Brake job advice, new rotors and most of the rest of the hardware and fasteners

[Jonathan]

Well, Spring has not quite sprung here in southern Ontario, but I'm just about done with the winter weather and am looking towards car season.

With that in mind, I have brand new rotors for all four wheels sitting in a box and am thinking it's about time to put them on the car.

These were brand new from DMCMW and I picked them up in person back in 2015 at the Open House they did that June. They are still in the same box and are bagged and have some of that oil on them (that keeps them from rusting as far as I know). I also have replacement bolts and whatnot for most of the things keeping the brakes in place as well as new braided brake hoses that I may or may not mess with and install.

Any advice or suggestions for putting new rotors on the car? Mine have not been off since I got the car in 2007. I redid all four calipers a number of years ago though. I'm not sure I have another brake caliper rebuild kit in inventory, but I do have a complete set of pads, including the parking brake ones.

I guess I'm just wondering what precautions to take when disassembling things so not to snap or break something I'll be sorry I did. Or what you need to do to "break in" new rotors on a car... like what needs to be done to the surface either before (like getting the oil off) or during the first few drives, like how hard to stomp on the brakes, etc.

Thanks in advance.

[Helirich]

I don’t have a lot of help for you, but I recommend removing the front rotors now. The reason is the wheel bearings might split when you remove them. I don’t know any tricks to stop that from happening. If it happens, you will need to order those bearings. So nice to do it now before you are in a rush. The rest of the job is no big deal.

I have never replaced my rear rotors and I don’t know if it has the same design. Maybe some others will chime in.

[Bitsyncmaster]

I don’t have a lot of help for you, but I recommend removing the front rotors now. The reason is the wheel bearings might split when you remove them. I don’t know any tricks to stop that from happening. If it happens, you will need to order those bearings. So nice to do it now before you are in a rush. The rest of the job is no big deal.

I have never replaced my rear rotors and I don’t know if it has the same design. Maybe some others will chime in.

+1
The bearings stick on the axles so when you pull the rotors off the bearing pull apart.

[Jonathan]

Thanks for that on the front bearings. I had forgotten about that, but must have had someone mention it at some point because I have a pair of those bearings in the box already.

Here is my parts list set aside already for the brake work:

Brake work parts list.JPG

The angle drive cable bracket isn't obviously part of the brake system, but getting to where it mounts requires the brake hose to be disconnected, so I thought I would install that at the same time things are apart.

[82DMC12]

If you've been flushing the brakes every two or three years, I'm sure the calipers are still OK. On my car, the disc spacers that slide onto the spindles were both cracked so I replaced those while I was in there. I see you have new SS brake hoses in your parts list so you should definitely put those in at the same time.

You should probably replace the outer stub axle nuts as a safety thing - they are supposed to be used only once.

Other than that, just depends on how far you want to go. If everything else looks good, then you're done. If it looks like crap and you want to refurbish the steering knuckle, dust shields, etc then you probably need to be ready to replace ball joints and tie rod links while you're at it. And then maybe do the upper and lower control arms... and then you might as well replace the bushings.... and if you're that far in, be like me and replace every single nut and bolt.... and might as well sandblast and paint the sway bar.... you get the idea.

[David T]

The rotors only need to be replaced if they are scored beyond resurfacing or they have been resurfaced past the minimum or they have obvious damage. No need to replace them 'just because". If you do use your new ones be sure to remove all traces of oil with Brakeclean and they should be scuffed up in a non uniform pattern with some sandpaper. A quick hit with a 3" sanding pad on a drill with 80-90# paper all around on both sides. It does take some use to "bed in" the pads to the rotors during which time you should avoid panic stops (heck, you should ALWAYS avoid panic stops!). You should install new pads with new rotors but if you do use the old pads you should also scuff them up to expose fresh materiel. The E brake pads don't wear out unless they are way out of adjustment or someone was driving with them on. I would change the hoses and put in fresh brake fluid and bleed the brakes AND clutch. If the calipers are all working and not leaking, no need to touch them.

[Jonathan]

Thanks. The "bed in" thing is part of what I wanted to understand. And good call on the "just because" as that's 90% the reason I would change them. I bought the rotors when I had the chance to in person and avoid the shipping charges. My brakes are fine, work well and don't "need" much except to flush and replace the fluid. I'd like to do the hoses of course, but the fitting that attach them are as rusty as anything else that was on my car before I got to it. Much of those things caused more trouble than it was worth. They don't leak, so likely will just leave them as they are until I actually need to replace them. Probably just stick to the things that address issues my car actually has and not just common things other guys are doing. Cheers.

[82DMC12]

I don't know how critical it is to bed in brakes but I had squeal sometimes on my old rotors/pads. So, when I replaced them, I followed these procedures and it seems to have worked as described.

https://brakeperformance.com/bedding-in-rotors.php

[dmcman73]

Rear brake rotors are easy to replace as they sit on top of the wheel hub. Remove calipers, and pop of the rotor (there may be a holding screw on it though that keeps the rotor held in place). The only difficult part with the rear rotor is if the rotor is rusted to the wheel hub, nothing a heavy hammer can't solve. Just make sure you verify that there is no set screw holding the rotor to the hub,

Front rotors are a little tricky as some have mentioned, you need to remove the entire wheel hub and that wheel bearing tends to stick to the spindle causing it to fall apart. Once off, unbolt the rotor from the rear of the hub, replace the wheel bearing and bolt the new rotor on. I hated this setup so much that I actually purchased Josh Shattenkirk's Mazda Miata front brake kit swap, it allows you to install Miata rotors (which are vented) on top of a new wheel hub and use Miata brake calipers. Going forward, never have to remove the wheel hub for a front brake service again and rotors (arond $25 each) and pads are dirt cheap and if you buy them at Autozone, pads are lifetime warrantied, I haven't had to purchase new pads for my other cars in years, bring the old worn out ones back they swap them out for new.

[cdrusn]

You don't mention replacing the rubber hydraulic brake hoses. Why go to all that work to have the hoses split open and ruin the pads.