how not to change your brakes

[Wolfe]

I bought myself some new cool looking slotted and cross drilled rotors for my s13 and some hawk carbon ferro brake pads. This all started 8 days ago.

And so the drama begins...
I decided to do the fronts first because I had the nose of the car in the air allready.

Friday 3-15 8:00 pm
-wheels came of with no problems...
OK the bolts on the claipers looked pretty rusty so I thought I better hose them down with some good old fashioned wd40 first. I switched on the air compressor and got it pumped up to 120psi, thinking, my impact is gonna make this easy.
-Bullshit.
-didnt even budge, none of them.
-hosed them down some more with some pb blaster and got some cookies and a pb&j sandwich. (note: wash your hands before making food if they have pb blaster on them other wise youhave a pb&pb&j sandwich)
-20 minutes go by
-hit them all again with the impact the top bolts on each caliper come out but the bottoms won't budge. More pb blaster and throw some maap gas on the pass side bottom bolt to get it nice and hot (note: the smell of burning pb blaster will make you throw up)
-cleaned up partially digested pb&j sandwich and cookies off garage floor
-more heat and 120psi with the impact gets the bottom caliper bolt off on the passenger side.
picture of the old rotor, new rotor, and hawk brake pads (still in the box)

-its now 11:30pm and time to shower and go to bed.

Saturday 3-16 start time 6:00pm
-I cleaned up the caliper with some brake cleaner (note: fumes will kill your brain cells)
-realised I was starting to get high from the fumes so I opened the garage door. great its snowing out...
10 minutes go by and the caliper is a nice rusty brown but crud free
-to cold so I closed the garage door.
use the vice and some ausie engineering to compress the brake piston so I can put the stuff back together.

still excited about getting one of them done I take some pictures



and with everything in place



and with the wheel back on


its now about 8pm and I am feeling pretty good about myself. so I sit down for 10 minutes and admire my handiwork, decide to hose the drivers side with more pb blaster.

-time for clean up, food, and video games.
end time 8:40 pm

Sunday 3-17 11:30 am

-time to get this shit done.

-impact to 120 psi on the bottom bolt.....
-crap, didn't budge
- impack to 140psi, still didnt budge
12:30 lunch (yes I washed my hands)
1:00pm resume impact and its not budging
-ok, I have a 3 foot piece of pipt and my torque bar with a impact socket on it and a good heave hoe and .....nothing..didnt budge...map gas for 15 minutes and.... heave
......
......
.....
snap, f*ck.
sheered the head of the bolt off
- a couple phone calls to share my grief and I am feeling I need to stop the fronts and do the rears

-rear brakes were a piece of cake, took them apart put them back together.
no pics sorry, just not feeling accomplished enough.

ok, time to drill the bolt for a easy out, oh, wait, I don't have any easy outs...
-home depot run $30 for drill bits and easy outs.
get back home and start the pilot holl with a high carbon drill bit, hey this isnt so bad it is slow going but its going right in.
-snap
-f*ck the bits busted off in the bolt, and my cordless drill is out of batteries.
end time 6:00pm

Saturday 3-22 1:00pm
-will nothing drill in to this damn bolt?
-success another small starter hole
-snap
-broke second drill bit off in bolt
end time 6m

Sunday 3-23 9:00 am
-time to be done with this
I decided to take another approach, I remover the piston side of the assembly to give myself more room and light. I can not believe I didn't think about this before. a little heat, and tapping on the busted part of the bolt and the broken bolt starts to slide out with the rest of the caliper. you see the part that goes through the spindle is not threaded
20 minutes with tapping on it with a punch and hammer and clang the caliper falls out on the floor.
-IMPORTANT NOTE: if you have a torch on the bolt and it is standing on the floor do not, I repete DO NOT knock it over and set your glove (that happens to be soaked in brake cleaner and pb blaster) on fire.
-SECOND IMPROTANT NOTE: if your glove is on fire sitting on it will smother the flames but it will also leave a hand shaped burn on your jeans.
(sorry, no pics)
-need a replacement bolt but its all done.
finish time 3:00pm

-total time just under 20 hours
-work remaining: reinstall the front driver side brakes

lessons learned : use heat, when using heat use propper venting, wash hands before making food, don't set self on fire.

[1caintegra]

nice write up

[Wolfe]

ha thanks

[helloween]

i know how u feel. i just did breaks on my a4. i spent like 800 on rotors and pads. i got power slot cryo treated rotors and hawk pads. i didnt have a brake caliper tool and i couldnt get the rear pistons back in so i gave up 4 hours later and took it to a shop but i did the fronts.

[jonscapri]

Sounds like you enjoyed yourself with that. Also anyone doing the rear brakes you can get a caliper tool from a local parts store for a decent price. $50-$90 depending on brand name.

[inconspicuous]

I just happened to stumble across this, and your write up and the way you wrote it up is hilarious. Glad you finally got it finally on.

[Wolfe]

ha, thanks, amazing how much better the car stops with the carbon fero pads

[SLAAER]

Food:This is why i wear latex gloves makes life alot easier when u wanna jus grab somffin to eat or answer the phone plus some of this crap no matter how much u scrub jus doesnt wanna come off lol.

[helloween]

thats true slayer but when it comes to it i allways forget to grab a pair before i start working lol