Free advice for those who are planning on replacing their brake rotors...

-Order and have on-hand a parking brake kit. If you need it, you have it. If you don't need it, you can always return it. Naturally, I did not have one on hand. I pulled the rear rotors (banged them off with a 4-pound shop hammer, actually) and discovered one of the shoes was missing the lining. Lost three days waiting to obtain the kit. Lesson learned.
-Caliper bolts are one-time use. You should run a tap through the threads to remove the old microencapsulation compound before you install the new bolts. Be advised these are high-torque bolts; when they break loose they break loose suddenly!
---Front bolts A001-990-08-14; torque to 180 Nm (133 ft-lbs). You'll need a 14mm x 1.5mm tap for these threads.
---Rear bolts A211-423-00-71; torque to 115 Nm (85 ft-lbs). You'll need a 12mm x 1.5mm tap for these threads.
-Bleeding the brake hydraulic system is a two person job; one to work the computer, the other to open/close bleeder valves, add fluid as necessary, and to hold the hose (of the used fluid reservoir) onto the bleeder valve. Hold the hose on firmly(!) or it will pop off and brake fluid spray everywhere! It alternates between low and high pressure when the computer engages the SBC unit to purge the system. Required approximately 1 and 1/2 liters of fluid. You'll need some type of pressurization device (e.g. Motive bleeder) to attach to the brake fluid reservoir. Pressure required is 2 Bar.

 

Thanks for this, as I'll be replacing my rear rotors and pads soon!

 

OK, I feel really stupid asking this question, but when I tried following the instructions within STAR for bleeding the system I got confused.

Do you, at any point in the process, have more than one bleeder valve open? I don't think the instructions said to close the valve before moving on to the next corner. That may seem like an obvious thing to do, but I also read about people blowing hoses off by trying to bleed with the valve closed.

I got nervous and ended up just using the Motive to push fluid through the system and I don't think I ever got all of the air out. (I was replacing the SBC).

 

Thanks for the info. I decided a while ago I was happy to replace the hardware myself but get the dealer to do the fluid. I will be ordering some more taps when the time comes then. Are the bolts ordered separately?

 

Only one bleeder valve at a time. Follow the directions; a couple of times I started reading into the directions and second-guessing myself. The pages will tell you when to move from the right rear to the left rear to the left front outside to left front inside to right front outside to right front inside. Just hold the hose onto the bleeder valve tightly! I did get air out of the system which I was not expecting...

 

I ordered the bolts from the dealer; rotors and pads were aftermarket. The bolts were not expensive (~$15 USD?). The two taps cost ~$20 USD but I wanted to pull the service as the dealership would. As much as this car cost new I figured I could invest a few dollars into maintenance.

FWIW, the brake pads for the front came with new hardware; the rear pads did not. When I had to delay to order the parking brake kit I ordered new rear brake hardware. It would behoove you to inquire if your brake pads come with new hardware; if not, order it.

The shop documentation tells you to use the brake pad spreader to push the pistons back into their bores and not to scratch the rotors. Since I was replacing my rotors, I ignored the advice and just used a pry bar between the rotor and pads to push the pistons back (at the same time I opened the brake bleeder valve on that side and let the pressure "push" the old fluid out of the caliper and into my brake fluid container. I then closed the valve after compressing the pistons on that side). Did one side of the caliper, then inserted paintbrush handles into the gap, and then did the other side. "Shade tree mechanic" at his best! :-) Front rotors pulled off with my hands "walking" the rotor off. Rear rotors were rusted on; I used a 4-pound shop hammer and whacked hard(!) from the outside on one edge of the rotor until they broke loose. Worried me a bit but I figured if I had my car towed to the shop the mechanic there would do the same thing only with a bigger hammer. :-) Be sure to use anti-seize on the rotor/hub interface when you reassemble.

Hope this helps.

 

I just did rear brake pads and rotors last week.
It actually took me more than once to do the job.
First time, caliper bolts would not come out at all, so I just put new pads and drove around for a few days until penetrating oil arrived.
After getting the oil, with help of penetrating oil and way more than 85 lb of torque (breaker bar didn't help, hampering on E18 wrench eventually worked), I was able to break loose caliper bolts.
Driver side rotor being stuck was another problem all together, it took a lot of hard hammering to break it loose.
Bad part is, after all these, I hand tightened the bolts and not used torque wrench and am on fence to do it all over again with torque wrench.
Good part is, I got so good at it that it should not take long at all, just pain in the...