When I first tried putting new brakes in my '12 Mazda5 (in 2018), I was all excited to be able to change rotors without having to unbolt the hub from the spindle like on my previous DDs. Little did I expect to find the rotor hats all fused to the hubs, so that I ended up despairing of getting them off and went out and bought new (used) spindle/hub assemblies. (And yes, they came off again 2-3 years later so I could have a machine shop press in new hubs and bearings for an irritating expense! Have anyone else's machine shops gotten lots more expensive?)
Yesterday I discovered the whir of death on one of my rear hubs, and ordered replacements that are supposed to be here in two more days. Today I had surprisingly good luck removing all 8 fairly rusty bolts retaining both rear hubs - except that now they're out, I've found that the hub flanges are fused to the trailing arms. I wailed on them a bit with a 32 oz ballpeen to no avail. I do have a couple of ideas for applying still more force (after soaking overnight in plenty of Liquid Wrench), such as hitting them with an even heavier hammer or bolting a very long piece of steel to the lugstuds and prying, but in light of my previous experience, I won't be astonished if I end up going out tomorrow and buying new (used) trailing arms.
Is this something other northern MZ5 owners have encountered? If so, how did you deal with it?
Oh, and how is that stupid ABS wire attached? I haven't gotten a very good look at them yet, but what I can see looks pretty different than other similar connectors I've encountered ....
Yesterday I discovered the whir of death on one of my rear hubs, and ordered replacements that are supposed to be here in two more days. Today I had surprisingly good luck removing all 8 fairly rusty bolts retaining both rear hubs - except that now they're out, I've found that the hub flanges are fused to the trailing arms. I wailed on them a bit with a 32 oz ballpeen to no avail. I do have a couple of ideas for applying still more force (after soaking overnight in plenty of Liquid Wrench), such as hitting them with an even heavier hammer or bolting a very long piece of steel to the lugstuds and prying, but in light of my previous experience, I won't be astonished if I end up going out tomorrow and buying new (used) trailing arms.
Is this something other northern MZ5 owners have encountered? If so, how did you deal with it?
Oh, and how is that stupid ABS wire attached? I haven't gotten a very good look at them yet, but what I can see looks pretty different than other similar connectors I've encountered ....