- Joined
- January 26, 2004
- Messages
- 6,113
- Reaction score
- 22
- City, State
- Mechanicsville, Virginia
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2004 Acura TL
I get home one night from a class, and my neighbor comes over and starts to chit chat and finally gets down to what he wants - a brake job. I haven't seen many Minis (haha lots of many/minis) around, hardly even looked at one and he wants me to do the front brakes on it and change rotors. At first, I was thinking "yeah, no problem" - but then I thought - "BMW?". I know how tricky those foreign companies are and throw complete odd ball stuff at you when you least expect it. Anyhow, I did some research using the internet and alldata (we never seen a Mini in the shop before, so all 11 techs are useless there - except for one guy who worked at BMW). The calipers don't look to hard to get off, but the rotors are what threw me. I saw this picture:
BMW, a few Lexus', and I'm sure others use the full stud instead of just lugs -- thats no problem til you think "so, what's holding the rotor on?". Then you see that huge axle nut. Well if you look at the picture, look at the bottom stud hole and then to the left of it just a little. That should be a 7 mm bolt (hex) which is holding the rotor on (atleast what alldata says). But look at this picture; it looks like the axle nut is part of it:
I'm sure I'll be able to tackle it, but I'd like to get some feedback from anyone who's dealt with these minis/bmws before. Any help would be great. Basically, I just need to confirm that the rotor is held on just by that bolt. It looks like it is (here is a better picture):
Let me know what you think. Thanks guys!
-Drew
ps - those pictures aren't from the actual car. And to others reading this; if you do a few things on a vehicle (brake job, head gasket, etc.) you get more confident and you feel as though you can do anything; but then when someone asks you about a Nissan when all you've worked on is Ford - you get a little nervous. Don't worry about that, all engines, brake systems, etc are pretty much all the same. Now, I say that - but take it with a grain of salt - the problem I'm having here is that the tools are limited (doing it at my house, not the shop). So what I dont want to run into is getting something apart, and then not being able to put it back together cause I need "special tool: J-4205-683B" - understand? And my life lesson is done for the day lol
BMW, a few Lexus', and I'm sure others use the full stud instead of just lugs -- thats no problem til you think "so, what's holding the rotor on?". Then you see that huge axle nut. Well if you look at the picture, look at the bottom stud hole and then to the left of it just a little. That should be a 7 mm bolt (hex) which is holding the rotor on (atleast what alldata says). But look at this picture; it looks like the axle nut is part of it:
I'm sure I'll be able to tackle it, but I'd like to get some feedback from anyone who's dealt with these minis/bmws before. Any help would be great. Basically, I just need to confirm that the rotor is held on just by that bolt. It looks like it is (here is a better picture):
Let me know what you think. Thanks guys!
-Drew
ps - those pictures aren't from the actual car. And to others reading this; if you do a few things on a vehicle (brake job, head gasket, etc.) you get more confident and you feel as though you can do anything; but then when someone asks you about a Nissan when all you've worked on is Ford - you get a little nervous. Don't worry about that, all engines, brake systems, etc are pretty much all the same. Now, I say that - but take it with a grain of salt - the problem I'm having here is that the tools are limited (doing it at my house, not the shop). So what I dont want to run into is getting something apart, and then not being able to put it back together cause I need "special tool: J-4205-683B" - understand? And my life lesson is done for the day lol