Changing Front Brake Disks on 1995 SL2

[Luke]

Replacing front brake disks (95SL2)

Tools I found I used and therefore needed (I had them) and worked well in this effort.

Hydraulic jack lift
Hydraulic jack stand (safety back-up support)
18mm extended socket
2" extension
torque wrench (this item turned out for multiple uses)
19mm socket (removing tire)
Brake cleaner (for cleaning the new disks)


Here is what I did:

Loosen the brake fluid resevoir cap, a quarter turn.

Removed wheel cover (19mm socket)
Jacked up driver's side of car with jack lift just short of wheel coming off the ground
Loosened the four wheel nuts.
Lifted driver's side up off the ground.
Removed the four nuts (kept my foot up against the tirebottom so that I could remove the four nuts without the tire starting to come off at the bottom.
Removed tire -- rolled to back of the car, while at the same time examining the tire for any punctures ( I found one last year following the procedure )
Raised side higher and placed safety hydraulic stand under frame.

As I was replacing the rotors only, went directly to:

Removing the two 18mm bolts holding the caliper.
Placed two drops (literally and only) of liquid wrench on the crack between the bolt head and the caliper frame. I used a needle for the effort.
Used my torque wrentch, set at zero, to break the seal of the bolt against the frame.
You'll need the two inch extension on an extended 18mm socket.
Used one of those coat hangers, used for hanging pants -- white cardboard tube goes from one side of the hanger to the other. If you remove the tube, you'll see that there is a curve at the end of side -- bring them together and you have a perfect hook on which the caliper will sit, while the upper part of the hanger will sit perfectily on one of the spring loops.
Interestinglying enough, while loosening the two bolts, that effort resulted in the pads also slighly spreading out -- which is what you want, so that the caliper slips up from the old disk without any difficulty, but equally as important, the pads will have moved out just enought to allow an easy and smooth reapplication of the caliper onto the new -- and wider -- caliper. Once I felt I had loosened the bolts enought (5-10 turns), I put two tire nuts back onto the disk and secured the disk down snugly. Then I finished the job of removing the bolts -- and gently placing the caliper onto its wire hanger -- insuring that I did not change any direction or angle of the caliper. It worked very well.

Removed the two disk nuts and removed the disk, afterwhich I just placed the new disk on and again used the two nuts to hold it in place.
Very slowly, took the caliper off the hanger hook and slowly placed it over the dist. Then I inserted a small shaft into the lower hole, to better align the unit & make it easier to insert and snug down the upper bolt. Torquing the upper bolt just short of being snug, I removed my small shaft from the lower hole and inserted and tightened down the lower bolt. then fully torqued down the two bolts.

A C-clamp was not necessary, nor was a 18mm 6-point wrench.

BEFORE REPLACING THE TIRE, jack up the side further, so that you can remove the safety jackstand.
Tighten down the brake fluid resevoir cap.
Return to cabin of the car and very slowly pump the brake peddle to restore the pads up against the disk.

Obviously, the same steps should be followed for affecting the passenger's side disk removal.

In closing, the mileage of the car when I made this replacement was 356,898. The disks were original with the driver's side disk measuring 17.75mm and the passenger's side disk measuring 16.82mm. The New ones measured 18.12mm.

It took me four hours, but keep in mind, I work very very slowly & am thorough at what I do.

Good luck -- it is quite easy to do.

[TedL]

Thanks for posting a step by step. I often find myself deviating from the listed steps in the service manual, and it's interesting to compare notes with other..

One clarification, one typo and one question:

I believe you actually removed the caliper support with the caliper attached. You would remove two different bolts (slide pins) to just remove the caliper.

You write "...reapplication of the caliper onto the new -- and wider -- caliper." I believe the final word s/b "rotor".

I've never seen or even heard of hydraulic jack stands, but they sound like a handy item. The teeth on the ratcheting kind never seem to be at the height I need. Where did you get them, or who makes them?

[mkosem]

Originally posted by TedL
I've never seen or even heard of hydraulic jack stands, but they sound like a handy item. The teeth on the ratcheting kind never seem to be at the height I need. Where did you get them, or who makes them?

I wonder if he's talking about bottle jacks. They work pretty well.

--Matt

[Luke]

Fm Ted

I believe you actually removed the caliper support with the caliper attached. You would remove two different bolts (slide pins) to just remove the caliper.

Slide Pints
No, I did not remove them. I removed the two "two caliper support to steering knuckle" bolts. 18mm bolts. Then the caliper assembly was removed.

You write "...reapplication of the caliper onto the new -- and wider -- caliper." I believe the final word s/b "rotor".

Correct.

I've never seen or even heard of hydraulic jack stands..

I use that phrase to discribe those small standup cylindrical hydraulic jacks, in difference to the full hydraulic jacks with four wheels on them.
Matt I guess correctly defines tham as bottle jacks Thank you Matt

[eljefino]

If anyone wonders what the famed "cheap chinese" rotors look like, here's a scan of the box:

[sat96]

Great Post!!

Just getting ready to put on new rotors, your "play by play" will really help.

eljefino,
Are those rotors any good? Are the the ones from AutoZone?

Anybody ever get rotors from NAPA?, are they any good?

I'm putting them on my daughter's car and want the "right stuff"

Thanks

[eljefino]

These rotors are from a local store called "VIP". VIP stuck their own little label on the "spine" of the box; autozone might too. The part number printed on the box might be universal though!