My mom has a 2002 Elantra and we went to do a front brake job. Discs need replacing as she tore the heck out of them. For the life of me I cannot get the old ones off. I removed the little useless screws and beat on the disc with a mallet, no wiggle. Beat on it some more, no wiggle. Got out a 2 jaw puller and put as much torque on it as I could and the discs would not budge. Is there something I am missing here? removed the caliper and hung it up out of the way, pulled the pads out, and removed the two little crappy screws. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

-Joe

 

Seriously, use a bigger hammer. I had the beat my rotors off with much more force than I thought I would need to. Huyndai must not know what anti-seize is becaue mine (2004 Tiburon) were rusted on. Use plenty of penetrating oil and hammer them whileunder the car from the inside out. Also, make sure the set screws are either removed or drilled out.

 

Unfortunately, the rotors can fuse to the hubs. The best way to get them off once that happens is to cut them off with either a hack saw or a Sawzall. Cut toward the center of the rotor from opposite sides. When you get to the humb, use a chisel to wedge the halves apart and off the hub.

No, I am not kidding.

 

^^^ No, he's not kidding. If you have a sawzall than that is a good option. Just remember, however you get them off, be sure to clean the rust from the hubs and use plenty of anti-seize on the new parts.

 

OK Thanks for the replies. I am guessing it will have to be the sawzall route. Like I said I had the puller on there and they did not even budge. It will be a couple of weeks before I get down there again. I didn't want to go any further without seeing if they were press fit on as the replacement rotors have a bevel on the inside that looked like it could be for guiding a press fit part onto the hub. What about heating them up good with a torch and beating on them? Or is there ABS/ electric crap there I could damage? I don't work a whole lot on newer stuff and rarely on FWD stuff. Thought they would just fall off without the caliper on like the 4x4 trucks I have worked on.

-Joe

 

When you put the new rotor on, coat the mounting surfaces (both to the hub and to the wheel) with grease; I usually use molybdenum grease. I used to work on tanks and they coated all fasteners and stuff with moly grease to prevent them from seizing up.

 

I just went through the same thing. Those 'crappy little screws' are just there to protect the holes that you use to push the rotor off the hub with bolts.

I beat the crap out of my rotors until I realized what those holes were for.

You just take hardened bolts and screw them into the holes and it pushes the rotor right off. I had them done in 10 minutes once I realized what I was doing wrong.

Chas

 

Hey, this is great Zuul24, for I just posted a question on this subject yesterday. I suspected that those 2 holes were there to help push the disk away from the hub and even tried it, but I supposed I wasn't using hardened metal bolts because they were bending on me. I will try and source harder metal bolts. Hammering the disk out worries me for I wouldn't want to damage the bearings.

For that matter, I needed to replace 2 studs on one of the front hub. To protect the bearing as I was hammering the worned out studs out of place, I used a clamp to tighten the brake pads on the disk so the bearing wouldn't feel the impact.

Certainly no brownies for the Hyundai engineers for not protecting tyhe disk and hub against fusing together.

GP

 

I was back having another go removing the front disks last night using a top quality puller and heavy hammer. I was convinced I shouldn't have to slice the disks to get them off. I now feel you could blow the car to pieces and the disks would remain fused to the hub!!!

I am now convinced I will need to slice the disks in order to remove them but I have one worry: I'm concerned that the 4 studs will get in the way of sufficiently splitting the disk and will not be able to pry it out in sections.

QUESTION TO DOOHICKIE: Would it be wise to remove the studs from the hub, because the is no way to cutthrough the entire disk?

ger

 

For what it's worth, I once had a similar situation when I tried to remove the factory disks on a Taurus. What I did to resolve the problem is not for the faint of heart. I ended up installing a puller on the disk tightened up to keep tension on the disk. I then put an acetylene torch on the rotor portion of the disk and heated it in a circular motion to avoid hot spots and avoided applying any direct heat to the hub section of the rotor. When the first disk popped off, it came of with a sharp crack and shot across the shop floor. I used less tension on the second disk. It only took a minute or so to loosen the disk. The Taurus still has it's original hub bearings and that was over 100K ago. A neighbor with a F150 had the same problem, and the technique worked again. Yes, this technique has plenty of risk associated with it. If the hub gets too hot, you'll smoke the bearing seals. The area has to be free of grease and oil, you don't want a fire starting. Keep a water soaked rag handy if you try this. Slap it on the hub to cool it off the moment the disk comes loose.