Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 23:17:30 -0400 From: Brian Daley Subject: Re: [uuc] Should I try doing brake work myself Bleeding the brakes is a lot less dreaded with speedbleeders - around $30 shipped. www.speedbleeder.com Usual disclaimer: no affiliation or financial interest, blah, blah, blah. If you're going to flush the fluid I'd also recommend going to a kitchen store and getting a stainless turkey baster to empty the reservoir. Some of the plastic ones don't hold up to brake fluid too well (depending on the type of plastic). Brian SyringeMan@aol.com wrote: > Hi, list, I have an '89 535i and I would like to upgrade the brakes. I know that E32 calipers and rotors bolt in, or I could go with 850ci brakes (thanks, Rob!). However, I have never done brake work myself. I can change my own oil, and it took me less than 15 minutes to install my Jim C chip. > > Can anyone recommend a website that has step-by-step instructions for doing brake work, particularly changing rotors and pads and doing the dreaded brake bleeding? Thanks for replies. > > Mike Fox ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 23:08:30 -0400 From: Steven Schlossman Subject: Re: [uuc] Brake Job At 7:30 PM -0700 9/11/00, KKiely wrote: >MIke, > >A couple of things to consider before doing your first brake job. If you need to swap brake pads often you owe it to yourself to do it yourself. It's like a guitar player not knowing how to change his/her own strings. I guess if you can have a roadie do it for you, you can also have a pit crew, but I digress. Now that we are mentioning tips. I just started doing my own brake pads. Since it was costing me $95 every time I needed to swap brake pads for track and street, it was time I learned. The last time the car was on a lift I used orange spray paint to mark the jack and jackstand locations until I get used to finding them on the ground. I have been using the back end of the diff and now see I am chewing up the aluminum end. I now have an orange spot on the diff cast housing where to lift the car. I marked the crossmember for the rear jack stand locations. I think it may be fastest to lift one side at a time from the front jacking position. On an E36 anyway. That way I can get both of my jackstands under the car at once. I walk around the car breaking all the lugs. Then open the brake res. I have a small plastic container near each wheel for the lugs, caliper bolts and clip. I layout the pads I am installing at arms reach so I can remove and install the pads without leaving my position in front of the wheel. My final walkaround is to torque down the lugs then I start the car up and pump the brakes. Put away the tools, cleanup and pat myself on the back because I saved another $95.00.