2001 Legacy L (Sedan) Rear Rotor/Calipers Question

[jaredb3000]

Greetings all,

 

Helping a cash strapped friend swap out rear calipers and rotors on her '01 legacy sedan (one caliper seized and the rotor on the other side is excessively warn...). I've only done Subaru disc brakes on my 94 legacy wagon, and wondering if there is any wisdom specific to this car/year etc that you would share. Got 3 of 4 caliper bolts off, the 4th one proved to be tricky to get a proper grip on so I've saved it for later tonight. 

 

FYI- I've been searching around USMB with surprisingly little luck- maybe its the new format I'm not used to. If this has been covered a million times- my apologies (please point me in the right direction!)

 

Anyhow- 

 

Once I get the 4 bolts plus the the bolt that fastens the brake line to the caliper, will the rotor come right off or is there something else I'm not seeing/remembering about this? The rock guard is pretty shot so I may think about replacing/removing this... 

 

Also, if there is a link to a pdf of the service manual (or just the portion of it with the brakes exploded view) please let me know!

 

Thanks much!

 

JB

Edited April 30, 2013 by jaredb3000

[CNY_Dave]

2 bolts and the caliper comes off the pad frame. No need to pull the line/hose off the caliper (unless that's the caliper you are replacing).

 

2 bolts and the pad frame comes off. Struggle to pull the rotor off, get it a little loose, then give up and de-adjust the parking brake cable and de-adjust the star-wheel adjuster. 

 

If it has a lot of miles on it, be amazed at how rusty and cruddy the parking-brake bits inside the little drum are.

 

At 200k mine is ready to have everything inside the little drum replaced, even the plain metal bits are getting sketchy due to rust.

Edited April 30, 2013 by CNY_Dave

[ocei77]

Once the caliper bolts are removed there are two 17mm bolts that attach the bracket. PB and you may need a breaker bar.

Make sure you use 6 pt sockets.

You can hang the caliper from the strut spring.

Rotors may be stuck, but gentle tapping should free it. If not, there are two threaded holes (8X1.25). Using a two inch length bolt will be enough to force the rotor off.

Anti seize bolts and the center ring of the rotor on install.

 

O.

[jaredb3000]

Thanks Gents!

 

I'm in TN, though this car spent 8 years in upstate NY so there's certainly some visible crud. I got the caliper bolts off last night, as well as the upper of the 2 pad frame bolts (both of which in this case are 14mm). Caliper seized due to corroded rubber gasket, methinks. The bottom one proved difficult to get a stout driver/extension with enough of a radius to turn due to one of the axle components (an arm of some sort?). Anyhow, carefully toiling away I will go.

 

Just out of curiosity- if I come across a funky looking little drum, I'm thinking a good bet would be to find decent rear axles at the local pull-a-part and swap out. Anyone got the details on years/models that will coexist with this one?

 

As always, thanks so much for the input USMB folks.

[idosubaru]

make sure it's not simply the rubber bushing in the caliper slide pins that are making it seize.  they swell and seize in the bores making the caliper unmovable as the bushing gets wedged further and further in place with constant breaking.  it's so common and annoying that i remove them now and throw them away, they are completely pointless.

 

you can also rebuild calipers for like $4 by buying a rebuild kit from any hardware store.  simply press or otherwise remove the piston, clean up the piston and bore and replace the seal.  of course if the bore/piston are terribly rusty that's not going to work but most are rebuildable.  i live in the rust belt and haven't seen one not rebuildable yet, but i haven't checked them all either.

 

i'm not sure what you mean in your question "funky looking like drum"...and rear axles....there's generally never a reason to replace rear axles as they never fail.  of course if the boots are hosed then there's your reason.  i'd just reboot the axle though rather than stick another axle with 10+ year old boots on it.

 

otherwise tons of rear axles are the same...like all of them.  they changed from like female to male on the side that attaches to the rear diff but otherwise all subaru rear axles are interchangeable without much fanfare...i'm sure you can search that if need be.

[CNY_Dave]

The drum I was referring to is the little drum brake for the parking brake... that is always nasty on mine.

[jaredb3000]

Thanks for the input once again-

 

Yeah, now that I've found a blown up rear brake diagram, funky little drum is the parking brake as mentioned above, and its not in horrible shape anyhow (on one side anyhow...)

 

I've read some mixed opinions on the stone guard, and would like to know if anyone has any input on getting rid of this all together? Also, per the actual name- do auto part stores call this a backing plate or something else, or is this limited to a junkyard part? As it stands, stone guard on my friend's car is disintegrated which I figure cant be too friendly on new rotors/pads and new (or rebuilt) calipers... If removal is no big deal, I like the sound of that!

 

As always,

 

muchos gracias

 

p.s.

 

Its probably noted somewhere on this forum, but for any
future readers- a really long extension is needed to get the bottom rear
caliper support bolt loose.

[idosubaru]

the dust shields can be removed.  just leave it though and any bits that are in the way  of the rotor.

[porcupine73]

Right may need a parking brake kit then too. Sometimes when taking the rear rotors off the parking shoes will just fall apart. It's not too hard to replace that stuff. On all my soobs with rear disc brakes eventually the linings came off the parking brake shoes and then it made this strange grinding noise in there.

 

Those caliper bracket bolts can be a pain. I almost always replace them with new if they look even slightly worn. I hate when they snap off.