97Q45 having problems with brakes or transmission

[trajanH]

This problem I am having would be a good challenge to NICO members to solve. At least I hope someone here can point me in the right direction for a fix.
Recently I was hearing a slight clanking sound coming from my right wheel when I went over bumps in the road. I was planning to get under the car to see what the noise was all about when on my way home the wheel started acting like it was about to come off. I heard a slight screech like the brakes were goin bad and it was obvious that something was wrong. So I pretty much crawled the car all the way home. When I got to my driveway which has a slight dip and pushed on the brakes the car just slammed to a stop. Like a jerking motion and then I could not drive forward like something was locking up the wheels. What was weird was that I could drive the car backwards in reverse. After putting the car in neutral, pushing it and then shifting thru the gears sometimes I was able to get the car to go forward enough to park but everytime i hit the brakes there was this sudden severe stop like something was locking up.

I'm wondering now does this seem like a transmission or a wheel/brake problem? If anybody has experienced anything like this with their Q45 I would really appreciate some insight into how you fixed it.

[Q451990]

I suspect it's brake related, but hard to tell. If it's a brake problem you'll see evidence of the problem when you get the wheels off.

Heath

[trajanH]

ok , I am going to check it out 1st thing tomorrow. Thanks for the quick reply.

[trajanH]

So after taking the wheel off and checking everything I was surprised to see that a bolt was missing from the brake caliper for the right wheel of the car. So that was the reason for the rattling that I was hearing and I guess the bolt eventually rattled its way off the caliper. So I am stupid for not paying more attention to the car and taking that wheel off and checking it as soon as I started hearing the noise coming from that area.

Also I noticed some oily residue around the strut area like there was a leak and I am wondering if that is a sign that the struts need replacing. Certainly, the rubber boots on the struts are all messed up. My first thought was that could have contributed to the brake caliper bolt coming lose or maybe the strut is not doing its job correctly so too much stress was placed on that wheel when going over bumps.