I tried a bunch of things, but I needed a tool that would engage the grooves in the caliper piston. The tool that I got is a cube with different pins on each face, and a square hole for a 3/8" extension. You need to put pressure on the piston while turning it, you will need a tool for that. It was only about $10 for the universal one that I got.

My car needed rotors in the rears, so I was able to convince myself that it wasn't that much more expensive. Then I sandblasted the brackets and painted them black, I'm not into red either.....

Did the rebuild get rid of most of the vibrations that you had after putting in the coil overs?

Mike

 

I just rented the tool and the T50 torx from advanced auto parts. I've been kinda slacking on the rear brakes as the brake light has been on for quite some time now. I know...say it.. SHAME! hahaha.

What do you mean the rebuild? I plan on doing the brakes either tomorrow or Sunday. I think the coilovers just needed to settle in cause I dont think (or maybe I just got use to it) it really shakes like it did. I still need to get an alignment to. Just got tires the other day... and now brakes... and then an alignment. Been a pretty expensive few weeks for the thing lol.

 

So i finally did the brakes last weekend and somehow along the way... I mistook the abs sensor for the brake wear sensor. I took the ABS sensor off the car... realized what I had done and then reinstalled the sensor. Now I have the ABS/Traction symbols on in the car. I tried taking the sensor out again to clean it off and reinstalled it again. Yet still have the light. Have I done something and need a new sensor... or whats going on?

 

New pic taken last weekend.

 

Selling the wheels in the above post... if interested please pm me. Asking 300 + shipping and paypal. Thanks!

 

I'm interested! What wheels are they? Jcw 112's? Hard to tell from the pics. What size?

 

I wish they were JCW 112's! I prolly would get rid of them if they were hahaha. They are XXR 530's though. Size is 16x8 +20 offset.

 

so these are 195/50/16 from the latest photo posted?

 

Sorry I didnt see this post sooner. But yeah the tires are 195/50/16. Also the wheels are no longer for sale... decided on keeping them for the time being.

 

Was wondering if anyone here could tell me how long their EBC Redstuff pads lasted? I ask because back at the end of June of last year I installed the Redstuff pads on all 4 corners of the car. Lately I have been hearing a lot of squealing coming from them and then the brake service light came on indicating that I'm in need of changing the brakes out. I have between 10-12k miles on the pads at the very most and wondering if this is common for them to wear out this quickly. At the time I changed them I also installed brand new drilled/slotted rotors as well.

 

I think you need to physically look at them, 12k sounds like less than 1/2 the mileage that you should get out of a set of pads, even if you run the car hard. I put mine on about 30k ago, but the wear sensor came out of the rear pad and got beat up. This gave me the brake service warning that you have, but there is plenty of meat left on the pads.

Still happy with the car?

have fun,
Mike

 

Yeah guess I was just trying to avoid all of that. The brake light coming on really just furthered my thinking of needing new pads so soon. The squealing is what had me worried at first... cause it squeals the entire time I'm braking. But yeah... still loving the car. Debating if I wanna vinyl wrap the roof black or keep it white right now. Theres a red JCW here in town with a black roof and it looks pretty sweet. Just not sure if I wanna "copy" his style lol.

What about you? She treating you good? Done anything to her in a while?

 

So you were right... did the whole look though the spokes of the wheel thing to see if there was still some meat on the pads and sure enough there was. Alot of meat still on them actually. Makes me wonder why they are so noisy. Its kinda embarrassing that they squeal the entire time I'm braking. Does it mostly after the car has been driven for a while. I also checked the pad wear sensors and sure enough the front sensor came out and the rear one got mangled and will need replacing.

On another note though... has anyone ever had a strange rattling noise coming from their exhaust clamp? I recently had a new clamp put on where the downpipe and the midpipe meet. Everything was good for about 2-3 days and now I have this strange rattling. Happens when I start the car, sometimes when I rev the car, really does it when I'm moving, downshifting, and its really loud when I'm turning. I've checked the exhaust clamp and its as tight as you can get it really. Also checked the bolt that holds the downpipe bracket and thats fine to. Any ideas?

 

It's odd that you have noisy brakes with your redstuff pads, that is what I have on, and have never had any noise from them.

I had an unfortunate incident this month that damaged some stuff under the car (ran over a dead deer). the muffler got tweaked (I'm running a fJCW like you, but with the resonator). It ended up moving enough that the pipe was against the underbody brace. I was having some odd resonance and vibration. Right now I'm running without the brace, and the car is much quieter. Maybe you should check this on your car, see if you have sufficient clearance.

I know that the exhaust grows quite a bit when it gets hot (look at the tips when the car is cold, then look after a hard drive), but it is really suspended from just the 4 rubber oval pieces. You should be able to jack the car up (support it....) and crawl underneath and shake the exhaust around. Maybe one or two of the rubber supports broke, or you can check if there is something near to the exhaust that would vibrate. It is possible that the exhaust flex joint right behind the engine is broken, that would rattle.

Have fun,
Mike

 

Well this is gonna be a fun post....

So before when I said I had a rattling noise whenever I rev the car, when I'm moving, downshifting, and is really loud when I'm turning. Come to find out.. that a day later when I'm pulling into a parking spot at the mall the oil pressure light comes on. Shut the car off immediately. And proceed to add a quart of oil to the car.. thinking it was low. Sure enough the rattling stopped. Whats weird is that I am usually crazy about checking the oil every 1 to 1500 miles or so cause of all the horror stories I have read about with oil and these cars. Kept checking the oil... and to me... car had oil in it. Cause if it didnt... I would've added more. Thought I had gotten everything situated with that though.

A few days later... I'm looking around the engine bay to see if maybe I have an oil leak... cause it seemed like I was going though oil like crazy. No oil was on the turbo oil line...but noticed it was really loose. Go onto Detroit Tunes website and ordered the Turbo Oil Line from them. Wait and wait and wait. Finally call and see whats up with the order cause the order status hadnt changed or anything. See that they are closed for the week cause of the Minis at the Dragon event. Meanwhile.. I keep checking the oil.. and checking the oil line. All seemed fine...

Finally get the Turbo Oil Line from Detroit Tuned and go to install it on my next day off. I had already taken most of the heat shields off the car before when I did my Riss Racing Downpipe install... and didnt put them back on the car or anything. Figured installing it the oil line wouldnt be to bad cause most of the heat shields were already off. Well I guess I didnt get the heat shield that behind the downpipe out so in all it took me about 9 hours to get the Oil line installed. Put oil in the car and finish everything up.

Go to leave later that night...let the car warm up for about a minute or 2 and then start hearing this sound. Once again the oil pressure light comes on again and again shut the car off immediately. Get out of the car and there is oil everywhere. I mustuve not of tightened the fittings leading to the banjo bolt openings. So after getting the big 35 lb thing of kitty litter and cleaning everything up... I get under the car and tightened both of the fittings. Add more oil to the car and start it up... and now I have the death rattle coming from the car. So all in all... I'm screwed. And have learned the lesson that I should never do any kind of work on cars... and prolly just get out of the car scene all together haha. Well if you've managed to read this far.. I hope I have given you some entertainment and hope you realize that maybe your day really wasnt all that bad compared to others hahaha.

 

Oh man I hope you stick with it. My car had to sit for about 8 months because a bad head job caused a valve to stick open. I replaced the full engine. Best of luck to you if you need help let me know. I still have my old motor but I don't know what the death rattle entails fixing. Atleast you still have a beautiful drive way ornament