Hi,
I have a couple of slight problems with the front brakes on my E30 325. I changed the discs and pads last week, and in order to get the old discs off I had to drill off the cap of the small alignment nut (it serves to hold the disc in place against the hub when changing the wheel). Having now solved the immediate issue of needing to replace the discs and pads and got the car driveable, I'd like if possible to remove remains of the alignment bolts and install new ones.
Given that there's very little bolt exposed to try and grip with pliers or similar, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how is best to proceed. Any ideas?
The second problem is with the nearside caliper which has had the bleed nipple snapped off flush with the caliper body. Any idea how would be best to remove this?
All ideas appreciated, however daft you may think they are!
Cheers
Aruuu
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Used to get something like a left handed tap (called an "easy out"???). You drill a hole in the bolt/stud and as you screw it in it cuts into the bolt and when the cutting force overcomes friction out comes the bolt. Halfords may have them.
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Are the alignment nuts (do you mean bolts?) needed? Lots of cars seem not to have them.
Bleed nipples really are a PITA! There must be a better solution out there somewhere. [topic drift alert] What does the Mclaren F1 use?
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Cheers for the replies - I thought something like an easy-out must exist, but didn't know what such a tool would be called. Sourced a set now - ta!
The bolts (yep that's what i meant to write, but there's no edit feature....) aren't essential, but without them it's a bit of a PITA to put the wheels back on - the disc rotates on the hub.
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The alignment bolt if well seized into the hub will probably not come out using an \'easy out\' it will just snap the easy out. so file off the top of the bit sticking out and pop mark the centre as very best you can, then drill a pilot hole say 2 mm diameter and be patient do not rush it keep making sure you are drilling down the middle of the bolt and correct if necessary. Once you\'ve done that use a bigger drill then a bigger one again until you have removed the core diameter of the bold by this time the bolt will have probably already turned or all the threads of the bolt fallen out of the tapped hole. Be patient, be accurate and you will succeed, I recently did this a stainless screw in an aluminium housing and not a mark in the thread and yes it turned before I had hit the full core size, Core size is the minimum diameter of the threaded shaft i.e. bottom of the thread to bottom of the thread not the outer max diameter. The bleed nipple is a bit different but you have an advantage that the is already a whole down the middle. so you can insreas the diameter of that to the nipples core size but only do that to half the depth of the hole, clean out the swarf then try an easy out in the remaining bleed hole. This often works because the seizier is only for the first few theads. You could of course just leave it until the fluid is due to be changed or you have air in the system and buy a new calipier from eurocarparts.co.uk or GSF. Good luck. Regards Peter
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I have done what Peter D suggests on disc retaining bolts several times before, to make it a bit easier use reverse direction drill bits and (obviously!) a drill which can be used in reverse (ie battery drill/screwdriver). Using reverse drills (available from good tool shops) has the tendency of helping to 'unscrew' the remaining thread when the drill is nearly through...
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