I have a Protege 5 I have had for 5 years now. It has 181,000Km on it and although it has been a very reliable car I am starting to feel that it was designed to live 5 years.
I started to do a brake job on it and just cant belive my frustration, it appears as though rust holds the car together.
First step is to remove the wheels, no big deal Ive done it a million times for Autox on the BMW, Porsche and VW that I have owned. Not so easy on the Mazda. I have to beat the hell out of the back of the rim with a rubber mallat to get the wheel off because its frozen on. I should add that I just changed over to the summer rims less than a month ago and applied antisieze to the hub.
Now onto the actual work. The caliper looks like something you would find sitting in a junk yard for 20 years. The bolts; rusted too. The edge of the rotor; yup rusted. After some work the caliper comes off. now onto the rotor.
Instructions say pull rotor off, a quick search on google reveals "Don’t be afraid to really beat the snot out of it. I used a 25 LB Sledge Hammer with a 4 foot handle when I worked at the dealership. Most of the time they came off in pieces!
Have fun, wear safety glasses, do it outside."
Im not a hardcore DIYer but I have done the odd job on my 2 old e30's and 2 944's and this all seems rediculous on a 5 year old car.
here is the pile of rust after beating the snot out of it.
Project must continue tomorrow as the parts desk gave me 4 bolt Mazda rotors and not 5 bolt rotors I need for my Protege5