xiphactinus

I am in the middle of replacing the rear brake pads and rotors and am stuck trying to remove the old rotor. Everything went fine and I took out the hex bolt from the rotor but the rotor would not come out. I gave it some hard shots with a hammer - shouldn't have done that, and it became loose and I can wiggle it on the hub but it still is not coming off the hub.

It felt as if it was being held by something inside from 1 particular point so I looked a bit carefully and I can see a spring behind one of the holes used by the wheel bolts. There is slight movement in the spring when I move the rotor, although it seems to be behind the hub so I don't know where the connection is.

Please advise.

Thanks.

Richr8

Did you release the emergency brake?

Shezmon

thats the drum brake spring that you see behind the rotor. It an emergency brake. You can take a flat head screw driver and adjust the brakes down from the back of the rotor. Make sure the emergency brake is also down. And there is nothing wrong w/ hammering the rotor. All techs do that. Not sure if you have space for 10 inch bolts on the rotor. If you do then you can put them in from the front and pull the rotor out that way also. If something slips outta the emergency brake when you take the rotor out.. you can put it back, no biggie. gud luck

xiphactinus

Thanks Guys. This is great - I was dead worried that I screwed something. I will try that later today.

pjinca

+1000 All cars equipped with rear parking brakes have a drum brake system inside the rotor. These have adjustment screws which are accessed through a hole in the rotor with a flat head screwdriver (the adjuster looks like a cog or gear, just slide the blade of the screw drive in there and move up or down to adjust it). Just remember to adjust the drum brakes back to their original "tight" position. Good luck

txag_530i

Don't worry about whacking the rotor with a hammer. There isn't anything that you can do that the road isn't doing to the suspension and brakes when you hit a rough patch of road at 45 mph.

Let us know how it turns out for you.

xiphactinus

It was the emergency brake! I released the brake and it slid off smooth. I cleaned up and put back everthing and it all went smooth - took about 45 minutes. This was the right rear (the one with the sensor) and I will do the other wheel tomorrow.

Just have 2 concerns:
1. The brake light (red) in the dash and the iDrive service indicators had come on but the old brake pads and rotors didn't look like they were anywhere near gone. I will try to put some pictures of the used one tomorrow.
2. The other thing is that even after replacing, the lights are still on. How do I reset those?

Any ideas?

Thanks