What's wrong with my brakes?

Jez_heaton
Jez_heaton Posts: 28
edited June 2007 in MTB workshop & tech
I've not been on my bike (Giant XTC3) for six months due to a knee problem then illness, so it's been stood in the garage.

Now I'm fit again, I have taken up running and want to get back out on my bike but it won't move. It's like the pads have stuck to the discs! The brakes are Giant MPH hydraulics which were quite good apart from a bit of squealing.

I cannot physically free them no matter how hard I try. How do I fix it, and how do I stop it happening again?

Cheers!

Comments

  • nicklouse
    nicklouse Posts: 50,675
    back off the adjuster.

    nick
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  • Snapper
    Snapper Posts: 112
    You have probably had your brakes over tightened. As shown in the instructions you must not adjust up your brakes so there is no or very little movement on the leaver till they bite. The brake system is closed and there is no way of it expelling any extra pressure.

    If you are lucky to fit it you just back off the adjusters as already said. I would recommend a bleed though as well if its sat for that long.

    If your not so luck and there stuck or just spin you will have to dismantle the leaver and unlock the adjuster. If this is so you have to;
    - unscrew the top bleed screw.
    - use something like a C clip remover to poke in the two screws to undo the adjuster
    - stand back as all the brake fluid falls out
    - grip the silver internal part carefully without damaging any of the rubber parts
    - use your C clip remover or whatever you used to stick the adjuster
    - lightly wined the adjuster back up
    - then reassemble (you have to force anything at this point stop as you have done something wrong)
    - then do a full system bleed

    Or take it to your nearest giant dealer.
  • Jez_heaton
    Jez_heaton Posts: 28
    Giant dealer it is then, since I already backed off the adjusters until they were nearly falling out, and the second reply, although much appreciated, may as well have been written in Serbo-Croat for all the sense I can make of it!!
  • nicklouse
    nicklouse Posts: 50,675
    ok so the adjusters are backed off.

    i would now be trying to free the pads.

    remove the wheel. then see if you can push the pads/pistons in.

    nick
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  • Jez_heaton
    Jez_heaton Posts: 28
    That was the problem - the pads were stuck to the disc, so I couldn't move the wheel at all! The thought of having to pay to get it fixed though was enough to inspire superhuman strength in me!

    I undid the skewers and stood on the bars with the bike upside down and pulled and pulled and twisted until the front came free. This gave me the nerve to try the rear which was harder but it is now free.

    With the wheels off there is more adjustment in the levers, so I could back the pads off a little more and now am mobile again, albeit with more lever travel than before!

    Thanks for the replies, but the question now is why/how did the fluid expand and how can I stop this from reoccuring? (I know, that's 2 questions).
  • nicklouse
    nicklouse Posts: 50,675
    dont put it away in the cold with the pads ajusted right up. as in the summer the fluid will have expanded.

    nick
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  • Jez_heaton
    Jez_heaton Posts: 28
    Gotcha! Cheers.

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