[racer038]

My Goodness!!!! What did Mazda use to secure the rotor to the hub?????? It looks white, so it's not red Locktite! What cheap fasteners did they use??? I rounded out the phillips head with the first attempt!!!!

Years ago I bought a nifty tool to remove phillips head fasteners. You put the right bit in it, center it in the fastener and smack it with a hammer. The tool rotates just a hair when you smack it and breaks the resistance of the fastener. After that you can unscrew it by hand. Today it rounded the head. It looks like I've no options except to try and drill out the fasteners to get the rotor off the hub now.

I've messed around with a lot of cars, but haven't had this much trouble just removing a rotor. Where did I mess up? Did I miss something obvious??? As usual, any help is appreciated.

 

[MZBuckeye]

When I changed my rotors on my '04 recently, I tried using an electric impact wrench to get those screws out. The first one I tried, the second I hit the trigger the bit exploded and the screw didn't move. I drilled all the rest of them out after that. You don't need those screws when you put the new rotors on, I read somewhere that they're only used to keep the rotors from falling off when the car's on teh assembly line.

 

[cbob]

how bout a little wd-40?

 

[Kevin6s]

You need an impact driver, as shown above. This particular model is made by Husky (Item: 100022376) and can be found at the Home Depot for $20.

 

[chilimax21]

try a little heat wih a butane torch

 

[Mazda 6s GT]

Unscrew it when its completely cold.

try tighting it first to break it loose then undo it.

try a little heat wih a butane torch
[/b]

that will only expand the screw making it harder to remove

 

[Raynman]

I'm sooo looking forward to my DIY rotor replacement now. :sarc:

 

[MZBuckeye]

You need an impact driver, as shown above. This particular model is made by Husky (Item: 100022376) and can be found at the Home Depot for $20.
[/b]

I had one of these too, it had zero chance of working. The screws conquored the electric impact!

 

[heronew]

an impact wrench or screw driver is a most. MAKE SURE that you put ALL YOUR WEIGHT on the tool before hitting the trigger

 

[Mazda6sMtx]

I believe he used an impact driver. He mentioned the steps using it in his post. I've had no luck with the impact driver or impact gun with removing rotors on a 6. I had to drill out all of the screws and then proceed to use a sledgehammer to remove the rotors and they still would not come off the car. I had to use an actelyne/oxygen torch and heat them up to the point of melting before they came off the car.

 

[Andrew9578]

:wtf: This is :bsflag: What the hell do they do that the dealer to get them off. I can't amagine that they go through all this work.

 

[Kevin6s]

I had one of these too, it had zero chance of working. The screws conquored the electric impact! [/b]

An impact gun is too fast, you need to unscrew them slowly since the metal is super soft. The impact driver works but you need to hit it with extreme force, equal to say pounding a nail in 1 swing.

 

[Sleeper]

My co-workers and I used an impact driver and a small sledge. Never stripped anything, but hammered each one for about 5 minutes. We were going on the thought of slow and easy. Also it was our co-workers car, and we didn't want to mess it up for her.

 

[Mazda Gremlyn]

I've used an air-driven impact gun and it worked. Lots more torque vs the electric ones.

 

[racer038]

OK. It's all over now. I didn't have to kill anything or anyone. I drilled out the set screws, used an EZ out, removed the screws and put everything back together, new rotors and pads, without the set screws. Everything is OK.

Here's what I've learned. There IS a locktite type of substance on these screws. After the fact, I found that the Craftsman bits I was using to try and remove the screws had twisted! It takes a lot of torque to do that! Those screws SHOULD have come out! I had soaked them with PB Blaster and let them set. I SHOULD have then used the torch to heat the screws to break the locktite bond. Then I SHOULD have been able to use the impact driver to loosen the screws without rounding off the screw head. SHOULDA, WOULDA, COULDA!

In response to the earlier post where they used a hammer to remove the rotor from the hub, I used the PB Blaster (WD-40 would work), let it set, then took a M8-1.25 bolt and screwed into the threaded hole in the rotor. After snugging it down to apply pressure against the hub, I smacked the rotor with a mallet. Couple of smacks and it fell right off. After all the problems I had early in the day, I'm glad this went easy.

 

[mbrogz3000]

Just drill those face screws out.

 

[Mazda6sMtx]

I changed the rotors on a members car a few months back and the front rotors were not coming off. I had to drill out all 4 secrews I then used Krak (like PB blaster) and let the rotors soak for about 2 hours. After that didn't work I ended up pulling out my torch and that didn't get them off. After that didn't work I decided to get out my rather large puller. Guess what, that didn't work either. I was jumping on my wrench attached to the puller, scared that it would fly off the car at any moment.

I ended up having to take it too a shop, after sung a 10lb sledge hammer at each front rotor for another 15 mins and didn't get anywhere.

I ended up bringing it a to shop (having the car towed there since the front rotors were toast.) and they managed to get it off. I think the only thing that held me back was the fact that I only have a MPS/OXY torch not and OXY/ACE torch. Which I now have on my christmas list.

 

[Koya]

In our service technics use pneumatic wrench (air drivable wrench).
They hasn't problems with removing rotors for 8 years.
If needed I can make some photos how they do it when I'll be change mine at next week.

 

[Mazda6sMtx]

Please do take some photo's this way it will be on the forum if anyone needs to search how it's done.

 

[Burnsey]

+1 for the photos! I'm comtemplating whether or not I should try the rotor swap myself, or suck it up and pay the dealership to do it....

Sounds like one hell of a workout there, Paul...