FlipFriddle

When replacing my wheels, I realized my rear pads and rotors were toast on my '05 M3s. I got a price (~$280) for getting them done, but I was curious how difficult it is to replace the rear rotors and pads yourself? I haven't tried doing any work on this car yet, my auto repair experience being limited to keeping my previous car, a 91 Golf going; mostly exhaust and suspension repairs. Do you need special tools or is it pretty straightforward?
Thanks.

djs2571

it's straight forward
remove the wheel
unbolt the caliper - needs a custom allen drive to 3/8 socket adapter - think it's 6mm, you can get it at sears
pull the e-brake cable to get it out of the way
unbolt the caliper bracket
pull off the bracket and the rotor should be beaten free from the hub
screw in the caliper piston (clockwise) so it'll fit over the new pads & rotor - can use channel locks, or make / buy a tool to turn it
Make sure it doesn't overflow your brake fluid resivoir when it gets pushed in

put on the disk
bolt the caliper bracket on
reinstall e-brake cable if it was removed
lube the caliper pins
bolt the caliper on with the new pads
the steel back plate on the new pads will need to be ground to fit in the caliper bracket easily
bolt the caliper on
bolt on the wheel
good to test - use the hand brake and foot brake to get the e-brake cable tightened up again. the caliper piston inches out as it's used to keep the cable tight as the pads wear.

Good luck
I've had to transition to extreme temp caliper lube to keep it from drying out, i'm still testing it to see if it lasts better than the normal caliper lube that's good to ~400-500F.

FlipFriddle

Thanks. It doesn't sound too bad. Which repair manual would you recommend? Chilton?

djs2571

I've never liked the chilton manuals, they do have the basics, but a few times I went looking for something specific and it wasn't there. The factory manual is available at http://www.finishlineperformance.com...=288&page=3for $140 - though it comes as paper and you need to put it in a 3-hole folder. But it's also a good 6" thick - with a lot of it covering trouble codes for the diagnostic system, it has all other information you need.
The chilton will give you basics but leave you wanting more if you do all your own work on the car.

merc7six

its a 7mm allenkey socket you dont need to remove the e-barke cable. you can use needle nose pliers to turn the pistons in (righty tighty, lefty loosy) 14mm for the pad carrier bolts and the spring clip to secure the caliper can be removed with a flat head screw driver.