Our project today is going to be how to do a front break job on an E46. Now to do this project here is what is going to happen. We got to take the rotor locator bolt off, we are going to have to -- and I recommend doing that first because you will need somebody to hold the break for you. So, you will need the caliber on for that phase of the project. Then what we need to do is the caliber need to be removed. This is a floating caliber so you are going to have the floating caliber portion that has the piston in it, that will be the actual caliber and then there will be the caliber bracket.
On the backside here you have got two Allen head bolts. Those are the sliding pins that you are going to take those sliding pins out that will require a 7mm socket, Allen socket with a short extension and what we are going to do is take that, you are going to take both of these pins out. The next part of the removal is going to be to remove the anti-rattle clip. That separates the bracket and the caliber.
Now we have to depress it slightly in because there is two barbed hooks right in here that hook onto the caliber holes right there and what we are going to do is we are going to push it down remove them by pressing them in and out and there you go. Before you pull the caliber out what you are going to want to do is get a bungee cord, but I like to do is hang them around one of the coils on the springs, get it ready because what we are going to do now is remove the caliber, but to keep from putting in any stress on the break line or the wire to the break pad sensor, I like to do is hang my calibers up when I am working on the rest of the vehicle.
I am going to remove the grommet that holds the pad sensor wire, hold the caliber straight out there you go, what I am going to do is hang this thing by the holes and there we go. now we can work on taking the bracket for the caliber off and removing the rotor replacing the rotor.
Okay here we are on the backside of the caliber. Here is the bracket still on the vehicle, here is the caliber over to one side I have hung it to one side, now what I am going to do is I am going to use a 16mm socket and I want to remove the bracket from the vehicle. I need to remove the brackets so I can get the rotors off. Okay, now what we are going to do with the bracket we are going to clean it up for a while because in this area right here is where the floating portion of the caliber slides across. So we are going to put a little anti-seize on that, but before we do we are going to clean this up for a while.
Earlier we already loosen the rotor locator bolt, so now at this point what you want to do is just remove it. Now if for any reason, you damaged the locator bolt, we have another video that shows you how to remove them once they have been damaged. Next phase is you want to make sure that this surface is absolutely spotless. Now we have already cleaned this a little bit, you want to put a little bit of anti-seize on this area here, because this is how the rotor gets frozen onto the hub itself. What we do typically is we will use a little sand paper on it, you clean the rust off of this area, it will also help it later on for putting your wheels on because this wheel center is up on this outer surface, the rotor centers up on the inner surface.
So what we are going to do is clean that real well, so our new rotor will slip right on. Now, what we are going to do is put a little bit of anti-seize on this surface right here, does not take a whole lot, all we are trying to do is to keep new rust from forming when we put our new rotors on. here we have our new rotor, we are using Ate premium one rotors, I am going to do a preliminary lineup at my rotor hole here where the bolt goes, that is lined up. I have got my new bolt on the end of my socket there and there we go.
Now avoid touching the rotor, you don't want to introduce the bunch of new grease to the rotor, if you do a get a little on there make sure you got all the grease off of the rotor, you don't want to introduce those to your new brake pads. So next step we are going to do is put on the caliber bracket and then we are go into re-install the caliber.
Now we have cleaned up the carrier and what we are doing right now is we are going to bolt it to the spindle. Now these bolts need to be torque to 81 foot pounds. Now you are going to take your torque wrench with your 16 mm socket. Now when you use a torque wrench you don't want to jerk the torque wrench, you want to just pull it and let it put your poundage and you will hear click in a moment. I am going to go to the other side, get some even torque on both pieces, both sides, there we go, there you go.
Now I always double check just to make sure. Now the next step we are going to add a little anti-seize below friction surfaces here. You don't want to get any on the rotors. And the next step we will put in the pads and the caliber. Now on the fender wheel, inside of the fender wheel there is a small little trap door here that has two sensors in it, one is going to be break the pad sensor for the left front, the other one is a speed sensor.
What we are going to do here is you are going to take the unit, the connector out of the housing and what you are going to do is pull the unit apart like this and the part that you are going to discard will the sensor that goes into the pad. Next step we got to push the piston back in the caliber because obviously when we put two pads in here that are thicker than the originals we took out, the one ones, we are going to obviously need to make more room. So what we are going to do now is we are going to push this piston back all the way to the back seat, give us enough room to put the pads over the rotors just like that and I have back seated them all the way.
Now to avoid squeaks what I typically do is I take a anti-squeak compound like this, it is basically a glue product and what it is going to do is go all over the back of the pad right here and what we are doing is essentially we have got a high temperate adhesive that is a flexible adhesive that is going to somewhat glue the pad to the piston of the caliber and to the backside of the caliber and it will keep any five vibrations from happening because what squeaks are is vibrations, it is the pad vibrating on the rotor at a real high rate speed.
Now one of your pads has no clip on it that one goes on the outside you can already preassemble that one. Then you have got the second pad that has a clip assembly here that goes inside of the piston of the caliber. So what I am going to do is take that and put it in position at this time. What I am going to do is put it right over the hole in the piston and you will just push that in. Now it is in position. I am going to take my bungee cord off, then what I am going to do is put that over the other pad. Now I have got everything in position the next part is going to be putting in our slider pins.
Next thing we are going to do is we are going to take the guide pins. Now I have already cleaned them off pretty well. We are going to put a little bit of anti-seize on it, just so they slide, especially in areas where you have got a lot of weather up in New York where you get a lot of snow and things like that. you want to have this stuff sliding very well staying lubricated because the caliber has to freely move back and forth. If it gets stuck in the forward position it is going to apply pressure to the pad and wear out the pad prematurely.
So what you are going to do now is you are going to put this into the little guide hole, you got to kind of find the location. Okay, I have got it started, okay. There is the torque, there we go. Now we are going to put our anti-chatter clips here. Now on these brake pad sensors you want to be a little careful whether they are plastic or porcelain or what kind of happens here is you want to get this groove over your brake pad backing plate. Then you have got the little clips here that will find their own way home.
This is the part here that goes against the pad surface, this would hit basically -- that right there would hit the rotor first. So I have found the grove right there, what I am going to do is gently push down in the middle of it here to just get it to snap in. There, there is the clip.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services