Replacing rear discs

Wildfire

Senior member
 Epsom
So in the quest to cure some hard braking brake judder, I'm going to replace the rear discs.

Anyone done it?

It looks pretty simple, remove calipers, remove caliper retaining brackets, remove disc retaining screw, remove disc, reassemble.

I believe I will need to slacken the handbrake? Cheers for the help. All the guides I've watched read don't mention this.

Any idea on how to do this?
 
If memory serves, once you've got the wheels off, rotate the disc slowly and you'll find a small hole in the disc hub lines up with the handbrake tension adjuster on the inside. release the tension via this adjuster, via the now aligned hole.
once released, you should be good to remove the disc

that's from memory tho, so I may be wildly out... :tumbleweed:
 
Probably no need to adjust the handbrake cable. Just undo the screw - hit it along the hub a load of times so that all the rust comes out the bottom then yank it off. New one should fit over the top ok.

It probably isnt the cause of brake judder though I wouldn't say - would be unlikely for rears to cause that.

If you need any help when doing the job just get on here and people will help quickly.
 
You normally get brake judder from front discs or warn joints in the front suspension parts.
 
sk93 said:
If memory serves, once you've got the wheels off, rotate the disc slowly and you'll find a small hole in the disc hub lines up with the handbrake tension adjuster on the inside. release the tension via this adjuster, via the now aligned hole.
once released, you should be good to remove the disc

that's from memory tho, so I may be wildly out... :tumbleweed:

Spot on and it's a real pita to find the correct spot when rotating the rim and then make the adjustment. in theory you can also do it by just removing a single wheel stud (which makes it easier to rotate the disk), but that's as easy as decorating the hall through the letterbox :headbang:
 
What's even more difficult is adjusting the handbrake again after the disc goes on.
Pushing the self adjuster on the hook is a pita (the self adjuster underneath the handbrake lever)
 
It's not the front as when I hit the brakes the steering wheel is solid. Front bushes have about 5000 miles on them and the steering is still tight.

As it only happens on hard braking above 80mph, and when I got the car the dealer put new rear pads, but not discs, I reckon on hard braking the pads are now contacting damaged parts of the rear discs; as the car is naturally front biased. Plus the rears really are shot. Big lip in the outer edges and deep score marks on the inner.

I'm also going to paint all the calipers too as rust is a rubbish look.
 
Before I changed all 4 discs and pads I drove gently for a few miles to loosen things off , didn't brake too hard on return to home, and didn't apply the handbrake ( left in gear parked up)

I found I didn't have any problem removing the rear discs ( gentle taps from behind with a rubber mallet) and didn't need to bother with the adjuster at all.

Interested in how you get on with your brake judder issue though- at Le Mans this year we did around 5 -6 laps of the circuit early morning at speed - and by lap 5 I was getting judder from hard braking from speed - I put this down to road brakes not keeping up with track type performance/ braking as once cooled they were back operating ok - do your brakes always judder from high speed heavy braking or only after a period of sustained speed / braking??
 
Never once have i had to adjust the rear shoes if just replacing the discs, seems a bit overkill to me. Think the OP had it more or less right in his first post. If after you have fitted the discs the handbrake is still to high, then you can go back an adjust it. To get the old disc off just make sure the car is stable and release the handbrake in the car. There are also adjusters in the car which can take up some of the slack.
 
Are you sure is not one of your calipers, I had very bad brake judder which I have cured by replacing front disc pads and calipers. The inside of one of my disc was very uneven while the other 3 sides were totally smooth. Anyway it seems to have cured my problem
 
Hi replaced mine 4 weeks ago for brembo drilled and grooved. Here's how I did it. Jack up car one side, and must put on jack stands. Remove wheel, take off calliper and pads. Undo the caliper bracket and remove. Undo the small retaining bolt from the disc. Having released the hand brake you then have to really really bang from the back the old disc, it will be stuck with the hand brake pads gripping the inner of the old disc. It may need a combination of twisting and hitting at 3,6,9,12 positions of the face. Once it has been removed the putting on of the new disc is the reverse. It does fight you a bit getting it back on but nowhere near getting off. The first took me about 45 mins and the second 30 as I knew what to expect. Overall pleased but slight squeak on the hottest days as I set off then disappears. :headbang: best of luck.
 
Spikey said:
Before I changed all 4 discs and pads I drove gently for a few miles to loosen things off , didn't brake too hard on return to home, and didn't apply the handbrake ( left in gear parked up)

I found I didn't have any problem removing the rear discs ( gentle taps from behind with a rubber mallet) and didn't need to bother with the adjuster at all.

Interested in how you get on with your brake judder issue though- at Le Mans this year we did around 5 -6 laps of the circuit early morning at speed - and by lap 5 I was getting judder from hard braking from speed - I put this down to road brakes not keeping up with track type performance/ braking as once cooled they were back operating ok - do your brakes always judder from high speed heavy braking or only after a period of sustained speed / braking??

It's only from high speed 80mph+ really. Whichever way the rear discs are shot anyhow.

Having a quick look the rear pistons are not in great condition, but time + resources means new discs and pads will have to go on and I'll see.

Didn't need to adjust the shoes, a few whacks with the rubber mallet and the disc came off.
 
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