Contaminated pads

ali$tair
ali$tair Posts: 373
edited October 2010 in MTB workshop & tech
My rear brake (Elixir 5) was squealing horrendesly after me bleeding a couple of days prior, on closer inspection the rotor and pads were covered in fluid.

I'd seen a few posts about what to do, so bought some meth spirits and a sand paper block and got to work.

5 min's later I had the pads back in and was in the process of re-bedding them in, now they feel better than before.

Spent £4 in B+Q and can use many more times in future, better than £21.50 for new pads from LBS.

If any other relative newb's are have similar issues, it's a cheap and quick fix!!
Trek Fuel EX 8 (2010)

Comments

  • Northwind
    Northwind Posts: 14,675
    Yup. It won't always work but you can often recover pads. Fair enough a new pair is only about a fiver though so it's not always worthwhile, I hate throwing away servicable stuff so I've spent ages recovering pads that are 2/3ds worn out anyway, ie worth about a quid, which is idiotic :lol: 3M scotchbrite pads are useful too, you can buy them in tescos 3 for a pound, they're good at removing glaze from pads in my experience. Useful things to have in the car for really quick fixes.

    Some people swear by sticking them in the oven to bake out contaminants. But that sounds like it'll leave all those contaminants in my dinner instead :lol:
    Uncompromising extremist
  • El Capitano
    El Capitano Posts: 6,401
    I find that taking the pads out of the caliper, putting a blob of swarfega between them and rubbing them together works. (wipe them with a clean rag afterwards, before refitting).
    1 2 3 4 (Dead)5 6
  • gtd.
    gtd. Posts: 626
    I use a butane gas soldering iron as a blow torch and burn the dot 4 off, works well on a few different brands I've done it with
    Mountain: Orange Patriot FR, SubZero & Evo2LE.
    Road: Tifosi Race Custom.
    Do it all bike: Surly Disc Trucker 700c/29er
  • djrock
    djrock Posts: 66
    You have to be careful burning the oil off since it can make the friction surface come away from the backing.
  • gtd.
    gtd. Posts: 626
    Thankfully I've been lucky everytime Cleaned geunine Hayes and Superstar HFX 9 pads and Magura Julie pads this way.

    The flames from the DOT fluid burning off look pretty, green colours probabbly not good for you.

    If you do burn the fluid off the pads let them cool normally, DO NOT QUENCH IN WATER as the material is more likely to detach from the pad.
    Mountain: Orange Patriot FR, SubZero & Evo2LE.
    Road: Tifosi Race Custom.
    Do it all bike: Surly Disc Trucker 700c/29er

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