1998 corolla help! front rotor wont come off,?

[Joel_MD]

Originally Posted By: Gokhan
Thinking about it, perhaps OP had an ill-fitting aftermarket rotor installed by force. If that's the case, good luck in removing that.

Toyota OEM rotor would never get stuck, rust or not, as it fits very, very loosely on the wheel studs.

Aftermarket parts and bad mechanics really ruin your car.

I'm guessing your experience is limited to Southern California, where the climate is quite constant and it rains about 3x/year. The OP is in CT, where they probably use corrosive ice melt chemicals on the roads. I've seen lot of rotors in places like MN and MD in which there is nothing holding them in place other than the wheel studs, but they need to be beaten off with a hammer because of rust.

 

[ziggy]

LOL haha rust central.. that is SO true..
it appeared too me, that the spindle was overthe innerplate of the rotor. I do know tha rotors are supposed to pop off. mine was so rusted in the mdddle of the rotor, its flaking.lookslike skin under an electron microscope. so its prob justgiving an illusionso to speak, the spindle i coveringit, when its rustthen. gunna jck itup in a few days, getting new calipers.
i pushed pulled near aggrivated tension onit, just enough not too shake up the knuckle...wouldnt budge at all.it feels like a brickwall 20 years cemented inplace...

 

[Joel_MD]

Originally Posted By: ziggy
LOL haha rust central.. that is SO true..
it appeared too me, that the spindle was overthe innerplate of the rotor. I do know tha rotors are supposed to pop off. mine was so rusted in the mdddle of the rotor, its flaking.lookslike skin under an electron microscope. so its prob justgiving an illusionso to speak, the spindle i coveringit, when its rustthen. gunna jck itup in a few days, getting new calipers.
i pushed pulled near aggrivated tension onit, just enough not too shake up the knuckle...wouldnt budge at all.it feels like a brickwall 20 years cemented inplace...

I lived in Southern California for a few years when I was on active duty. Most of the people there are very nice, but have no idea what it's like to live in the real world where there is snow and rust on cars.

Years ago I heard the comedian Louie Anderson, who grew up in Minneapolis, talking about when he moved to Los Angeles in the '70s. He drove an old VW Beetle that had large rust holes in the body. The people in LA asked, "What's wrong with your car? Does it have rats?"

 

[ziggy]

LOL haha! I LOVED louie anderson!!!in my teens i had taped some og his hb comedys back in the early90's. he always had melaughing...his father being a hard [censored], bored a bears eye out with a toothpick , i drive at 105,i dont want anyone alive, the homeless have all the good shopping carts..go to the produce section sometimes ( cart wheel screetching n popping) god [censored] homeless lol.
myfather had 2 beetles, when i was a kid in the early 80's. one was blue, the other red. i remember sitting inthe passenger seat one day, inclined driveway, he ran inside with caron,me saftey belt strappedin..i realeased the ebrakeand went backwards gaining speed..he came running outside, hero jumped through the driverwindow and puthe e brake on...i was like 5 years old.
In my teens, 13, our old post office, in the back was a small field overrun, it had salamanders and snakes. gardner snakes. my freind would catch them, sell them to a local pet store. then he got somebiggish fish tanks and bred them...they wereALL over theplace in his basement. sometimes thyde get out,even covered somehow.
ther was a run down looking VK beetle in htat overrrunfield. def looked like srap metal. onetimei saw a rat run over the engine..the hood was open.

 

[ziggy]

But yeah, up hear being alifelog resident of stamford, SW cT, not far really from NYC..most cars getjunked...frm the excessive idling at rdlights, (bad traffic congeston, maybe sometime i should take a vid for you guys). that means more wear n tear. most people dont take care of thier vehicles. amonth ago i was working at a sunoco gas station..this woman knew i liked her, so she was checkin me out too. she had a big GM suburban,late 2000's. he transmission went. I pulled her trans dipstick out...it had rusted off and fell down. me and the mechanic knew..she prob never checked thefluid levels. $3,000 could have been avoided, al for $80 give or take in fluid and flush. people just want too run n go. the majority not everybody.
the salt. every car my father had, eventualywasjunked 7 yearsor so,..jsuta daily driver, occassional drive a few citys away,stores. the undersides ere crusty bad with rust. mening mostly, the brakelines. 2nd being the edged of body, where youde put a jack..flaking and crumbling off.the 3rd fuel tanks rusted, the next...fuel lines, not as bad as brakelines get..but he average so iveleaned,for aorund here is 7 years, if with a cheap car or aftermarket stuff, not treated, by OEM. OEM, lets say from dealer, they usually coat black stuff on thier metals or use better quality steel. less quality steel,means in 7 years aorund here, he lines are gunna snap*

 

[ziggy]

A few years ago, before junking my 95 neon, the brakes line finaly snapped on me! just as i got home fromshopping at night noless! i was SO lucky , just as i pulled into my driving spot. the line broke. next day, me and friend roomate looked at it, they were so bad, hard crusty stale bread. he took it off and it snappedinhalf, still retaining it shape. he put new lines on for me, which was awesome of him.
so, that car was made in november 1994. 1995-2012. the lines should have been replaced 2 times over, in that time frame.

 

[JustinH]

What I do is get a dead blow hammer from harbor freight.

It is a hammer filled with sand.

Hit the rotor with that, and it should come right off.

I worked on rusted on rotors on our matrix which had about 5 years in New York.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

First thing I do when I get a new car is to remove the brake rotors and burnish a small dab of anti-seize into the disc/hub interface. Never have a problem removing the disc.

 

[ziggy]

thanks for the diagram
cylinder mounting? Do you mean the caliper bracket? i dont see any cylinder on the rotor,spindle, clip...?
IM assuming you mean caliper and bracket???

 

[Tegger]

I am amazed that nobody has posted THIS yet. The best method I've found so far.




So why was that rotor so difficult to break loose? This is why:

Note that this Toyota hub has an interrupted perimeter, probably in an attempt at making the rotor less difficult to get off once it rusts. Many other cars have full-round hubs that grab even more tenaciously.

 

[EdwardC]

Tegger - Thanks for that, I've never seen that! Hopefully won't ever need to do that, but good to know.

I don't know if the rotors on there now have the small threads, but like qjohn said, sometime there are the small 8mm threads that you can screw in to push the rotor from the hub.

Also, it's incredible how out of touch Californians can be with other parts of the US.

 

[Tegger]

Originally Posted By: EdwardC
I don't know if the rotors on there now have the small threads, but like qjohn said, sometime there are the small 8mm threads that you can screw in to push the rotor from the hub.

The diagram posted earlier shows such holes. You can get a couple of cheap 8mm bolts from HD for use in the push-off-from-the-front method.

However, the push-off-from-the-front method may need to be accompanied by the special "hammering" mentioned in my photograph. That method does NOT involve pounding the rotor from behind, nor does it require anything heavier than a half-pound ball-peen hammer!

 

[eljefino]

^ Yup, any time you use a jaw puller or threaded thing like this pair of bolts to pry stuff off, use common sense. Torque it tight, then rap with a hammer, maybe you'll get another 1/4 turn, repeat.

And wear your goggles in case shards go flying.

 

[Bgallagher]

Originally Posted By: Throt
Originally Posted By: spasm3
Bfh and hit it hard. Use some antiseize on face where the rotor sits.


+1


+2

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994


Aftermarket cars and bad mechanics really ruin your car.
Your mind is stuck in Los Angeles, California, where cars don't rust. The OP is in Connecticut, rust central. Obviously you've never dealt with rust before. [/quote]
You can be in California and deal with rust - Tahoe and it's surrounding areas in the winter while not as gnarly as the East Coast or the Midwest can cause good cars to rust. A friend's 2012 Subaru is already showing signs of rust on the exhaust system and chassis hardware but the body panels still look good.

 

[Gokhan]

Again, I can hardly believe that the Toyota OEM rotor would get stuck even in the most rust-prone area. OP probably had a cheap, tight-fitting aftermarket rotor installed at one point. It could be because of SAE/metric conversion for the holes. Toyota OEM rotors are very loose-fitting, with quite a bit clearance between the rotor holes and wheel studs. During installation, Toyota rotor falls off unless you temporarily install the wheel nuts on it. It's also made from high-quality steel.

 

[Kestas]

How do you know that Toyota rotors are made from high quality steel? What do you know about their steel that we don't know? Please share.

For that matter, rotors are not made from steel, but rather they are made from cast iron. Even the "highest quality" cast iron rusts like crazy.

I can't stand it when posters throw out hollow information pulled out of the air.

 

[Tegger]

Originally Posted By: Gokhan
Again, I can hardly believe that the Toyota OEM rotor would get stuck even in the most rust-prone area.

It does. It assuredly does. ANY rotor will get seized on there like it was welded. Rust is like that. You have to see it to believe it.

 

[ziggy]

oh my god thank you!!!yes!my rotors ae just like that...
wow!!!! thanks for the vid!!!

 

[ziggy]

so..where do i get the8 1/2inchx 3 grade2 bolt from? i see home depot mentioned..
napa? autozone?