I've been meaning to get the low-down on this from people who've BTDT. Must get it done on the 360...

cheers

James

The dealer guy was a bit of a muppet, he's looked in the wrong part of his parts catalogue. The part number for the kits is: 273747

Thanks Andy. Having the part number really cuts done on opportunities for muppetry

I don't think Bristol has a proper dealer, Bryan Brothers flog all sorts of other (cr*p) cars I've had problems with them in the past.

Will talk to another exclusive dealer somewhere else and get them to post it out.

Bristol does have a dealer, I had to make an emergancy call there once when I was visiting a mate. It's a way outside of town, from Clifton, go past Cribbs Causeway, and keep going for about 4 miles I seem to remember

That could be a load of rubbish, but I definately know they exist.. The parts dude was however a t*sser, but give him a part number and it should be ok

Chris_C wrote:do the 2 BIG bolts on the back of the hub

Finally got round to trying to sort this out. Could not shift those bolts. Tried a long breaker bar, tried penetrating oil, tried heat but was put off by all the smoke billowing out of the brake assembly. I had a good 17mm six sided socket, but I bent it. So I gave up

Wow, that surprises me, on mine I originally screwed up a 12 sided with a 12" bar and gave up (getting the vented discs from Beast) yet since then I've been using a 2ft bar with a good set of sided's and its just given the magical *crack* noise straight away. Did you see if the other bolts would give, and leave the carrier bracket on?

No - didn't try that, but I suspect they'll be just the same. My car's low mileage so they've had 22 years of weathering to seize them solid!

I hate to do it, but I think I need to give them over to someone with an impact wrench

Nah, you had the right idea, but the thread is likely seized into the bracket where it bolts into. You need to heat up that bracket for a good couple of minutes, don't worry there's nothing near it so nothing should get damaged.

Then once you've got it hot, a six sided impact socket and a breaker bar should be enough. Otherwise possibly an impact driver. If you still get no joy then it may need an air impact wrench, but they don't actually apply that much extra force, they can just do it repeatedly.

The idea of putting my car into a garage basically offends me. Not only is doing it myself cheaper, but I'll (hopefully) know it's been done right - and most importantly, if I ever have to do it again in the future I'll know exactly how to go about it.

So, I need an impact wrench

I can hire This for the day at £20 all-in. The 13mm one obviously, which gives just shy of 300Nm of torque.

Or I can buy This for £23.50 which gives 170Nm of torque.

Of course, I could spend anywhere between £50-500 on other options, but I'm very cheap.

I feel drawn to the low tech, run it off the car battery solution, but not sure if it's powerful enough for the job.

Those small ones can do head bolts like they were finger tight. 170Nm is quite a lot...

cheers

James

Thanks, James - that's the kind of information I needed to hear! I'll be off to Machine Mart then

I got the mechanic to do this job in the end - £30 pound per side, cash.

However, just bought an electric impact wrench from Aldi - £15.99 for a 250Nm wrench in a case with a few sockets thrown in.

well i did mine 1.5 yrs ago, using QH and only did 4,000 miles and n/s has gone already . Bought a SKF today to replace it so I hope it lasts a wee bit longer than the other. I know the n/s gets alot more knocks than the o/s but 4k??!!??

Hehe always worth watching Aldi specials for tools - I couldn't live without my set of £11 ratchet spanners, quality is fine too!

I'm surprised you had trouble with getting the caliper brackets off, I don't think I had any trouble at all, but they could get pretty hot so were probably baked solid.

@ steve, I'm not so sure I like ratchet spanners - sure they are fast but I'm always afraid I'll jam them somewhere / break them and struggle to remove them again... I think chris had that problem once?