L300 rotor removal

[nxski]

The breaker bar worked and actually seemed quite easy. I guess soaking in penetrating oil over night helped a lot too. The other big pain was separating the rotor from the hub. My callipers were completely seized, so it took a lot of hammering to get them off the rotor, then all of the bolts holding the rotor to the hub were seized, luckily those came off with a breaker bar and a torch. Tomorrow there is just a little bit to re-attach, then pack the hubs with grease, bleed and re-fill.

[yojimbo]

Bleed? Thats a bit excessive, I just put the caliper on top of the upper wishbone out of the way. But it depends what you were in there for, I'm just replacing bearings, and brake pads. You should check the sliders while you are in there though.

[nxski]

Sliders? I'm doing the dual piston upgrade so have to switch the calipers and bleed the brakes.

[yojimbo]

Heh I see, I was off in my own little world and assuming you just wanted to replace worn rotors

[nxski]

Heh I see, I was off in my own little world and assuming you just wanted to replace worn rotors

Nope, rotors, pads and calipers. The whole upgrade costs less than $200 and I figured I might as well since the calipers were seized.


I know I need to get wheel bearing grease and DOT 3 brake fluid, but how much should I get? Also, should I clean the brakes before using them? The rotors have a sticky yellow substance on them right now.

[thedjjack]

1 litre of brake fluid and maybe 500ml of grease...

get brake cleaner and clean the rotters the are covered with stuff to stop rust and it will stop you stopping if not cleaned off...

[nxski]

Well, I couldn't finish the job...so close! the fitting required for attaching the brake line to the calliper is a different size on the dual piston callipers. I drove the van up to Big O Tire and will ask them to finish the job tomorrow. At least it shouldn't be very expensive and they can check over my work. I'm happy that I saved myself a couple hundred and don't mind handing over the last bit to the pro's.

[nxski]

Well, I'm a bit bummed now, after spending so much time doing the work myself, I bring it to the shop just to attach the brake lines to the calipers and am getting charged $150 for it. If the fitting needs to be changed, does 1.5 hours sound reasonable?

[Growlerbearnz]

When I swapped to the dual pistons I had to get creative with the brake lines, modifying and moving the brackets and making up new hard lines. I would charge about $150 for a similar amount of work- but I'm not sure of exactly what your shop has done.

[nxski]

When I swapped to the dual pistons I had to get creative with the brake lines, modifying and moving the brackets and making up new hard lines. I would charge about $150 for a similar amount of work- but I'm not sure of exactly what your shop has done.

That's probably what they've done as well, so I don't feel so bad. I was confused at first because no mention of this was made in the post about switching to dual pistons. Also, another shop quoted me $250 for the entire job, they probably didn't realize this work would need to be done though.

[nxski]

Now it turns out that the fitting inside the caliper was put in backwards in factory and I need a replacement. This job is a nightmare!

[nxski]

Done! I paid double to get a caliper locally, but the job is now done! The brakes are a little bit better, the acceleration is way better and the EGT's are way lower!

[yojimbo]

So over standard brakes its only a little better? No surprise I guess, to really improve braking you need bigger rotors anyway.

[nxski]

So over standard brakes its only a little better? No surprise I guess, to really improve braking you need bigger rotors anyway.

Yeah, not as big a difference as I was expecting. But then again, jamming on the stock brakes would still have me doing an endo.