Just did my brakes on 4.4 x6 - what I found / tips

[eddieb022000]

I had done my brakes many years ago on my e38, it was fairly straight forward and simple.
This job was a beast!! Which I was kinda prepared for. Below is a description which I will add pics to tomorrow when I can upload them properly

First I noticed that the lift point pucks are terrible, they are a wear item and add unnecessary time trying to get jack perfectly stable. I eventually used center lift points and jack stands as the pucks would dent and come off lift pucks.jpg

Next trouble point was that I hit these lugs (17mm wrench) with liquid wrench but they still took tremendous leverage and torque to get the loose (prob around 30 very sweaty minutes in total) Btw the Bmw wrench for the lugs is useless, you need a professional one which I had and it was still difficult. I honestly couldnt imagine if you ever needed to change your own tire on a deserted country road. Impossible!!!

The worst unexpected trouble spot was how incredibly difficult it was to get tires off. All the kicking and banging with rubber mallet did nothing. After dropping the car down w jack repeatedly didn't loosen it I had to lightly drive the car a few feet w only 3 loose lug nuts in each rim. ( I don't recommend this but it was a last resort after trying for 30 min to no avail). Once I finally got the rim off it was incredibly heavy, prob weighs 80 pounds. And the tires are a foot wide, so these are not easy to put on and off. I would say how heavy and unmanageable the wheels are was a big surprise.

Once the tire is off there it's fairly straight forward, just the rotor set screw (dont remember which allen it was but fairly common size) rotor screw.jpg and the 2 caliper bolts behind the rotor (14 mm). with the right tool and leverage they come out with a fight.caliper bolt.jpg

I used a jack stand to hold the caliper while I wrestled with getting the old pads out. A big screw driver and a bunch of cursing helps. also helps to take the slide out completely first if the pads are giving you troublebrake slide.jpg

I used c-clamp to push the piston back in (keep eye on fluid res, I did turkey blaster some out as it hit the max fill line)brake fluid res.jpg

I then used a steel brush to scrap off all the contact points (I wore a dust mask for this as brake dust is incredibly bad), then applied the brake lube for anti squeal to the contact points. New pads in, new rotor on and put humpty back together.

Again since I somehow couldn't get the sensor back in place I just tied it off, not really concerned about not knowing when I need new brakes.
Update i found the small pin in the old brakes - so big tip when removing the sensor watch for the pin if you plan to reuse the same sensor (picture in the reply post)

The cost for this job at an Indy mechanic is around $200, which I would say for most is totally worth it, but I wanted the satisfaction of doing it myself and I'm also going to take this opportunity to paint the calipers Bmw blue, since my x6 is all blacked out it will be the only color other than the Bmw roundel.

I may also grind down and try to repair some small curb rash if I feel so inspired.

Again pics to come but thought I would share.

[asphalt4463]

Next time try a breaker bar and socket. You can slip a cheater pipe over that if you need more torque. If my impact wrench is out I'll use that sometimes because it's faster but the breaker bar is always sufficient. I always loosen and re-torque wheel bolts anytime any of my cars have been at the tire shop. If the wheel is frozen to the hub, loosen the wheel bolts, and rock the car.

[BimmerBreaker]

The wheel surely corroded a bit to the hub, and the lugs were probably over-torqued. Little antisieze on the hub and properly torqueing the lugs and you won't have this problem next time you take the wheels off.

[eddieb022000]

brake sensor pin pictured - kinda hard to see but its that clip inside the brake groove Attachment 613530