Replacing front brake rotors

[NeilS]

After the snow flies, I'm planning to send my front wheel out to have a dent removed, and I was going to remove the brake rotors to reduce the chance that they'd get damaged in the process. Looking at the manual, BMW says to replace all the hardware that holds the rotor to the wheel whenever the rotor is replaced. That's almost $100 in hardware

The bolts are only torqued to 24 n-m, so it's not that they're highly stressed. And the bike hasn't been out in Bavarian winters for the past decade, so I doubt anything is too corroded to be re-used. I understand that you have to heat the bolts to release the Loctite, but it's only to 80 degrees C, and that's not enough to affect the metallurgy.

Has anyone done this, like maybe to have the wheels repainted? Is there any trick to it? Is it really necessary to replace all those parts? Or is it just BMW's legal department in CYA mode?

[Lost Rider]

I used a heat gun before I removed my front rotors, then cleaned the threads thoroughly before sending out my wheels for powder coating. I did not replace anything, just the threadlock to the cleaned hardware.
I'm not saying this is the best way, just how I did it with no problems.

[deilenberger]

BMW does seem to specify replacement of any of their hardware that has thread-locker on it from the factory. I usually just clean off the old stuff and use new Loctite Blue (medium strength.) Not that I'd tell anyone else to do that..