If you’re going to rattle can your wheels, make sure to take them off the car first.
Do-it-yourself mods are the heart of car culture. Not all of us are great at wrenching—myself included—but there are certain jobs anyone can do with enough time and supplies. The thing is, you also need to follow the proper procedure when performing said projects. If only the person who painted their wheels while they were still on the car would have watched a YouTube walkthrough first. Proton Caliper
CS Automotive out of Tennessee posted these photos of a customer's car that straight-up wouldn't move when a traffic light turned green. They thought there was a problem with the transmission, but instead, it was due to botched customization.
Because they didn't remove the wheels beforehand, the brake rotors and calipers were also rattle-canned. You can probably see why this is a bad idea. Everything got super hot when the car hit the road, so when it finally came to a rest—even just for a minute at the red light—everything stuck together and hardened in a snap. The Nissan's, erm, economical engine couldn't break the grip loose and it was supposedly left like a sitting duck.
The original Facebook post didn't say exactly which Nissan model this car was. I used deductive reasoning to search the web and find that the Altima wears wheels a lot like these. Who would have imagined? Not me.
CS Automotive says that even though the brakes became unstuck during the tow, there were fragments of the pads left on the rotors. This meant that all four corners needed new... everything, at least in terms of brake components. What should have been a $10 "upgrade" ended up costing hundreds of dollars in parts and labor.
They didn't even tape off the tires, but I guess that doesn't matter much when they're black anyways.
Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com
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