Hi. New member, long time lurker, first post I thought this was worth registering for since it is such an issue:
Anyway, I had this issue 2 weeks ago and was very upset after 3 hours of rutheless banging on the rotor and an internet search that produced the fact that this is a common problem with the Expy. Worse part is no one had a real good solution.
Like I said I was pounding for a good 3 hours before I initally gave up. Actually I had to go buy a bigger sledge cause the 5 pounder didnt seem to be enough so I upgraded to the 8 pounder. Still no luck. I have never beat on a car part harder in my life. What I did was took a cutting wheel that was attached to an air grinder and cut a groove across the hat of the rotor. Pretty deep but not deep enough to cut into the hub. I cut a straight line across the hat on the outside of 2 adjacent lug studs. After that was done 2 or 3 taps with the small sledge knocked them off.
I was skeptical at first if this had any impact, so when I went to the other side to replace that one I gave it about a dozen hard hits and realized it wasnt coming off either. I actually cut 2 lines on this side and after 1 good hit the rotor fell off. I also used a lot of PB blaster, making sure to squirt a generous amount on each stud in hopes that it would penetrage down in the center where the rotor meets the hub.
My thought is that by cutting the groove(s), it allowed the rotor to flex just enough when it was hit with the sledge to break the rust seal that had been created. Hope this helps. Good luck I know it is a PITA.
