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Old 04-28-2009, 07:32 PM
 
Location: Incognito
7,005 posts, read 21,256,104 times
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I commited to a friend to do the pads and rotors on her 96 Accord. I have never worked on this car before and I have been told it's a pain in the butt to work on because you gtta remove the knuckle and hub to get the bolt that hold the rotors.
Anybody has done these rotors and has an easier way to go about them?
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Old 04-28-2009, 08:00 PM
 
Location: Eastern Washington
17,106 posts, read 56,712,890 times
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No doubt I'll be criticized for posting this, but if the rotors are not out of spec, I would just leave them alone and replace the pads only. I have done this on several cars and not had any problem with it.

On most Subarus, removing the rotor requires a puller, but just doing the pads requires only removing one bolt, swing the caliper up. Makes me think they intended to just replace the pads for the first several cycles.

Having said that, you can take the wheel off and use a caliper to measure the disc thickness, I wouldn't put new pads on a disc that's out of spec thin.
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Old 04-28-2009, 09:24 PM
 
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Pads only if rotors are thick enough and there's no brake shimmy. Buzz the rotors with a drill pad for a good cross hatch finish, on inside and outside surfaces. Otherwise they'll squeak. If you have to remove rotors, you can bang the hub off (in-car) with a slide hammer (rough but doable), remove knuckle and have hub pressed off (smoother but longer) or use an aftermarket Honda tool that will press hub off and re-install in-car.
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Old 04-28-2009, 11:51 PM
 
Location: Meeami
534 posts, read 2,399,396 times
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Pads only. If the pedal is pulsing on braking, take it to someone that has the proper equipment to cut the rotors whil on the car. My car (same car) is on almost 135k with the front rotors never been off or cut to my knowlegde, stop and go everyday, etc.
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Old 04-29-2009, 04:42 AM
 
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There's not a lot of "extra" material on these rotors, so measuring the thickness is important. They don't allow a lot of thickness for turning, so it's best to replace them if they're at or close to minimum spec. IF they are within spec, then simply replacing the pads is pretty easy; in normal driving, these rotors can get to the 100,000 mile mark before needing replacement ... but you must measure them to be sure.

If you do need to replace the rotors, get the appropriate tooling or tear down the front as required. Hammering on the assemblies ... either with a slide hammer to remove them, or beating on them with a hammer to reassemble puts you at great risk of damaging the front wheel bearings, which will then fail in short order ... and you get to tear everything down all over again, plus have the additional cost of the bearings and seals to deal with. A real common problem with many front-wheel drive cars that get "shadetree" mechanic servicing ....
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Old 04-29-2009, 06:42 AM
 
Location: Incognito
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Based on all of these comments I am not even going to touch it.
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Old 04-29-2009, 09:23 PM
 
Location: Eastern Washington
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Hey if it does not need rotors it should be an easy afternoon job. You could check the rotor thickness without removing anything more than the road wheel, at least you can on most cars, you might be able to get a caliper to use at Autozone or similar stores, frequently they want a deposit but you essentially use the tool for free if you bring it back.

You need a win, dude, this *could* be a win you can put in your column...

But, yeah, it's probably pretty big for DIY if you have to change the rotors. With the rotors being so hard to remove, I would definitely replace rather than turn them, if it was my car.
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Old 04-30-2009, 08:55 AM
 
Location: I think my user name clarifies that.
8,292 posts, read 26,561,660 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M3 Mitch View Post
Hey if it does not need rotors it should be an easy afternoon job. You could check the rotor thickness without removing anything more than the road wheel, at least you can on most cars, you might be able to get a caliper to use at Autozone or similar stores, frequently they want a deposit but you essentially use the tool for free if you bring it back.

You need a win, dude, this *could* be a win you can put in your column...

But, yeah, it's probably pretty big for DIY if you have to change the rotors. With the rotors being so hard to remove, I would definitely replace rather than turn them, if it was my car.
I think we may have gotten to the point where people turn their rotors only on a VERY rare occasion.

I just replaced the front pads & rotors on my nephew's 98 Mystique. Middle-of-the-road pads were $20.99, and each new rotor was only $22.99. It's kind of hard to justify paying $15 each to turn the rotors when you could spend $10 more and just have new.
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Old 04-30-2009, 09:34 AM
 
Location: Incognito
7,005 posts, read 21,256,104 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M3 Mitch View Post
Hey if it does not need rotors it should be an easy afternoon job. You could check the rotor thickness without removing anything more than the road wheel, at least you can on most cars, you might be able to get a caliper to use at Autozone or similar stores, frequently they want a deposit but you essentially use the tool for free if you bring it back.

You need a win, dude, this *could* be a win you can put in your column...

But, yeah, it's probably pretty big for DIY if you have to change the rotors. With the rotors being so hard to remove, I would definitely replace rather than turn them, if it was my car.

I will give it a shot. My friend says they shake pretty bad but hten again it may be the wheels need to be balanced. I will check it out.
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Old 04-30-2009, 09:44 AM
 
Location: I think my user name clarifies that.
8,292 posts, read 26,561,660 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Cat View Post
I will give it a shot. My friend says they shake pretty bad but hten again it may be the wheels need to be balanced. I will check it out.
If it shakes/lurches when the brakes are applied, that's the rotors.
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