Yep, changing the front rotors and pads this evening to EBC parts. All was going well until the dreaded stripped torx bolt that holds the rotor on went south. That baby was in there to stay. Hit it with PB Blaster and let it soak. But I venture a guess that some wrench head used an air wrench and bummed up the threads.
Alas, I now cannot get the retaining bolt/screw out. Any suggestions?

Should I drive on one side complete and one side with the old rotor? Not drive it at all? Weld a torx onto the stripped head and try that? I do have the new EBC pads on both sides.

Please help. The Blue Ridge Parkway Tour is next week. I'm running out of time!

 

Just drill it out.


Use a good metal bit, slow cordless drill will do it.

Just get the head off.. All it does is keep the rotor clocked to the hub.

Not critical.

 

Don't just drill it out. I recommend going to harbor freight and purchasing a cheap bolt/screw extractor set

1. Punch a hole directly in the center of the bolt.
2. Using the appropriate size drill bit. Drill most of the way into the bolt.
3. Using the bolt extractor drill into the hole the opposite direction. Lefty tighty
4. If all works out it should back out just fine

Depending on the condition of the threads you may have to use a tap set and re-thread the hole. Although I don't suspect you should have an issue with it.

Ran into this problem the other week while changing the timing belt and water pump on my dads tundra. We did not follow these instruction an I wish we had. We now have one missing bolt on the water pump because we dried just drilling it... ended up chewing it to pieces. Hope this helps.

 

Yes, this. One of mine would not come loose, and I ended up stripping the torx bolt as well. I just drilled it out, and got the bolt head popped off. I tried to see if I could drill it out all the way, but I hit it slightly off center, and the bit started drifting into the hub/wheel bearing. At the end of the day, that torx bolt just holds the rotor on the hub/wheel bearing when you take the wheel off. It's more of a convenience thing so far as I can tell. Once you mount the wheel and tighten down the lugs (which slot through the rotor and into the hub/wheel bearing), it's secure.

If you're really that freaked about it, you'd need to replace the hub/wheel bearing...those run about $200-$250 range. I'm just waiting until mine needs replacing to do the job.

 

I had this happen on a friends of mines MINI during a brake job.. All we did was weld a bolt on the head of the stripped torx. worked it back and forth a few times and low and behold it came right out..lol

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one this has happened to. I think I'll do the weld thing first. Use a torch to heat and expand the area around the bolt then hopefully remove it.
Thanks for all the great info.

 

Good luck let us know I you get it.

 

I had that problem on all four. I soaked it with pb blaster first then used a good chisel to punch it clockwise. Then put some anti seize compound on the threads of the new torx bolt. About 6 bucks each.

 

I wouldn't apply heat to the rotor unless I had exhausted other possibilities. PB Blaster then a screw extraction is what I would do first.

 

Way.. Way to much heat and work...

Just drill the head off, pull rotor, unscrew reminder of bolt with vice grips or cut slot with hacksaw....

I do this at least once a week at work, it's a common issue with most European cars that use wheel bolts..

Trust me you will do far more damage to the rotor and the hub welding a bolt to it.. You will risk warping the rotor face and hub.. This is a 10 min job max.. Don't make it a bigger issue.

 

Thanks to everyone's good advice, Twiggy now has a new set of rotors and pads by EBC.

BTW: they told me no bedding required due to the special coating on the pads. Just drive easy for 200-300 miles and nothing else is required.

Thanks again.

 

So I take it you got the bolt out then... How did you do it?

 

No, I drilled the head off and installed the rotor as a floater. A bit tricky as the rotor turns freely as you try and align the studs. Everything works fine. I guess I'm just " bolt less".

 

ha ha ha Its all good...glad you got it all together!!

 

Good call!

 

Alright, I did this, stripped it then drilled it out, ran a tap in it to be thorough and put a new bolt in, as well a few thousand miles ago.

BUT i just went to put my track pads and rotors on and the treads in the hub for that bolt are now stripped, I tried just leaving the bolt off and tightening the wheels really tight but i now get movement when i brake (i can hear the rotors twisting when i hit the brakes in the opposite direction of travel) … thoughts?

trying not to buy a whole new hub, and since some said they've gone without the bolt, what was your experience?

thanks

 

I don't know how its possible that you hear any noise from that rotor since you have 4 huge wheel bolts and the clamping force of all of them pressed against a wheel and a hub pinning/sandwiching them together.

The bolt is just to center the rotor for ease of wheel mounting. It does nothing magical to make the rotor work better. Never had an issue running a car without it.

I'd suspect your pads are shifting/caliper guide pins need grease is what you are hearing.. but not the rotor.. Unless your wheel bolts are loose.

 

Thanks for the info on the rotor bolt. I'll run through greasing everything and checking the torque across the board. I should have mentioned I have the fJCW brembos up front. never had pads shift before but that doesn't sound like a good thing!

thanks for the tips hopefully they lead me to the cause of the noise.

 

ill back up danjreed in confirming that the bolt is only there to ease install of parts, it in no way is there to hold the rotor still during braking, the only way that rotor could move during braking was if your wheels were loose

 

 

checked all the torques, still did it. took a closer look at the pads in the caliper, and I apparently missed the "step" where you move the stock pad shim off the OEM pad and put it on the HAWK pad (see picture), it was my first brembo brake change to non-oem pads.

Tomorrow I clean up the shims and move them over, looks like it could help

 

good to see it worked out!