Squanto

Hey Acurazine! While I'm sure many of us have replaced rotors and pads many times before I feel this is a great DIY project for a newbie just starting out. While I'm going to leave the How-To part to the various informative Youtube videos out there (visual learning is best here!), I'll share tips for specifically getting the rotor off. Doing this job myself saved me over 500 dollars (mainly because the specific shop that quoted me was wildly overpricing the job, but also because ANY shop is going to charge for labor and parts... no escaping that).

For the sake of this post let's assume it's the back rotors you're replacing. I know it's a FWD car, but if the back rotors are shot, that's still a bad thing you should replace! To cut to the chase, the hardest part you'll deal with is the potentially rust-welded set-screws that hold the rotor to the wheel bearing. If the name isn't hint enough that means using a regular phillips head screwdriver by hand isn't going to do much. Here's a few ideas and techniques we used that you might want to try!

• The first and most low-tech idea is to grab a phillips head and a hammer. rotate the screwdriver counterclock-wise at the same time as you hit the back of it with the hammer. This (in theory) should break the rust of the old screw and begin to turn it so that you can eventually just screw it out normally. Didn't work for us, and started to chew up the old screw a bit so we moved on.
• Next there's a tool you can buy called a Hammer Impact Wrench. Sometimes people get simply "impact wrench" confused with other powered tools so just say the hammer part and it should be fine. Same tool as above but it does the twisting for you. Just place it on the screw and hammer the end of it. Doesn't always appear to be twisting but on the second rotor this worked beautifully and quick. On the first rotor.... well we were using an old (and I mean OLD) one so it basically was just a heavy screwdriver so we moved on.
• There's also an air powered impact wrench which does everything—including the hammering—once it's powered up. You gotta have all that air stuff though. I wasn't the one who set that up so I can't talk much about it. What I do know is that it's very powerful and on our already beaten and bruised screw it carved it up like butter. uh oh....
• If all else fails and you're left with a carved up and ruined screw, you're not SOL. You can one final method of getting the rotor off (and it's not as bad as you may think).... Drill it out. At first I was worried about using a powered drill to get out the screw. Where am I gonna get a replacement? Will this damage things? Etc Etc. Well... I'm sure you could do it so bad that it damages things, but I believe in you. The point here is actually that those screws aren't important at all. Both the caliper and the lug nuts are keeping the rotor fastened to that wheel bearing so you actually don't NEED them. I promise you'll be fine. But if truly must replace them and can't live without them, they cost about 75 cents each and can easily be found at an Advance Auto Parts store.

Once those screws are off you may still need a sledge or big hammer to knock the old rotor loose. Hit it on opposite sides until it starts popping loose and then just man-handle it off! Don't get rid of it quite yet! There's a little rubber plug on the old rotor that you should probably keep (assuming the new rotor didn't come with it). Use a small screwdriver to pop it out and make sure you see what direction it just flew off in. Stick it in the new rotor and NOW you can get rid of the old one.

I hope this can help out some of you guys and girls out there trying to save some money. The whole job cost around $150 grand total. And that's with Brembo rotors and pads (could go cheaper if you want and it'll probably be under $100)! Let me know if you have any questions. I can also send links to the videos I watched or products I bought. Good luck!

Acura2g558

Thank for sharing.
A couple of tips/suggestions I have to add.

1. Impact screw driver I believe is the tool you're referencing, those most of the time do the job
2. The smaller hole you see in between the screw holes are used to thread in a screw to help you remove the rotor evenly without the need for a hammer/sledge. although I often use a rubber mallet to start with and then escalate to a 4lb sledge.
3. Make sure you clean the surface of the hub with a wire wheel to take off the surface rust when you reinstall, this not only makes the surface flat (preventing speed wobble) it also serves you the next time you go to take the rotor off because the rust build up will cock-eye the rotor forcing you to need a sledge the next time around
4. Use anti-seize on those little screws when you reinstall
5. only tighten the retaining screws on reinstall enough to hold the rotor on instead of going tight.
6. When removing, attempt heat before drilling out. sometimes heat plus an impact screw driver will do the job.

Lastly, think about how much a pain they are to remove so maybe only put one on instead of two. I've broken a couple of impact screw driver bits clean off and all these screws do is hold the rotor on for the caliper and wheel install.