How to Replace Rear Brakes 2001-05 BMW 325Xi
Created on: 2019-06-04
Learn what steps are needed to remove the old rear brakes and prepare and install new ones with this how-to video
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step 1 :Removing the Wheel
- Loosen the 17mm lug bolts with the vehicle on the ground
- Raise the vehicle with a floor jack
- Secure the vehicle on jack stands
- Remove the lug nuts
- Pull off the wheel
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step 2 :Removing the Rear Brakes
- Remove the bleeder screw cap
- Press the clips on the brake pad wear sensor with needle nose pliers and disconnect it
- Pry out the brake pad retainer spring with pliers and a flat blade screwdriver
- Remove the brake caliper bolt covers
- Remove bolts from the brake caliper with a 7mm Hex socket and ratchet
- Pry the brake pads into the caliper with a flat blade screwdriver to push in the pistons
- Pull the caliper aside and secure it to the suspension with a bungee cord
- Pry the brake pads off with a flat blade screwdriver
- Remove 16mm bolts from the brake caliper bracket
- Pull off the brake caliper bracket
- Remove the 6mm hex screw from the rotor
- Pull the rotor off
- If the rotor will not come off, thread the lug nuts and strike the hub area of the rotor with the ball end of a ball peen hammer
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step 3 :Preparing the New Brake Pads and Rotors
- Clean the wheel hub with a wire brush
- Remove the brake pad slides
- Clean the slides with a wire brush
- Clean the brake pad slides mating surface on the brake caliper with a wire brush
- Apply copper anti-seize to the wheel hub
- Put the rotor on
- Tighten the 6mm hex screw to the rotor
- Adjust the brake shoes by moving the adjustor wheel with a flat blade screwdriver
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step 4 :Installing the New Brakes
- Put the bracket back into place
- Start the 16mm bolts by hand
- Tighten the bolts to 49 foot-pounds of torque
- Use a caliper piston tool to push the pistons back
- Install the new brake pad into the caliper
- Install the brake pad to the caliper bracket
- Put the caliper on
- Apply grease to the caliper slides
- Tighten the 7mm hex bolts on
- Tighten bolts to 20 foot-pounds
- Attach the caliper bolt covers
- Attach the brake pad clip
- Connect the brake pad wear sensor to the brake pad with needle nose pliers
- Close the bleeder screw cap
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step 5 :Reattaching the Wheel
- Slide the wheel into place
- Start the 17mm lug bolts by hand
- Tighten the lug bolts preliminarily
- Lower the vehicle partially to the ground
- Tighten the lug bolts to 95 foot-pounds in a crossing or star pattern
- Lower the vehicle completely
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step 6 :Testing the Brakes
- Pump your brakes repeatedly until they feel firm
- Test your brakes at 5 miles per hour and then 10 miles per hour
- Road test the vehicle
Tools needed
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Socket Extensions
Torque Wrench
16mm Socket
17mm Socket
7mm Allen Wrench
6mm Allen Wrench
Flat Blade Screwdriver
Brake Caliper Compressor Tool. Single Piston. Lever Style.
Copper Anti-Seize
Bungee Cord
Brake Grease
Ratchet
Wire Brush
Needle nose pliers
1/2 Inch Breaker Bar
What's up guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video I'm going to show you how to replace the rear brakes on this 2001 BMW 325 XI. If you need any parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1AAuto.com. I'm going to loosen up these lug bolts. I'm going to use a 17 millimeter socket and a breaker bar. Now I'm going to raise and support the vehicle. we're using a two post lift. If you're doing this at your house, you can use a jack and jack stands.
Now, I'm going to take the 17 millimeter socket and extension, just to take the lug bolts out. Now when I go to take the last one out, I am going to hold the wheel so that the wheel doesn't fall. Take that one out, set it aside and grab the wheel. Shake it off. I want to pull this brake warning sensor out. This vehicle only has it on the passenger rear, and then also on the driver's front, certain vehicles may be different. So there's a little retainer right here that goes over the bleeder screw. You can just take some needle nose pliers, and try to get this off. Slide that out, just like that. Take the needle nose pliers, just grab it right here. Grab the sensor and pull it up.
The clip actually stayed in there. So I'm just going to pull the clip out. If you're going to reuse this sensor, put the clip back on. Generally, when you're replacing brakes, you're going to replace this sensor as well. But if you have to reuse it, you can. I'm going to remove this spring right here. This holds the caliper onto the bracket. It just keeps it from rattling around. I'm just going to use some large pliers, squeeze right here and then a screwdriver. I can pry this out. There's a couple of different ways you can do this, and slide it out. It is a good idea to replace this when you're doing breaks. But we're going to reuse ours.
Right, now from underneath, there's these covers that go on the caliper. Just take these covers off. Sometimes you need a little pocket screwdriver, and just get in behind there. Pry those out. Those just keep the weather, environment out of the bolts so they don't corrode. Then I'm going to take a seven millimeter hex socket and a ratchet. I'm going to take these bolts out. Pull those bolts out. Now I'm going to take a straight blade screwdriver, just get between the rotor and the caliper, just pry it a little bit. I'm just pushing the piston back in so it's easier to slide out.
Slide the caliper off. Then for these calipers, I'm actually going to use a bungee hold the caliper. You can grab it onto something. You don't want to put any strain on the brake hose. Wrap it around. Actually, I'm going to go around the spring back here, back into the caliper hole, right there. That will just sitting like that. Now I'm going to use a 16 millimeter socket and a breaker bar. I'm going to take these two bracket bolts off. Loosen those up. All right. That's loose.
Then I'll switch to a ratchet using this 16 millimeter socket. Take the bolts out. Now you want to take this screw out. I'm going to use a hex head, six millimeter hex head socket and a ratchet and loosen it up. Sometimes you're going to need to use a impact driver to get these out. This one came out pretty easily. Take that out, grab the rotor. If the rotor didn't come off that easy, you can just hit it with a hammer in this area. Slide it out. Now we're just going to take a wire brush, we want to clean this hub area up right around this area, it was very rusty and causing the wheel to stay on a little bit, so clean that up real good.
We'll just take the brake pads off. Just slide these. They're rusted on up top. Just pull that out, then pull that shoe out, or break pat out. Here we have the old breaks. Here we have the new breaks from 1AAuto.com. As you can see, the pads are the same shape as the old ones. They come with this retainer, it slides into the piston. The ears are the same. Pad material is the same. The rotors are the same height, their the same size, have the fins and also have the drum on the inside for the parking brake. Get yours at 1AAuto.com. And you can do it yourself.
All right, now we're going to clean up this brake caliper bracket. We want to clean the areas right here and right in there. Be careful not to use anything too abrasive. We're just going to use a wire brush, clean some of the rust off. We'll do the same on this side. All right, so those are cleaned up good. Now I'm going to move on to these slides. These slides are a little different. They thread into the bracket, but the caliper is what they slide on. So we'll take these, clean these up. Just take some brake parts cleaner. Wipe them down with a rag. I'm just going to put some of this anti-seize on here. This is a copper anti-seize. I don't like to use a lot of this, but just a little thin coat is good.
This will prevent the rotor from sticking to the hub, so the next time you do brakes it'll be easier to get it off. Then we'll take the rotor, slide it in position. Make sure this hole lines up with the threaded hole. So now I'm going to put this screw in. I just put a little anti-seize on the screw, because sometimes these get frozen in there. Now just take a ratchet and just snug this, not too tight. Sometimes it's a little easier to put the brake grease on the caliper bracket itself, instead of putting it on the brake pads.
So we'll just put a little brake grease right here and right here. Then we can slide the caliper bracket on over the rotor like that. Take the two bolts, get these started. Then I'll take a 16 millimeter socket and a ratchet. Start to tighten these up. Now I'm going to use a torque wrench. I'm going to torque these bolts to 49 foot pounds. Now I'm going to take the bungee cord off the caliper, slide that off. Then we want to compress this piston. I'm going to use this piston compressing tool. We actually sell this at 1AAuto.com.
Slide it in here, and then it ratchets. just go this way. As I ratchet this, this is pressing the piston back into the caliper, which is pushing brake fluid through the line, through the hoses up back to the master cylinder into the reservoir. Just do it slow. You don't want to do it too fast. Then I'll take the tool out reverse direction. Slide the tool out, and the caliper piston is back in there.
Take the brake pad, the one with this little bracket on it, is going to slide into the piston. Just push it on like that. This one we can take and just slide it onto the bracket there, and then take the whole caliper and just slide it in position. Now we're going to install the pins, the slide pins that hold the caliper on. I'm just going to use a little brake grease on these. These will just slide in here, right there, and right here. Then I'll take a seven millimeter hex bit, and get these started. Then I'll use a ratchet and snug these down.
Then I'm going to take a torque wrench and the same socket and torque these to 20 foot pounds. Then I can put these caps back on, right there and right there. Now I'm going to install this spring, just slide it in there, push it in and make sure it locks in right there, and it's in the right position. That's just going to keep the caliper in the right position prevent it from rattling. Install this onto the brake pad.
You can take some needle nose pliers to help you just slide this in position, with the brake pad, and push. It'll lock in place, and slide it over here where the bleeder retainer is. Push that back down. Now I'm going to take the wheel, slide it in position. Make sure the holes lined up, then hold the wheel. I'm going to take my 17 millimeter socket and the lug stud and get one started. Then I can grab the other ones. Now I'm going to use a 17 millimeter socket and a torque wrench and I'm going to torque these lug bolts in a star pattern to 95 foot pounds.
Go right around again, just make sure everything's tight. And you're good to go. After we do the brake job, we want to make sure we pump the brake pedal, because right now there's an air gap between the caliper piston and the brake pads. So we pump that, and that gets rid of that air gap. We want to check fluid level, and make sure that the fluid level is between the min and the max, preferably closer to the max. And ours is a little bit high, so we'll have to extract some of the fluid. So if it was low, you would have to add some. We're going to check the cap, and make sure you use the appropriate fluid. This is DOT4 only.
Thanks for watching. Visit 1AAuto.com for quality auto parts shipped to your door. The place for DIY auto repair. And if you enjoyed this video, please click the subscribe button.
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