How do you change the rear brakes and rotors on a 2000 olds intrigue?

Answer 1

Just did this replacement and, while I can address some issues, I am not satisfied that the job was successful. Here goes: First, after securely jacking car and removing wheel, remove calipers and hang by a wire or twine so weigtht of calipers is not supported by brake line hose. With calipers out of the way, tap behind rotor around periphery to remove rotor. This is a tight (and maybe rusted) fit and takes time and patience. The reason this is a tight fit is because inside the hub of the rotor is the emergency brake which is a cable actuated old fashioned shoe brake. The inside of the rotor acts as the drum. Once the old rotor is off this is all visible. When mounting new rotor, I had a bear of a time getting rotor to fit over emerg brake shoes. Seemed no amount of tapping eventually, hammering, evenly around periphery would move rotor into place. Emerg brake shoes interfered. Measured ID of rotor hub where emerg shoes must fit and compared to old rotor- exactly same diameter. So I have the correct rotor. Eventually a friend came to my aid and made adjustments to the knerled emergency brake adjusting knob (at bottom of shoe ring) until rotor finally fit into place. He finished job and next day I drove the car and found that the emergency brake shoe must be in continuous contact with the rotor hub (drum) because the disc is VERY hot and even smells hot (much hotter on one side than the other). This seemed like it was going to be as easy as replacing the front rotors and pads (which I did last year) but, with the enmergency brake coming into play the rear replacement is more "complicated" than the front. Now I have to remove the new rotor and fool around with the emerg brake adjusting knob (it's not really a knob but more a little knerled wheel that, when turned, appears to grow or shrink the diameter of the shoe ring. I'm not looking forward to this because it promises to be a hit and miss proposition. I'm still cruising the internet for a good set of instructions. In the mean time, hope my experience helps someone. JH