I have an '01 Elantra with 33,000 miles. I struggled all day today
with my first brake job on this car. I couldn't for the life of me
get the front rotors off. The calipers came off fine, but not the
rotors. Has anybody done a brake job on these yet? I was wondering
if the axle nut needs to come off for the rotor to come off. Thanks.

If it's anything like the 98's it may be easier to have the rotors turned on the car. I spent a full weekend changing brakes on my 98 and had to have a puller. If I had known how much trouble it was going to be I would have taken it in to have the rotors turned while on the car. :angryfire

the rotors should pop right off. make sure you take the caliper off, then just bang the SOBs off.

Yup just get a nice strong rubber mallet and whack away man, whack away.

Well a little late but anyone else looking u can pound and wack away all day on them but after you remove the 2 screws they used to hold rotor on to spindle you will notice the rotor is threaded in them holes and the threaded holes behind them are smaller thus all you need to do to make it a lot easier is get the right size metric bolts and thread them into the rotor and it will pop the rotor off a whole lot easier and faster then trying to beat them off all day.

yeah, that will work, but if you live anywhere where they salt the roads, those screws are almost impossible to get out without stripping.

yeah, that will work, but if you live anywhere where they salt the roads, those screws are almost impossible to get out without stripping.
Well if your afraid they will strip then use an impact screwdriver with the right size tip and if they do strip use an extractor

I have an '01 Elantra with 33,000 miles. I struggled all day today
with my first brake job on this car. I couldn't for the life of me
get the front rotors off. The calipers came off fine, but not the
rotors. Has anybody done a brake job on these yet? I was wondering
if the axle nut needs to come off for the rotor to come off. Thanks.

I have 01 Elantra. Had replaced the front brake pads when it had 60K miles. The rotors looked fine so I did not turn the rotors. Just wondering about turning the rotor every time you replace the pads, is it something recommended regardless of the condition of the rotors?

Wajangchang

I have 01 Elantra. Had replaced the front brake pads when it had 60K miles. The rotors looked fine so I did not turn the rotors. Just wondering about turning the rotor every time you replace the pads, is it something recommended regardless of the condition of the rotors?

Wajangchang
I would not turn rotors. You are prematurely wearing them out and will have to replace them sooner. If the surfaces are damaged I would just replace them. They do not cost that much money and there is less labor involved than turning them.

In my younger day I had several sets turned and within 3-4 months ended up getting new ones because the chatter returned. Save the money and apply it to the new ones.

Well a little late but anyone else looking u can pound and wack away all day on them but after you remove the 2 screws they used to hold rotor on to spindle you will notice the rotor is threaded in them holes and the threaded holes behind them are smaller thus all you need to do to make it a lot easier is get the right size metric bolts and thread them into the rotor and it will pop the rotor off a whole lot easier and faster then trying to beat them off all day.

Any idea what size bolt you will need?