[e90pilot]

So I tried my hand at changing the rear brakes on my 325i. They're just brakes, how hard can it be? I just purchased a set of Stoptech OE sized sloted rotors and performance pads from HP Autowerks. So last Saturday at my friend's appartament's garage, I jack the car up and get the wheel off. The caliper bolts were stubborn but they came off eventually. Removing the caliper was a little bit of a PITA. The rotors are original and have been on the car for 126,000 mi and the pads have been on for 80,000 mi. There was a good sized lip and i needed a screw driver to pry it open enought to get the pads past the lip. I go to remove the rotor and I find out I don't have a 6mm hex but my friend does so I wait for him to bring it by. That poped off pretty easily but the rotor did not. I didn't have access to a hammer so I wailed on it with the wrench for about a half hour. Needless to say, that didn't work. Dejected, I put the brakes back together and drove home.

The next day, I had the proper tools (or so I thought) and jacked the car up and removed the caliper. I'm going to town on the rotor with a hammer, but it won't budge. My friend takes a swing and chips a good chunk of the rotor off! Oops, now I have to get it off. After 30 min and 3 people, the rotor gave up it's fight and poped off. The new rotor and pads went on easy. Now for the other side. The lower caliper bolt won't come off. I whacked the wrench with the hammer for 30 min and it finally came loose. To my satisfaction this rotor came of with just 3 good full swings of the hammer. It might have something to do with the gobs of antiseize I put on it. Anyway I installed the new pad ware sensor, rotor and pads. I put the wheel on and lower the car. 2 days and 4hrs or work later... I'm done! Right?

As I was cleaning up, a peice of paper fell out of one of the rotor's box. It's the intructions... I really enjoyed the part where it told me that the rotors are directional and the tops of the slots should point towards the front of the car. So I look through my wheels at the brake... Yup! they're on backwards! I'd just about had enought so I asked my friend who's a BMW tech to fix it for me.

But wait! It gets better, while at the dealership, my friend was pulling out of the employee parking lot when he noticed a cyclist. So he stops to let her go by, but she's looking stright down at her wheel. Of course she doesn't see the car, slams into it and goes up over the handle bars and onto my hood. Now there's a hole in my bumper and an good sized dent in my hood. Best of all the cyclist is changing her story and claming "mutual responsibility" so she won't have to pay my deductable. The car was about 2" into the street. You can tell by the hole in the bumper because it's so close to the front. He didn't get a police report because the lady admitted fault and seemed like a nice person. But of course once she comes to her senses she tries to place the blame on my friend who had a witness in the car with him.

All this for frickin brakes...

[sleepyx637]

i LOL'ed. sorry for the misfortunes. i hope you get everything fixed up!

[lopealle]

that succks dude. im in a similar situation. y cant people just take responsibility for their actions?

[SpmnE9zero]

OMG!!!!!!!!! I hate cars!

[J330]

time for an MTech bumper

[F32Fleet]

LOL..great story. I'm going to guess that you have more appreciation for guys who do brake jobs.

[fisherbln]

This sucks, I feel for you. It won't help you now, but a few things I've learned about brakes over the years:

1. Leverage is great. I take the end of the handle off my jack (about 2 ft in length) and extend the length of my ratchet with it to get off the stubborn bolts.

2. Since you're replacing the rotor anyway, who cares if you damage it. Take a 3-5lb sledge to the thing and teach it who's boss!

[ENINTY]

The best way I've found to remove rear BMW rotors is the following:

MAKE SURE THE PARKING BRAKE IS OFF!

Presoak the edge of the rotor hat (the part that is not the disk) where it meets with the hub center with penetrating oil. I use Kroil - great stuff. PB Blaster works well too.

After about half an hour hit it with some more oil and lightly tap around the center of the rotor hat a few times with a ball peen hammer to break any rust bonds between the hat and the hub.

Then using a 1 1/2 inch diameter piece of wooden doweling -closet hanger rod- about 6 inches long, hit around the disk (in the center of the flat surface)using a 3lb (short handle) sledge hammer. It will come off without much fan fare. Using the doweling rod as a mandrel will keep the impact point of the hammer off the surface of the disk and give you a better target to aim at along with reducing some of the shock to the other suspension components while delivering the necessary force to free up the rotor.

Make sure you use a good amount of brake-clean on the parking brake assembly before you put the new rotor on to wash any penetrating oil off of the parking brake components that may have seeped in. Also clean the new rotors with brake-clean as they are usually shipped with coatings to prevent rust during storage.

[BKV122]

Penetrating Oil FTW!!

I used it on the caliper bolts and around the hub of the rotor. Everything came right off, no issues

[ibeclueless]

that sucks...

[Belarus]

Sorry about your misfortune.... great write up... made me

[Bakeme521]

Sorry to hear that man but that was def. something entertaining to read.

[e90pilot]

Thanks everyone for the support an tips. I'm glad to have some humor come out of it. After I noticed the rotors were on backwards I was laughing too. Now I know how to do it and it will probably take 30min to do next time. Lol

[2M]

very nice!

[Chriztofor]

Not an epic fail.

1) Brake job was a learning experience. The next time around you will know the proper tools to use and know how to put on rotors. You saved yourself big $$$$

2) The car accident is just that, an accident.

Therefore, no fail, just a learning experience and an unfortunate incident.