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2Addicts | BMW 2-Series forum Technical Topics DIY and Coding Discussions DIY: 228 Brake Pad and Rotor Job

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      04-04-2020, 09:09 AM   #1
marshall834
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DIY: 228 Brake Pad and Rotor Job

The front brakes on the 2'er needed to be done and I wasn't about to pay the dealership $800 to do them, plus with Stay at Home Orders there isn't much else to do! I got my parts from getbmwparts.com (highly recommend) and hopefully this can help some others in the future.

This is specifically on a 2014 BMW 228i but should apply to other model years.

Required tools/supplies:
17mm socket
18mm socket
6mm Allen Key
Flat head screwdriver
C Clamp
Torque wrench
Brake Cleaner
Brake Quiet
Big Ass Hammer/PB Blaster/Torch

1) Pop the hood and open up the brake fluid reservoir. This is located on the left side (driver's side) near the front firewall. You'll need to remove the plastic shroud to access it. Loosen the cap but leave it on to avoid anything falling into the brake juice.



2) Before raising the car up, loosen the lug nuts. This will require a 17MM socket. Be sure to place a wheel chock or something behind the rear wheels (along with the parking brake on) to ensure the car doesn't roll back on you.



3) Jack the car up. There's a "pocket" for an adapter that is used to safely raise the car. I got my adapter from Burgertuning.com years ago (worth it as my past 3 BMW's have all had this same exact lift point) but I think you can get them from a ton of different places.





4) Place a jack stand underneath the car, taking care to ensure it's under the frame. Finish taking the lug nuts off and remove the wheel.

5) Remove the front clip. You can do this by sticking a flat head screwdriver in the side and if needed, a second screwdriver to help wedge it out.



6) [Driver side only] Unplug the brake pad wear sensor. There will be two cords (on the driver side, passenger side doesn't have the brake pad sensor). Be sure to follow the right cord - the one you are looking for should plug directly into the brake pads. Remove the cord from each connector (I think 3 total) - they just pop out. From here, there will be a small black box attached in the wheel well. Pop this open and you'll then be able to unplug the sensor wire. You may need a flat head screwdriver here as well to help clip it off, if needed.





7) There are two 18mm bolts that hold the caliper in - they are located behind the rotor, on the top and bottom (I didn't get a great pic below but you can kinda-sorta see one of them). You'll need to loosen these and depending on how stuck they are, may need some persuasion. I took a loading strap from the pickup, wrapped it around the end of my wrench to tighten it, and then took a big hammer and hit the end of the wrench. There's plenty of other ways to do this, including PB Blaster and heat but this worked for me.





8) After removing the two brake caliper bolts, you'll need to remove the whole assembly. The caliper itself was pretty tight on the rotor so I used the same big ass hammer and just hit the thing off. However, I was replacing the rotor - I wouldn't recommend this if you're just doing pads as it'll scratch the hell out of your rotor. I'm not sure if I missed a step to loosen the pads off the rotor (please let me know below if you know) but at this point I didn't care because the big ass hammer worked.



9) Rest the entire caliper on top of your upper control arms but make sure it is secure - you don't want it falling and putting strain on the brake lines. On the rotor, you'll need a 6mm allen key. After loosening this, the old rotor should pull right out.



10) Before putting the new rotor on, be sure to clean it with a brake cleaner and a paper towel! After cleaning, place the new rotor on by lining up the allen key hold to the hole on the hub and tighten.



11) Now we need to compress the caliper open. Using the old pad and a C-Clamp, tighten the C clamp until you can't tighten it any further.



12) Prior to adding the new pads, I'd recommend putting some Brake Quiet on the caliper. Place a bit on your finger tip and put on the inside of the caliper, on both sides (red below). I'd also recommend pulling the caliper bracket apart and cleaning it, adding new grease to ensure tip-top performance.





13) Plug the new brake pad wear sensor into the brake pad.





14) Seat the new pads. The metal brackets fit into the caliper hole (yes, that's the technical term ). Make sure that the brake pad wear sensor wire is fitted through correctly - you don't want the wire hanging out in front of the rotor!





15) Place the entire caliper back onto the rotor. Put the 18mm bolts back into place and tighten. I couldn't find the torque specs so I just hand tightened and then took my big ass hammer and hit it a few times.



16) Put the metal clip back into place.



17) For good measure, I cleaned the rotor one more time with brake cleaner.

18) Put the wheel back on. Remove the jack stand and slightly lower the jack so that the tire touches the ground. Then tighten the 17mm lug nuts, in a star pattern, and torque to 100ftlbs. Remove wheel chalks.

19) Reset the brake sensor. Turn on car without pushing the brake pedal. Wait for the service message to disdappear form the uinstrument cluster. Hold the odo reset button. Scroll to the reset you want and hold odo button to reset. Then release and hold it again until the progress bar goes across (shoutout to user Moel in the below thread).

https://www.2addicts.com/forums/show...ht=reset+brake



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      04-04-2020, 01:34 PM   #2
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Excellent.
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      04-04-2020, 01:52 PM   #3
John in VA
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Thanks for taking the time for the write-up with pix!
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      04-20-2020, 09:49 AM   #4
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Big ass hammer FTW!! But seriously, there are better ways. In Germany they don't allow journeyman mechanics to have a hammer in their tool box because if you got it right, you don't need one.

Big safety tip is that anyone doing this needs to get new bolts for the calipers - IIRC, they are torque-to load and only used once - torque settings for these are listed as "xxft/lbs plus xx degrees" (can't get to tis site from work, but check that out). Cracking the bleed screw will really help retracting the pads (flat spatula or putty knife, trim pry tool, etc) and I wouldn't really bottom out the caliper piston if you don't have to. Mind you don't put big greasy fingerprints on the pad faces after you clean those rotors so nice. And be VERY careful to seat the rotors very cleanly. Even a .001 bit of crud will put them out of true, and end up with uneven wear that feels like 'warpage'.

Or do what I did and pony up for the BBK. There's a workaround so you don't need to pull the rear hubs to replace the backing plates.
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