Brake Rotor and Pad Replacement

[Robofuzz]

OK so this weekend I tackled my brakes. Here's what the rusty rotors look like behind my wheels:


Pic of the wheel removed. If you've never had to remove your wheels, or it's been a while since you have, the wheel is likely frozen to the hub. You'll need a rubber mallet to help knock it loose:


Pic of the caliper removed. You'll need a 15mm socket and an 18mm open end wrench to remove the caliper mounting bolts:


Pic of the caliper mounting bracket removed. The bracket is held on (tightly) with two 21mm bolts. You will need a breaker bar or some other force multiplier to persuade these bolts to let go:


Most likely your stock rotor is rusted and frozen to the hub like mine were. Some penetrating lubricant and a rubber mallet really come in handy freeing the rotor from the hub:


A comparison of my front stock rotor and the new DBA rotors (with the centers painted black by me):


New rotor mounted on the hub and temporarily held in place by stock lugnuts. I cleaned up the hub surface with a wire brush and applied some anti-seize so that the rotor does not seize to the hub:


Wheel mounted back on:


Rear wheel removed. Caliper mounting bolts are 15mm, and caliper bracket bolts on the rear are 19mm:


Comparison of stock rear rotor with new DBA rotor (center painted black by me):

[Robofuzz]

New rear rotor mounted:


The finished front brakes:



Finished rear brakes:

[Robofuzz]

The hardest parts of the install:

1) Removing the caliper mounting brackets. These are torque to yield bolts and those were freaking torqued down like a mother. Best method I found was to put a wrench on the bolts and whack the wrench with a 1 lb rubber mallet until they broke loose.

2) Getting the front rotors off the hubs. The rotors had rusted to the hubs. Keep in mind that my car only has 27k miles and rarely sees rain. And those rotors were flat out stuck to the hubs. It took several minutes repeatedly striking the backside of the rotors with the aforementioned rubber mallet to free them up. And this after applying some WD40 and letting it soak in for about 15 minutes.

Tools that are a must have for this:
1) A rubber mallet. This one tool made this job possible.
2) A good set of metric sockets and open end wrenches.
3) A torque wrench that reads ft/lbs. The bolts used in the brakes have specific torque values. Not to mention that the lugnuts need to be properly torqued.

Other stuff you need:
1) Locktite (red and blue).
2) Brake parts grease. Used to keep pads from squealing.
3) Brake cleaner. Don't get this on ANY painted surfaces. I used it sprayed on a rag to clean the rotor friction surfaces on the new rotors.
4) Shop towels.
5) Penetrating oil or WD40.
6) Anti-seize compound.

[Robofuzz]

Discussion thread:

http://www.gastiresoil.com/showthread.php?t=2418