Finally the rotor's off...

[Campin]

What I pain... I'm doing my back brakes (first time) and the drivers side rotor was seized on pretty good. Blasted it with PB blaster hoping it would help with the rust and even broke my mallet hitting it, the head flew off! What it took was a hammer and a 12 inch piece of 2x4 with the 2x4 resting against the outer rim of the old rotor (were the pad sits) and hitting it long end out, first on the side of the rotor and then again on the top and "pop!".. what a nice feeling...

Anyway.. my question is I've pretty much cleaned everything with brake cleaner (except the caliper and the new pads of course) and I want to lube the hub with the brake lubricant, is that ok or should I be using some other type if lubricant? Maybe this is a silly question but when you're new you try to be over cautious... thx...

[mikey32235]

you need bearing grease... I would think

[Campin]

Bearing grease.. think I have some of that... thx...

[goodcase]

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/4/Auto/AutoRepairAccessories/AntiSeize/PRDOVR~0383776P/Permatex+Copper+Anti-Seize.jsp?locale=en

Copper Anti Seize Lube. Works really well.

[SomeGuy]

Anti-seize is the right stuff to use. Silver is fine if you have it, it doesn't need to be copper as you should never get beyond the 870*c rating of silver anti-seize (copper is around 980*c).

It's pretty typical that you have to bang the sh!t out of the rotors to get them off too :)

[Campin]

Yea ran to home hardware (only thing nearby) and found the permatex anti-seize, I think it's the silver, I grabbed what they had. Other than that I only stumbled a little on the caliper piston but got it in and everything else was pretty smooth. However i did lubricate the back of the pads and now realize that's not really advised but the rotors and insides of the pads are "lube free" so think it's OK... now I'll do the other side in the morning....

[SomeGuy]

You should put anti-squeel on the back of the pads. It only takes 15-20 minutes or so to pull the pad, clean it up with some brake clean, anti-squeel the back and put it back together. Would be worth doing depending on what you actually put on the back of the pads.

While you're at it you should also lube the caliper pins and rails.

Stuff on the left goes on the back of the pad, stuff on the right goes on the caliper pins....the rails you can just use standard grease.
http://someforum.net/2012/BrakeLubes.jpg

Don't forget to pump the brakes a few times before you move the car. Also you should follow the manufacturers directions about bedding the pads to the rotors.

[Campin]

Yea that brake lubricant is the stuff I used on the pads, as well as on the rails and a dab on each end of the pin before replacing... Is the "disc brake quiet" really needed? I rally don't want to have to re-trace my work if not absolutely necessary.. I also bought napa rotors, around $40 per (so $80) and napa pads, the high end for around $120..

[SomeGuy]

Yea that brake lubricant is the stuff I used on the pads, as well as on the rails and a dab on each end of the pin before replacing... Is the "disc brake quiet" really needed? I rally don't want to have to re-trace my work if not absolutely necessary.. I also bought napa rotors, around $40 per (so $80) and napa pads, the high end for around $120..

Putting that brake lube stuff on the back of the pads shouldn't harm anything but I wouldn't have. You only need the "disc brake quiet" stuff if you have squealing. Usually on the mazda 3 people get it when the car is cold and backing out of somewhere...so it's just a preventative measure.

[Campin]

Man this stuff doesn't want to go smoothly... Now working on my back passenger side and the caliper pin seems seized on, I can't get the top or the bottom off.. Been trying to leverage them off with a screwdriver and lots of PB blaster but all I keep doing is bending the outer part up... Suggestions welcome, a right now my only choice seems to hope and pray the PB blaster slowly works through and then try again in a bit....

[Campin]

Bit of an Edit... Sorry I said the pin was the problem... I meant the spring on the front of the caliper...

[Campin]

After reading up a little on the spring, they're there to reduce rattle so can I just leave them in as I don't want to risk breaking them off or do they have to come off and be lubed or something?

[SomeGuy]

After reading up a little on the spring, they're there to reduce rattle so can I just leave them in as I don't want to risk breaking them off or do they have to come off and be lubed or something?

I've always taken them off to do pads, I think you'd have issues getting the new pads in without doing that. You should be able to slide a biggish flat head screwdriver under where it goes into the caliper and pop it off...that's usually really easy. They don't need lube or anything.

The caliper pins which are the 7mm hex bolts definitely need to come out and be lubed.

[sudz]

+1 for bedding the pads. I did this when I got the car, and my original pads lasted 140,000km, with plenty of bite. I replaced them with 3mm left simply because I was doing the rotors as they were starting to pulse pretty badly.

I've got 60,000km on the pads now, and they haven't even started to get close to wearing off that "tapered" bit at the front and back (left and right?) of the pad. I'm thinking they'll last as long as the car is alive.

When I did the brakes I had my brothers help - he blasted the pads with brake cleaner too. I yielded to his experience, but I thought it was not required/semi bad idea. Zero ill effects that I can tell, 60k later.

Regarding the bedding, It helps greatly with brake dust over the lifetime of your pads too. if you overdo it you can warp your rotors, or harden the pads too much and remove a lot of "bite" from the brakes, so don't go all out. better to "underdo" it than overdo it.

I know a few people who have had siezed calipers pins in our cars - Make sure you lube those! Mine was... Not quite siezed, but difficult to move. I took it out and cleaned it up and lubed it. No problems since. (considering it was in there for 140,000km, I was impressed!)

HTH

[Campin]

I've always taken them off to do pads, I think you'd have issues getting the new pads in without doing that. You should be able to slide a biggish flat head screwdriver under where it goes into the caliper and pop it off...that's usually really easy. They don't need lube or anything.

Well for now I just bent them aside and popped the caliper off, Guess I'll know soon enough if it's a problem with the new pads... Also think I dodged a bullet getting the caliper mount off... It was looking like I might have stripped one of the 15 mm bolts, but by stripping it down, now the 14 mm socket fits perfectly and it came right off. :chuckle

Yea I will definitely bed the pads after I'm done...

[SomeGuy]

There's nothing (as far as I can remember) that is 15mm on these cars. It was probably 14mm to begin with but a bit of surface rust built up making it hard to get the socket on.

[Campin]

Yea you're right, they're probably 14s. But 3 of them could only turn on the 15mm and only the 1 after some of the rust had been stripped away turned on the 14s..

Anyway all done now... whew! :) Feels good and I was able to place the pads even with the spring still attached, then after I just had to bend the spring back a little so it would fit back under the caliper mount.. And thx for the help....

[Cab0oze]

First brake job - no prob
Second brake job, diff car - broke two hammers, got it off with a massive fireaxe
Third brake job, diff car - broke aforementioned massive fire axe, bought a huge sledgehammer w/lifetime warranty
Fourth and fifth brake jobs - Jobs done in one hit.

Buy the right tools and save yourself a massive headache. They're good forever.

BFH > ALL

[bubba1983]

Geezus get better bigger hammers people, and swing harder! Dont be a pansy
Clean your hub with a wire wheel...anti seize wont do jack after being on the car for years, dont bother.
Seized slider pin? Take it out clean the pin, lube and put back in. If its still hard to slide, you may need new pin bushings, or atleast clean the bore the bushing goes into...

[DarkKilla]

I did my front brakes about two weeks ago and I gotta say i've never seen rotors stuck on the axel so much on any of the cars I have done. Took like an hour trying to get each side rotor off, had to use hammer, wood 2x4, pb blaster, and using separate bolts on the caliper mounting bracket to push out the rotor out from the back while rotating it. I have to do the rear soon when I get some time, not looking forward to it. 1st brake job in 5 years, 100K on the car

[bubba1983]

Wood is useless, it takes away from the shock....throw it away

[SomeGuy]

Bubba pwnz brake rotors...they shatter in fear (literally) lol

[peterm15]

Wood is useless, it takes away from the shock....throw it away

+ 1.

Either that or grow some man arms and yank the bastard off. ;)

[Campin]

I disagree, I used wood again today and found it effective... I think it all depends on how you use it. If you position it on the outer part of the rotor (where the pads touch) it can be useful because, even though it absorbes some of the energy (shock), it has a larger surface area then a hammer (2x4 inches) so the energy that gets though hits over a larger area and the hope is that will be enough to "pop" the other side of the rotor... kinda like a lever effect I guess. So today I prepped the rotor with PB blaster from morning and when it was time to start hitting it I first pound it directly with the hammer (my poor ear drums) trying to "shake out" as much rust as I could then I used the 2x4 as described above... Still a bit of a pain but not nearly as frustrating as yesterday..

Of course I'm sure a sledge hammer always wins... :D

[sudz]

Funny story: For the longest time I thought PB stood for "Pure Brutality" Which is exactly what I had to use to get my front rotors off.

[stock3]

I have a hint for you that will make future brake jobs much, much easier. First, once you clean the hub real good from rust, coat it with a nice, thin layer of antiseize, could be copper or aliminum. Then, about once a year, as part of my winter rust proofing routine, I spray a bit of rust proofing oil, could be Rust Check or something similar, through the rotor hat holes where the studs come out.
With a straw you can spray just a little bit in there and the oil will sipe in behind the rotor hat. This way rotors will come out no problem, at least the do for me.

[bubba1983]

I disagree with your disagreeing ...throw the wood away

[Campin]

I disagree with your disagreeing of my disagreement.... :D:D

The wood stays on the tool bench unless I get a sledgehammer or... the end turns all pulpy from repeated banging.. then throw it, i guess..

[Noisy Crow]

Do you mean you can't pull the caliper off of the rotor? That is a normal problem due to the rust ridge around the edge of the rotor. You need to expand the caliper slightly, which is pretty much impossible on the rear brakes because of the built in parking brake. You can use a die grinder or file to remove a section of the ridge on each side, or just go at it with large prybar. Be careful not to damage anything other than the parts you are replacing.

[rajin929]

http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/drivefast1971/2010-05-16_182111_1.gif

wish mazda did this

makes popping off the rotor a breeze

[goodcase]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtsTJCRljAs

I used this trick on a Chevy Malibu. Although I'd caution against it if you're planning to reuse the rotor.