GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I am desperate here. I got work tonight and need to change my rotors on the front.Now what I am asking, is how do I get the dang things off?Pls help.

take the tire off... remove the two allen screws from the back of the caliper, Hang the caliper so the hose is not extended and use a soft rubber mallet to break the rotor free, there is usually a bit of rust built up around the center hub...if your lucky you will be able to just wiggle the rotor off with both of your hands and not need the malet.it's that easy. Now if your replacing the pads as well. you will need a "C" clamp to compress the piston back in to the caliper so you can mount the new pads. Do this slowly so you don't over flow the master cylender with brake fluid. I suggest that you replace the pads if your replacing the rotors or you will damage your new rotors when you put on your old pads.Replace in the reverse order and your done.My question would be is why did you go threw a set of rotors so quickly on your 06 vibe?

See I tried that, I beat the snot out of it, and yet it would not budge. Im wondering if I have to take off he center nut for the enitre hub. When I look at it, it looks like it does have to be removed. To answer your question, I put on alot of miles because I am a driver for my job.

Do not loosen the center hub nut. Keep trying. You must have a lot of rust around the center hub. It is supposed to just pull off (after you remove the caliper).

spray abit of penatrating oil around the center hub, and keep working it, DO not take off the center HUB nut. You do not need to do that to change the rotor.

Thank you for the help, I had to give up on it for the night. Ill keep you updated.

I’ve yet to do the brakes on my Vibe but based on doing brakes on other cars I thought I would add to the good information already provided by keithvibe.Rather than a soft mallet I would suggest the use of a deadblow hammer if you can get hold of one. These hammers are normally used by machinists for seating things like chucks. I’ve found them also useful for working on cars. They are plastic but filled with leadshot. So they can give good blows but without damaging the metal. I have a 1 lb and 3 lb hammer. I don’t know if they have any Harborfreight tool places around where you are – if not you should be able to find these at places selling metalworking tools and machinery.If you are not bothered about wrecking the rotor then you can hit it with a heavy metal hammer. However, if you do this you will need to be in a position where you do not need to drive the car until you finish the job as you may seriously damage the rotor before it comes off.Another suggestion would be to drill and tap two holes in the rotor hub. Insert two bolts and turn. This should force the rotor off the wheel hub. Again if you do this make sure you use quality taps – cheap ones can break off in the hole. If this happens you will have a big headache since taps are hard they are almost impossible to drill out. You can get good quality industrial grade taps like OSG or Greenfield on ebay at very good prices.The center bolt is probably for holding the driveshaft to the wheel hub so you should not remove that.Good luck

holy balls of zeus!! my 04 rotors werent on that hard! i just whacked them some with a rubber mallet and popped 'em off.

I have had myt rotors off, and can definitely say that you do not need to loosen or remove the center nut. here is a pic of a replacement vibe front rotor, you can see the center nut will have no effectsince you are replacing them, you can use the heaviest, hardest thing around to smack it with. Hit them on the face of the rotor, close to the edge.

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well, i guess being he's a nubie he may not reply back. But, I hope you were able to get it sorted out. Doing a front brake job, with out bleeding the brakes should only take about an hour to accomplish. The deadblow mallet is a good option. I have had to use those in the past to remove rotors.

There is not hole to screw in a bolt?? Many rotors have one or two holes between the stud holes, that allow you to screw in a bolt that puts pressure on the hub, in an outward way, so when you pop it with a hammer, the tension pops the rotor off...

Sounds like you need some liquid wrench, a breaker bar, and some wheaties.

so just hit it with a rubber mallet? the 2 times i've rotated my tired i've wanted to check my brakes also, but i couldn't get the darn things off. when i was talking to my dad he says i don't need to pull them off right now, but i just wanna make sure. i've ruined a few rotors on another car because he didn't check the brakes when he rotated the tires and the pads were down to the metal. he also says when i do get them off, put a little bit of grease on the metal at the center hub and a bit at the other places where the rotor was rusted on and it wont do it again, or at least not as badly. is that a good idea?

I usually clean the hub face with WD40 and a scotch brite pad. Get all of the rust off of the matting surface. Then I put a small amount of antiseize on the face of the face of the hub then put the rotor back on.

I recently replaced the rotors on my 05 with R1 Concepts drilled/slotted rotors. Those darn things were rusted to the hubs like you wouldn't believe. I started with a rubber mallet. I had to beat the crap out of the rotors with a metal hammer to loosen the things. I didn't care about damaging the rotors because they were throw aways. I beat them so hard, even after penetrating oil, that I was worried I might damage the bearings from all of the jarring. They finally broke loose and came off. I have never had a more stubborn set of rotors in my life! The new rotors and pads are awesome and well worth all the whacking. Go for it. I hit the rotors away from me, then towards me, top then bottom... center of the rotor, outer edges of rotor. Persistence finally loosened those darn things.

(removed) -- been hitting my front rotor for 25 mins and no go - anyone have a LARGE rubber malletÉ

Use a metal hammer,and hit it from the inside out.Spray some penetrating oil in and around the wheel studs and hub then whack the crap out of it.

As Keithvibe has stated, spray penetrating oil around the center hub and keep trying. When I removed them on my 06, I whacked the rotor a few times, put the car in nuetral, rotated the rotor a few inches, put it back in park and whacked it again. After a few minutes of hitting it in different spots, it came right off. I hope this helps.

oil - checkneutral - checkwe havent budged it yet! taking a break now and moving to air intake

Quote, originally posted by Sublimewind »There is not hole to screw in a bolt?? Many rotors have one or two holes between the stud holes, that allow you to screw in a bolt that puts pressure on the hub, in an outward way, so when you pop it with a hammer, the tension pops the rotor off... Quoted for posterity..

Quote, originally posted by bull77 »we havent budged it yet! 20 more mins of banging --- no goanyone else have this much trouble? i may have to bring it to the dealer -- ugh..

Quote, originally posted by Sublimewind »There is not hole to screw in a bolt?? Many rotors have one or two holes between the stud holes, that allow you to screw in a bolt that puts pressure on the hub, in an outward way, so when you pop it with a hammer, the tension pops the rotor off... No. There is not hole to screw in a boltWhen I changed mine, I put it in neutral and wailed on it with a sledge from the backside while rotating it. Remember what Josey Wales said:"When it looks bad, like you're not going to make it, that's when you gotta get mean. I mean just plain mad dog mean. Cause if you lose your head and give up, then you neither win nor live. That's just the way it is."

Quote, originally posted by bull77 »20 more mins of banging --- no goanyone else have this much trouble? i may have to bring it to the dealer -- ugh..Do you have something you can put tension on it with? I used a big 3 arm gear puller once, put some tension on it and poped it with a hammer, went easy after I got the puller in place.. Other than that, I'd follow Joatmons advice about rotating it into different positions at you wailed the crap out of it... leaving it on one position is just setting you up for a missalignemt problem between the hub and rotor..

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »Remember what Josey Wales said:"When it looks bad, like you're not going to make it, that's when you gotta get mean. I mean just plain mad dog mean. Cause if you lose your head and give up, then you neither win nor live. That's just the way it is."after a hour of hitting it with a mallet and several beer, we gave up

I know this is an old thread, BUTTHANKS! If I hadn't have read this, even though I've got the shop manual, and it DOES NOT say to take that large nut off, I was about to go searching for a socket that size. I could not see any gap in the mating surface of the hub and rotor. I'd have sworn you needed to take the nut off. Well...for get the dead blow/rubber anything. Tried the dead blow. Worthless. Went right to the 3# sledge.... and as I think someone else said... Whack the crap out of it! It was a pretty good work out. And pretty much mangled the rotor. I can't see how you'd get them of in any condition to reuse them. Glad I had my new EBC rotors and RedStuff pads to put on! Thanks again!

I haven't replaced my front rotors or brake pads yet (66k miles), but I do rotate my tires often and have painted my calipers, all giving me a decent understanding of how my rotors are. To my amazement, when I was painting my calipers last spring, I gave my rotors a shake with my hand, just to see if they were stuck on stiff. Not at all. In fact, they both had "give." With the calipers hanging off when I was painting them gave me that opportunity to test them, and I *really* hope they are still loose enough come fall (I am starting to feel guilty for not replacing my brakes, despite good stopping power still). But I am not one to slam on them. Fall is my target time for replacing them, but after reading all of these responses (no matter how recent or old), I am really crossing my fingers they are not rusted/adhered.

After 165,000 miles i replaced mine. Deadblow hammer, penetrating oil and a little heat from a cheap torch from Walmart and they came off. Of course that was after beating on them with a rubber mallet for 35 minutes, and then going to the store and buying the above things. Second rotor took 15 minutes to replace. Good Luck!

I had the same problem with my 2003 Vibe when I replaced the rotors, they were rusted on at the hub.

After using the "banging the rotor" method for a while to no avail, I decided to try something more elegant.

I removed the brake caliper and used the caliper mounting bracket holes and some long bolts and nuts as a puller (actually a pusher). You put the nut on the rotor side of the bracket and the head on the other side. Gently turn each of the bolts until the rotor POPS.

NOTE: For safety, you MUST PUT ONE OR TWO LUG NUTS ON, as when the rotor pops it comes flying off the hub at high speed and will hurt you. The rotor will POP before the caliper bracket bends. Also, you will not damage your rotors. This only took about 2-3 minutes after if figured out the set-up.

Definitely put anti-seize compound on the hub before reassembling.