I was all excited. I scheduled all my customers tomorrow, the weather was supposed to be cooler (only 85 with 350% humidity), Satisfied Pro Ceramic pads, Rotora slotted rotors (thanks Excelerate!), brand new jack, and one Acura TL. Then it started raining. Bad thunderstorm. Then one of my servers went down so I had to fix it. But then the sun came out, ground dried, server was back, and time to work.

Jacked it up, took off the wheel, gave the top caliper bolt a good smack, and then got stuck on the bottom one. 10 minutes of hitting the wrench with a hammer. Then I tried Liquid Wrench. Nothing. Then 15 minutes later after another whack with the hammer....IT MOVED! I was so happy. All that stood in the way of brand new brakes was 2 stupid screws.

Only not. I didn't loosen it. I stripped it. Nothing will grab on that bolt now...both ends of the wrench, the socket set, nothing. The bolt must not be frozen...it must be welded. Nothing made it budge. At the very least the jack left nice indentations in the parking lot.

Any suggestions?

 

Are you talking about the caliper bracket bolt?

Use vice grips??

 

Next time use a pipe to extend the length of the wrench. Leverage=loose bolt, Hammer=bad times

 

Correct...the 2 bolts that hold the caliper on. The bottom one is giving trouble.

Is it safe the smack the hell out of the vice grip once it's jammed on tight? All I can see in my head are springs flying everywhere if I hit it hard.

 

I put it on a huge 15" wrench but that's about as far as I can get it...this is inside the wheel well right by the ground. I'd have to have a professional lift the car up to work underneath it to do that.

 

I was able to get it. Try this... get a regular wrench and then add a pipe to extend to get more leverage. I was able to get it with a little bruised pinky because I slipped. There are bolt-cuts or something like that at sears. You can also cut the bolt and get a replacement at the dealer. Did you strip the 2 screws as well? A impact screw driver works. I didnt know it took more than one hit so I spent some time scratch my head. 4 or 5 hits and it will do, a little less with liquid wrench.

With the money wrench and the ratchet I push put force on both and it was enough to get it off. If you were in NYC, I would definitely help you out man

 

You're trying to replace the rotors, correct? Then just take off the caliper bracket with the caliper on there. You have to remove the bracket, anyway. And you can replace the pads with only one bolt out on the caliper, by swinging it out.

Sudden torque > gradual torque... in other words, it's best to give it a sudden smack then a gradual turn. It reduces the chances of breaking or stripping the bolt/nut. But that is not an invitation to beating the shit out of it.

Umm, have you removed the 2 screws for the rotor yet? Those are going to be A LOT of fun. If you don't have a impact screwdriver, then go to Sears and buy one for like 15 bucks. It helps, trust me.

 

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...id=00952161000

OR

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...id=00952162000


It is like a MUST with some liquid wrench too

 

Haha...road trip.

One of them came out right away....I do have an impact driver so I'll have to put some liquid wrench on it and then give it a few more hits. Didn't want the liquid wrench to leak all over the rotor since I still have to drive on it.

 

Liquid Wrench or PB Blaster, either one.

 

400 miles round trip

It took us 12 hours to do 2 cars on the first time.... but we did a lot more stuff than just the brakes and rotors. Little problems here and there didnt help much. Now there are lots of holes in the driveway.

 

I give up.

Put more liquid wrench on it and put some huge vise grips on it. It turned all right...with the nut. If I hold the nut in place with another wrench, even with the vise grips clamped on so hard I could barely get them closed, the vise grips slip off. This bolt is completely frozen into that nut. Completely.

Anyone around here have the tools to handle it?

 

Did you see what I had posted from sears? The bolt outs that help rounded off bolts?

 

I can grip the bolt. The problem is the nut. It's totally frozen into it.

 

Oh I am sorry... that part wasnt stripped though righT?

 

The bolt is stripped but vise grips can get a good bite on it. When they do, turning the bolt also turns the nut. If you hold the nut with a wrench, the vise grips just slip off the bolt. It's just completely stuck to that point where vise grips clamped on it won't work.

 

I had a stripped bolt once and those bolt outs worked great. It should be better than the vise grips since it wont slip. These bolt outs seems bite into it well.

Other than that.... I had put in a lot of force on it and got it off eventually. Of the 4 front rotors I did, 1 rotor gave me a bitch of a time to remove the caliper. 1 person pulled up on the ratchet and i pushed down on the wrench and was starting to strip it.

Good luck with it. I am sure a shop can remove it for u easily and charge $10 to $20, then just get a replacement bolt before you go to a shop. Finish the rest of the install yourself.

 

I think that's what I'll do. I'll hammer out the other bolts/screws to see if they're going to give me this trouble and then have a shop drill the bastards out.

 

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PEOPLE PLEASE READ ME

there is a pinch nut on our calipers... you need an open end wrench on that nut... if you place opposite force on that nut the caliper bolts come off like a breeze, seriously...


but NO ONE EVER LISTENS to me

i even named my username after this stuff

 

get the craftsmen bolt out kit for your stripped head

 

vise grips wont grip something thats turning...

maybe a pipe wrench (it's designed for torsional force)

 

lol that is what I had suggested... exactly what I did but it did still take some force in the both directions to get some of the bolts off. Some loosened like nothing.

 

which Bolt Out set would work? the second one has more sizes and is more money. Are all the sizes we need to do the brake job in the first set? I'm getting ready to do this if Auto Parts Warehouse can find my Green Stuff brake pads they lost in transit with FEDEX! Thanks .....g

 

I believe I already said that I had put a wrench on that nut. The bolt is completely frozen to that nut.

 

you did it after you stripped the head of the bolt, right?

you need a bolt out kit, vice grips dont work with torsional force

 

Yeah...I wouldn't have had enough arms anyway. 2 wrenches plus a hammer.

This truly is a DIY for me...as in, doing it myself. No one is around to lend a hand.

 

Have you tried taking the caliper bracket off with the caliper on there like I suggested before? It's been a while since I've worked on my brakes so I can't remember exactly. But if my memory serves me correctly, you can take off the bracket with the caliper still mounted on there.

 

Not sure if I can get a rachet back there to get those frame bolts off. Even the bolt holding the brake line to the strut is frozen...and I'm afraid to use force on it incase I whack the brake line full force

 

My friend has the second more expensive one. More chances of getting it right. You SHOULDNT need the bolt out set unless the bolt or nut is rounded off or what not. I did it all with regular tools, wrench and ratchet set with a PCV pipe to add torque.

 

I hear ya' about not needing it to do the brake job, I just want to have everything I need "just in case" before I start...plus we all come across frozen bolts and nuts that we have stripped every once in a while, so to have it in the tool box is a good thing...and it helps me fullfill my "Bob Villa" need to buy tools!...thanx for the response Bxscig and sorry for the mini hijack SwampGas......g

 

...the brake change that WAS

As suggested I just took off the entire pad frame with the caliper still attached by that one bolt. Found it easier to work with it that way anyway so even though the other side came off fine, I put that bolt back in (especially when pushing the piston back in...that thing is heavy after a bit). Monkey wrench was the tool that saved the day for the smaller stuck bolts and my gimungoid torque wrench set to maximum setting gave me enough leverage to break the rest of the bolts. Heh...after putting everything back together I was like "uhh...is that it?"

Did a few slow and drawn out 35mph to 0 stops in the neighborhood to make sure I wasn't going to die. Then since I live at the base of a mountain, I just looped up around the mountain a few times and did some 70 to 10mph hard stops coming down. First time sucked. Second time was pretty good. Third time they were biting very nicely. Most of the rubbing noise was gone after the mountain trip but there's still a little squealing right before I come to a stop (despite that disgusting, sticky disc brake quiet). I assume that'll fade as they brake in (pun intended).

Total time today: 1 hour.

 

Awesome. Glad it worked out for ya.