Hello,

I followed the instructions to replace my passenger side rotor and pads. On the driver side however, I see a ring (the bright thing in the picture) that seems to prevent the rotor from sliding off the lug studs. I sprayed some WD40 and tried to turn it loose with an adjustable wrench, but no go (maybe I need a bigger wrench that I can properly get my hands around). I see what looks like a couple of grips in the centre (the dark ring), but not sure what can lock onto it to unscrew it.

Any ideas on how I can get that out?

Thanks
Rakesh

 

Your rotor is rusted-in with the bearing hub behind it. There's nothing else holding them together other than the rust.

If you plan to keep the rotor, put at least one lug nut back on loosely (this is important, you don't want the rotor to drop on the floor once it's knocked free). protect the back of the rotor with a piece of wood or hard plastic, and tap it with medium force with a hammer and rotate the rotor after each blow. You have access to the back side of the rotor at the location where the caliper was. Good luck!

 

a large rubbet mallet works well for this too. you can wail on it without risk of damaging anything. just watch the backing plate!

 

Thanks for the responses. I am replacing the rotor, so I had used a hammer to loosen the rotor, and it was coming out, until it seemed to hit that centre ring. I will get back to it tomorrow and see if I was just mistaken and it is just rusted on to the hub.

 

Just curious... Is the bright ring in your picture part of the rotor, or does it look like it's made of aluminum? Is it raised from the rest of the mounting surface? Some wheel spacers come with alignment rings - did you have a spacer on this wheel?

 

There should be two M10 (I think?) screw holes in the rotor. Buy a couple of bolts from Home Depot and screw them in until it breaks free.

For the back rotors make sure you release the handbrake before you do the same thing. Otherwise you'll rip the handbrake spring retainers off like I did.

 

Keep at it. When i did the rotors on my sisters (now my) Corolla, i couldn't believe how much force it took to dislodge those puppies.

 

Spray on some PB blaster - let it soak in for a few hours. Also as previously posted there are a couple of screw holes in the rotor. Run two bolts in and it will back the rotor off the hub.

There is nothing holding the rotors on once you dismount the calipers. On my car which has spent most of its life in the dry South the rotors are totally loose and could just be slid off by hand.

 

Attached is a picture of the ring that is holding the rotor from coming off. The rotor itself slides up to the ring without issues. I just stuck in a screw driver into the gap between the rotor and the ring to illustrate.

I see the screw holes to unseat the rotor, but I don't think unseating the rotor is the issue at present.

Thanks for all your responses and encouragement.

 

Yes, it does look like an aluminum ring which is not part of the rotor. Not sure about the history of the wheels, but it could very well be a spacer.

 

It was a spacer indeed. I used a crowbar and got it out and the rotor came out without issues.

On a related note, how do I determine if I actually need it there (someone must have put it there for a reason obviously). If the wheel just mounts without issues, is it safe to say I do not need the spacer? I may also affect wheel alignment I suppose.

 

Once you get this aluminum ring off of the bearing hub, try to match it against the opening on your wheel's inner mounting surface (the surface that actually makes contact with the rotor) and see how they mate together. This aluminum ring may very well be an adapter to center your wheel onto the hub. Is your wheel OEM?

The rust pattern on the photo suggests that the wheel was making good contact with the rotor, so I would suspect that this aluminum ring is completely embedded within the wheel when it is mounted.

 

I don't think they are OEM wheel (see pictures). Weird thing is (maybe previous owner lost the ring for the other side) none of the other wheels have a similar ring. The ring does fit perfectly in a little groove that is on all the wheels. I put it back in, since it probably won't hurt to have it there, and I do not know why it was there.

 

Check the inside hub of the other 3 wheels for the same ring. Perhaps the ring stuck on the wheel hub came off the front wheel and rusted to the hub. These rings help center the non-OEM wheel to the stock hub.