brake screws
 

so i had a little time on my hands this week and some unexpected sunshine, so i took full advantage. i stated painting my calipers and the rusted part of my rotors. i went to take off the front rotors and there are screws holding them on. with all my strength and skill these screws are still in the Fu@king rotors. anyone know how to get them out without using a "screw-out"?

also, do these really have to be there? do the screws center the rotors on the hubs or would the lugs just center them as in almost every other car in the planet?

No they don't have to be on there.
Heat the area with tourch the spray air can upside down on screw the cool it.

Don't heat the area too much.

Don't want to break the screw.

Get one of these. Guaranteed to remove those screws. Apply a little counterclockwise twisting pressure and smack it with a hammer. Wala, out comes the screw. Apply a little anti-seize compound when reinstalling it.

Is the screw necessary? Probably not.

Oh, it's an impact driver. Sears and others have them.

ahh ja I was going to say impact hammer butt you beat me.

i have an old school version of one of those. it's a screw driver and i beat the shit out of it with a hammer while applying counterclockwise force. didn't work but i want new tools all the time so this is a must have...thanks guys

Yep, hand impact driver to the rescue. It ratchets the head counterclockwise as you strike it.
Of course when you reassemble use some anti-seize grease on them.

btw: The rear rotors are just held on by the lugs.

^..................yep, even Wally Mart has impact drivers! Saves the day for sure.
Like others have said..............no need to use the screws, but if you decide to do so, put anti-seize on them.

Yeah I finished the job but left them on. And the backs are just like every other car ever made. I.e. Wheel holds them on.

Oh and I'm not like the rest of these lame asses that leave the calliper on and just tape shit off. Calliper comes off and apart,pads don't get sprayed and coverage is 100% none of this tape it and spray it crap.

Lame asses? Aren't you the one who didn't know to use an impact wrench,and you already have aftermarket rotors,How did you remove them the first time.People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.I guess your signature say's it all.

^.............that's what I was thinking.......how ironic, or maybe even moronic!

#1.impact driver isn't the same as impact wrench.
#2.as you can see above i stated that i used a screw driver while twisting and hitting the end with a hammer, (old school method)
#3.the rotors were from the previous owner.
#4.i knew how to get the screws out. i asked if there was any other way other than a "screw-out" or other type of damaged screw remover because when those are used they destroy the screw and i wasn't sure if they were necessary.
and #5. yes i called people lame asses that leave the caliper in place when they paint because it actually takes longer, comes out worse and doesn't look as good.

peoples post count or join date in no way is an indicator to their intelligence level. and assuming such is actually an indicator to your own ignorance.
read correctly before you criticize and you wont come off as stupid.

step one remove wheel
step two remove 4 bolts from caliper, 2 holding the sliding, piston mounted piece and 2 holding the assembly to the vehicle
step three paint. this allows you to put all peices in the sun and dry faster. our calipers are so light that actually hanging them from the brake lines didn't give me any worries, although i have used a hanger or bailing wire in the past on previous vehicles. this also allows you to paint the rusted part of the rotors black for a clean look instead of the rotor accent color and also decreases the amount of paint on the braking surface that will inevitable gum up the pads. i know it burns off but why risk waiting for your brakes to function as they should while burning through paint .

I've used 3 methods to remove those screws.
1) Heat and a standard screwdriver.
2) Impact Driver
3) Impact Wrench with a socket big enough to fit the handle of a screwdriver.
Surprisingly this worked very well.

The place I live now has a huge yard for my dogs but 0 external power and if I use my pnuematic tools I have to use over 100' of hose just to get at the driveway and that will only get me to where my boat is currently parked in the shade so I try to do without the air tools as much as possible. If I HAD to get the screws out I would have just drilled them out and used a screw extractor. Or went back to sears again for one of those impact drivers.

The only time I have seen screws like that to secure rotors was on a SAAB but their lugs were actually bolts not nuts so there was only a flat hub with no centering ring and had to have the screws because the rotor would just fall off with the wheel.

As for impact guns and sockets, you can also use a 1/4" socket which will hold a screw tip but the tips have a tendancy to break. Good thing they are cheap.

You dont need to put those screws back

Its there because they need them for the Assembly line. without those screws, the rotors gonna fall off the assembly line.

New Rotors dont even have those holes. Cuz you dont need it anymore.

^ my Racing Brake rotors had the holes, so I reinstalled but correct in that they're there for the assembly line.

One more step EMS, hang the hydraulically actuated piston side of the caliper with a bungee cord so as not to strain the hydraulic line/connectors while the other half is being painted.

edit: oh, and don't forget to apply some copper grease to the piston slides and anywhere the non-braking sliding areas of the pads contact the caliper.

I tried to get mine out, but they are frozen also. I tried an impact driver. I still wouldn't budge even after heat. I'll just drill the head off and use vice grips on the remaining stud.

^ It took me quite a few hard shots with the hand impact driver and 5 lb hammer, but they eventually gave.

If you drill the heads but then can't get the studs out you could just hacksaw them flush.

Huey,
I'm 30 and have been working on cars and trucks since I was a kid. The RX8 is the 10th vehicle I've had and I've modded 5 of them so far including a 3 link solid axle Tacoma I used for rock crawling. I know about the copper grease, but thanks for offing the suggestion as a lot of people don't know. And you may have missed it as I wrote it earlier. I don't think our calipers are heavy enough to cause any strain to the brake lines. But I usually use a bent to shit coat hanger or some bailing wire(what is used for hay bails)to hold up the piston "floating" portion of the caliper.I only had to tape off the rubber boot portion around the guide slides and around the piston.

As for the screws you could also drill out the head and grind the shaft flush with a grinder or dremel.or bend it back and forth with a hammer, it will snap. And I read on racing brake's website or race root's that the racing brake rotors no longer have the holes.

I replaced all four rotors on my 8. I had a hard time getting the screws removed from the front rotors. They are not needed they are used during the manufacturing process. I received the same answers as you. The most common being an impact driver. Bullshit! This will not work. Your best bet is to buy a nice new drill bit and drill those bitches out. I believe I used a 3/4" bit. Good luck!

I wouldn't even attempt to use that... those little screw tips will break.
This is why I used a good screwdriver and a big socket to fit the handle.
This method, for me, was the easiest of them all.

I was actually considering unbolting the hub assembly all together and bringing it into the house to heat it from the back with a torch because you don't want to heat the rotor so much as heat the hub assembly as that's what the screw is actually threaded into. Not that the rotor would be harmed in any way but because it would have a tendancy to just transfer the heat to the screw and not the actual threaded steel behind it. But if I can't get them out this week with impact driver I'll just drill them out and grind them flush. No biggie. I'll also try the "big screwdriver and socket" method as you described before I go destroying them. Thanks.

No disrespect intended to your vast experience (but then I'm almost twice your age ;) I often respond more for the longevity of the thread then the immediate OP's issue.

wasn't bashing you or bragging. just explaining i can do a brake job and thanking you for putting that info into the thread so others who cannot or have not done one yet can understand it is crucial and so damn cheap. I was in a super rush when i was painting as i had dwindling day light and my truck was in the shop so it was my only means of travel and snow was predicted for the following day. didn't have time to toy around with it and i must say i was a bit surprised to see them as i haven't seen anything like that since early 90's engineering from Europe (Saab).