It's been a while, just had to vent!

nickandersonLS01

nickandersonLS01

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So the LS has been running fantastic for a while now, just started to hear the ol' brake squeak/late grind, so time for a brake job!

After a couple beers and 40 minutes of wrestling with the fantastically designed lug nuts, I finally got the wheels off..... only to discover the dread that awaited me. My bleeder screws are LOCKED in, solid. PB Blaster out the behind, to no avail. Even disconnected my lines and drained out the caliper so I could take a torch to it, pretty sure the bleeder screws are heat resistant, I could touch them almost immediately after 3-4 minutes of torching.

Such a nightmare, I have to be at work at 6:30AM and my car is on stands in the garage!

Lesson learned: don't ever start a project thinking it's going to be easy.

Anyone know of any deals on Calipers? I'm thinking the junkyard but if there's anything online I would prefer not taking my tools to some pick n pull in 40 degree weather.
 
nickandersonLS01 said:
So the LS has been running fantastic for a while now, just started to hear the ol' brake squeak/late grind, so time for a brake job!

After a couple beers and 40 minutes of wrestling with the fantastically designed lug nuts, I finally got the wheels off..... only to discover the dread that awaited me. My bleeder screws are LOCKED in, solid. PB Blaster out the behind, to no avail. Even disconnected my lines and drained out the caliper so I could take a torch to it, pretty sure the bleeder screws are heat resistant, I could touch them almost immediately after 3-4 minutes of torching.

Such a nightmare, I have to be at work at 6:30AM and my car is on stands in the garage!

Lesson learned: don't ever start a project thinking it's going to be easy.

Anyone know of any deals on Calipers? I'm thinking the junkyard but if there's anything online I would prefer not taking my tools to some pick n pull in 40 degree weather.
Click to expand...


ebay has some.......
 
Did you use a real oxy/acet torch or a whimpy propane torch that does nothing? i would get those bleeders out no problem trust me. No need to get new calipers. If you don't have real torches just bring calipers to shop and have them heat them to free them up.
 
If there frozen in and he impacts them they will snap off. Then need to drill out and forget that because you can't mess up the angled seat of the bleeder at the bottom.Thats way more work then just freeing the bleeders.
 
why do people have such problems with the lug nuts? I rotated my tires today at my friends house in all of about 5 minutes and torqued them back on...
 
Well you don't use a 1/2" drive impact wrench on them! :p I've used a 1/4" electric impact driver to free up frozen bleeders before. Worked perfect.

why do people have such problems with the lug nuts? I rotated my tires today at my friends house in all of about 5 minutes and torqued them back on...
Click to expand...
They rust under the stainless cover and it expands so the 19mm lug wrench (proper size) doesn't fit, but when you try to use a 20mm wrench they round off.
 
impact wrench would tear these up, these things are solidified, I'm gonna take em to a shop today see what they can do.
 
Anyone know what our calipers are made of? The only steel on the caliper was the bleeder screw(took an Acetylene torch to it), I took it to my uncle who's a welder and he guess it was some form of aluminum...
 
nope :( they were seized beyond belief, had to buy OEM remans, 70 a pop not bad at all, nice and shiny new hardware
 
Why would you heat them up? Heat expands things all that would do is make them tighter.
 
nothing else worked, I was hoping it might have cleared up some of the gunk/corrosion, doesn't hurt to try when there's nothing else working

the guy at the parts store claims deep creep works better than PB Blaster, I guess I'll have to use that next time.
 
Dude, heat frees everything thats stuck together. If you don't do it every day like I do you might wonder about it. Nothing beats having torch set that was one of the first things I bought. If you do alot of brake and exhaust works its a must have.
 
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