I was installing two new front rotors on my Max on Saturday and the driver’s side rotor would not slide off the five wheel mounting bolts. This was due to excessive warping or corrosion (Minneapolis car). Does anybody have any experience removing a stuck rotor that won’t come off? Is there a specialty tool for this purpose or some way to perform this with a couple C-clamps. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

You need a bigger hammer.

Other than that...some rotors have holes in their hubs, so you can insert bolts that will press agains the actcual hub and "press" the rotor off.

 

if you aren't worried about saving the rotor, take a short 2x4 and place in flat against the inside of the rotor and like ejj says - get a bigger hammer and knock the hell out of it. spin the rotor and hit it again.

WD-40 and/or some sort of penetrating oil may help as well.

 

yeah you can try using the bolts on the rotors, but if it doesn't work, grab a rubber mallet and just beat the living $hit out of it while spinning the rotor.

It seems like it's not moving but if you bang it good for a little bit it will pop off.

 

Cool, I'll try these things.

I noticed on my new rotor that it has two threaded holes probably threaded to aid in stuck rotor removal. I'll check to see if the two holes on my stuck rotor are threaded too. If so, I can probably just use two bolts with the correct thread size and push the rotor off that way.

Thanks for your help guys.

 

that is what the holes are for, but make sure that u use a strong grade bolt cause when i did it i wasn't paying attention to that and bolt snaped off.

 

yeah my bolt stripped because I was using old pc of $hit. That's why I had to knock one of my rotors off.

 

Yeah coming from chicago and somehow thinking the past owner never changed his rotors or maybe once (120k). I found that a large hammer and a little heat from a torch really helped a lot. I also had to use some liquid wrench and I did finally get it off. These rotors were completely shot and rusted on there real good. The joys of salt.

 

The size of the front rotors extraction bolts is M10.

Buy 2 of these , and when you start feeling pressure turn 1/2 turn each one after the other.

If that does not work, and you are brave, put the wheel back on, and a couple of nuts, but do not tight them up to the wheel, just the length of the nut. Then lower the car so the tire makes good contact with the ground. Then turn the steering right and left. That might pry the rotor off when the wheel makes contact with it, or at least crack the rotor loose from it's frozen position.

 

Thanks for the bolt size.


"If that does not work, and you are brave, put the wheel back on, and a couple of nuts, but do not tight them up to the wheel, just the length of the nut. Then lower the car so the tire makes good contact with the ground. Then turn the steering right and left. That might pry the rotor off when the wheel makes contact with it, or at least crack the rotor loose from it's frozen position."


Nope, not that brave. Wouldn't want to bend wheel tightening bolts or mess up my beautiful 17" rims.


Yeah I bought this car beginning of April 2003 and I bet they are orginal rotors with 78k on them.

 

Put some anti seize in the back of the rotors befoe you remount them back on the hub. Next time around will be a piece of cake.