, checked my shop manual and rockauto.com, didn't see anything about TTY bolts. But not only the bolt, also what it screws into.


Here's the link. This is what we're talking about right? 2012 CHEVROLET CRUZE 1.4L L4 Turbocharged Caliper Bracket Mounting Bolt | RockAuto

The nut part of the bolt is threads in the actual caliper bracket. I haven't pulled this apart, but I believe it's just like any other GM product. 

NickD- Yes I think it's a GM thing TTY bolts. With the higher clamping torque used when tightening to yield, a smaller bolt can be used. I think this all goes back to weight and the highest fuel economy avalible back in 2011 when the Cruze made it's debut. 

Not to mention probably smaller bolts, which probably are lower cost, which the accountants won't mind either!


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Yes, this is the link.

"Professional Grade When it comes to brake jobs, brake hardware is often the most overlooked component. Worn out brake hardware can lead to Unwanted noise, Premature brake wear, and Brake drag.
Durable, reliable brake hardware is essential to a successful brake job and a performance that is Safe, Quiet, and Smooth."

$4.70 for a bolt? We use to buy these by the pound, high quality bolts were way less than a buck per pound. But then somebody has to put them in a plastic bag with a label on it, or even a lot more expensive in a blister pack, put them on a shelf where a CPA has to count them for the IRS, take them off the shelve and package them for shipment.

Really didn't read anything about these bolts being TTY, but they do this for real TTY bolts.


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## cfusar0 (Oct 4, 2017)

Here in Toronto the dealer wants $30.00 per bolt!! And they don't have many in stock. Called a few dealerships and they only have 1. I'm led to believe the dealerships just reuse them as well because shouldnt they stock quite a bit if it's an item that gets replaced regularly? Hate to revive this thread but they should be sold with the rotors as a kit. I can't locate them outside of the dealership and $30.00 each is insane. Im going to try and locate after market bolts if not I guess I'll reuse them based on how they look when I take it apart (No deformity).


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## brent769 (Apr 4, 2013)

See Carbon02 post (#21) for the rock auto link. I haven't done my fronts yet, but for my rear brakes I just reused the bolts. I don't see why you can't reuse. As long as they aren't rounded, I would use them again. Don't pay $30.


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