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Frustration: Front Rotors

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PurpleMystique

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Nov 16, 2004
Messages
2,602
Location
Greater Des Moines Area
I've just spent the last 2-3 hours fighting with them: Nearly an entire can of PB Blaster, a torch, a dremel, a rubber mallet, and even a gear puller have come up short.

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The gear puller actually ended up snapping part of the rotor off. So much for getting them turned.

Any more suggestions?
 
My rotors were froze up on my SE the last time I replaced them. Try using a torch (don't torch them off!). Just heat them up a little bit around the inside circle and they should come right off. Make sure you don't heat it too hot either or you could damage the wheel bearing. Also make sure you put a little anti-seize on there when you put the new ones on.
 
I-Dom-In-VIII said:
Are you hitting the rotor from the front side, Use a Hammer and tap the back of the rotor, then turn the rotor and hit the back side again, and so on..
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My original plan was to get these rotors turned so I didn't want to damage them, until I snapped a chuck off. For the past 20 minutes I've been "tapping" it with a hammer hard enough to leave a mess of dents on the back side. Both sides will get about flush with the hub then they won't move at all.

I'm in an air-conditioned garage dripping with sweat.
 
push the rotor back on and then take some 80 grit sand paper and sand the hubs down. then try again. if they still dont want to come off then either sand some more or use a die grinder to sand the hubs down slightly.
 
striker2 said:
push the rotor back on and then take some 80 grit sand paper and sand the hubs down. then try again. if they still dont want to come off then either sand some more or use a die grinder to sand the hubs down slightly.
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best advice i could give as well
 
It seems that it's not the inner hub but the outer part behind the rotor that's getting stuck. I finally got the passenger side off by alternating tension with the gear puller and smashing with a hammer.
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I may have hit this once or twice...
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I am kind of warm...
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Time to work on the driver's side.
 
Man that sucker gave you a good workout :laugh:

Make sure to beat on the other side like it owes you money :D


Anti seize anti seize anti seize


Did I mention anti seize?
 
PurpleMystique said:
Driver's side is off! The screw/bang technique worked (it always does...haha).

Here's the worst pad:
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The other side wasn't much better. Definitely time for new brakes!
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Letting your brakes get like this is way dumber than believing a mid 12 sec Contour might be hiding somewhere in internet free Alabama.
 
oberthecat said:
Letting your brakes get like this is way dumber than believing a mid 12 sec Contour might be hiding somewhere in internet free Alabama.
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I've been trying for a couple weeks to get brake pads, but O'Reilly's kept ordering E0 pads. I finally brought in pictures.

Speaking of nightmares...

Just when I thought I was done:
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I found a puddle on the ground. ****. Transmission fluid? Nope, not purple. Wait, that's brake fluid.
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When I compressed the pistons to install the new pads, it overflowed the reservoir. How bad is this? I'm assuming I'll need to add some more fluid, no problem. Will it eat away the rubber though? How do I clean that off?
 
Shoot. My e-brake does almost nothing now. I pull and it goes pretty much all the way. It does almost nothing while the car is moving. The front brakes work great, and the fluid level in the reservoir is constant, once I removed the extra.

What do I do?? Bleed the rears?
 
That was the scene in my garage, the last two brake jobs I've done. Ever. I'll let the professionals handle that. Money well spent haha.
 
You can rinse it off with water. Go to a do it yourself carwash and spray it down especially off the paint. It wont hurt the rubber but will eat paint. I suspect fluid was added as the pads wore to keep the reservoir full. The new rotor does look nice though.
 
oberthecat said:
You can rinse it off with water. Go to a do it yourself carwash and spray it down especially off the paint. It wont hurt the rubber but will eat paint. I suspect fluid was added as the pads wore to keep the reservoir full. The new rotor does look nice though.
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But what do I do about the fact that I have no e-brake/possibly rear brakes??
 
PurpleMystique said:
But what do I do about the fact that I have no e-brake/possibly rear brakes??
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your e-brake is cable driven (which I am sure you know) so just because your e-brake doesnt work well, doesnt mean your rears aren't doing their job, a quick simple test is jacking up the rear, having someone free spin the wheel, and someone else hit the brake, if the tire stops, then the rears are working.

As far as your high lifing e-brake arm, I found, on my old contour, that when my rear pads were shot, the e-brake would require me to pull a long distance for the e-brake to engage, after I had replaced the rear pads, it was like a 3 inch pull for it to be engaged.

But if you let your pads get that bad, chances are your brake system hasn't been serviced in a long ass time... So it might be worth your time to bleed the rear system as well, I did this on my SVT and it made the brakes much more firm after I had done that.

also, for anybody who has to deal with the E0 or E1 brake pad night mare, you are way better off ordering them through batinc and selecting the proper pads yourself, I had the same issue as purplemystique, and it sucks... I bought pads from autozone based upon my year, got home sat down and pulled everything apart, wrong pads. Had to bug one of my friends to give me a ride back to autozone and buy brake pads, after all said and one, the anti squeal plate on the back of the brake pad for the drivers side fell down and cut into my rotor, another trip to autozone got me a free set of pads and 1 free rotor, I bought another one...

Same thing happened again. :mad: now I have to replace my rotor(s) and pads again, because of garbage autozone parts.
 
The pads and rotors on my rears are only a couple months old. Right before I did this brake job, the handbrake was very tight, and suddenly it's way loose. This isn't just due to wear.
 
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