Are my pads contaminated?

Cannon71

Hi guys.

I'm sorry to say that my pride & joy was replaced by a road bike for 12mths or so. :oops: But now I've seen the light and I'm back in the baggies...

Anyway, my front brakes are pretty poor. I've bled them (and there's plenty of resistance when priming) so it's not 'air in the system' and I've used about half a can of disc cleaner all over the disc, caliper and pads, but they're still not stopping the bike as well as they used to.

So, are my pads contaminated? How else do I test for this? Could it be something else?

Basically, I don't want to have to buy new pads (Shimano XT system, Shimano XT pads) to find that's not the problem, or worse, contaminate the new pads.

Any suggestions?

1mancity2

Take the front wheel out and clean the disc with isoproyal, take your front pads out clean caliper and examine for leaks,

if all ok but your rear pads in the front and test, if all is well, front pads knacked.

Cannon71

1mancity2 wrote:

Take the front wheel out and clean the disc with isoproyal, take your front pads out clean caliper and examine for leaks...

Done, done, done and done.

1mancity2 wrote:

if all ok but your rear pads in the front and test, if all is well, front pads knacked.

Hmm. Good idea. I wanted to ask in case anyone had any other ideas as to where the problem lay. If I put my rear pads in the front, I was afraid that I'd ruin those too.

Still, might be able to find a bulk deal for 2 set of pads, eh!

Cheers 1mancity2.

.blitz

You could always lightly sand your existing pads, or even better go for a dirty ride in the rain it will soon remove any contamination

Sintered pads are only £7 from Superstar.

BTW some Shimano brakes have a rep for leaking miniscule amounts of brake fluid past the piston seals, esp when they've stood for a while. Might be worth checking.

add595

+1 for sanding the pads.

I use a small piece of glass (near enough perfectly flat) and some fine wet-and-dry sandpaper for doing this.

1mancity2

Cannon71 wrote:

Still, might be able to find a bulk deal for 2 set of pads, eh!

Have a look on superstarcomponents.co.uk

Cannon71

I used superstar on my old Commencal (Formula Oro brakes) and wiped out an entire set in one descent, so I'm not a big fan of them!

Mojo_666

I found the stock Shimano pads (organic?) were next to useless so switched to superstar pads........and I get 4 sets of carbon pads for only £5 more than a single set of Shimano...or there about....and I have yet to wipe out a set in 1 ride.

1mancity2

Mojo_666 wrote:

I found the stock Shimano pads (organic?) were next to useless so switched to superstar pads........and I get 4 sets of carbon pads for only £5 more than a single set of Shimano...or there about....and I have yet to wipe out a set in 1 ride.

I use the same and they last ages.