Oil on brake discs.

[Pale Rider]

Worth giving the pads a scuff to see if braking improves - it's not like trying to fix a broken light bulb.

Give the lad a nail file and he can beaver away at the pads without having to remove them.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Dont be twatting about with dishwashers, sandpaper and alcohol for a safety critical item!

 

[Globalti]

I used to get brake fluid on my Hope pads, which made them judder and squawk horribly. The dishwasher sorted them every time. At least try this and test the brakes yourself before splashing out on new pads.

 

[mrbikerboy73]

At least try this and test the brakes yourself before splashing out on new pads.

Splashing out maybe a tenner at the most? I feel that's money well spent on a critical life saving component. Would you put car brake pads in a dishwasher?

 

[screenman]

Some brake cleaner is worth having in the toolkit.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Blow torch on the pads will burn it off..you need to get tham very hot..
pads are porous so soak stuff up a treat..

id get new pads to be safe if it was my kid...but not the wife..insurance and all that..new bikes are exspensive

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Oh c'mon everybody. Stop treating this like a life-threatening situation. Surely anyone attempting to rescue the old pads will have enough sense to gently test them before bombing down some hill that ends square-on with a busy railway junction? Besides, if anyone actually tried this they'll discover that the only side-effect is noisy brakes, not no brakes.

 

[Profpointy]

Splashing out maybe a tenner at the most? I feel that's money well spent on a critical life saving component. Would you put car brake pads in a dishwasher?

whilst I see what you're getting, fixing a "safety critical" component is perfectly fine if done properly. You'd clean your rims and pads with meths as a matter of course on rim-braked bike surely so why are disc pads different? Or if you wouldn't clean the pads, why is it ok to clean rims - you'd not buy new wheels because they're dirty surely

 

[Globalti]

I certainly would put my brake pads in a dishwasher! What harm could it do? They would come out as clean as new. As Yellow Saddle writes, there's a sorry undercurrent of aversion to risk or even to experiment running through life nowadays. I blame the ambulance chasers and people's inability to make their own decisions.

 

[raleighnut]

Clean the discs with IPA or glass cleaner then hot water with detergent. Or the other way round if you like.

I'm not wasting good beer on brakes



make him buy new pads.

 

[Globalti]

Actually beer might be quite good for cleaning brakes.... ethanol to degrease and that pectin, which makes you want to go to the loo urgently the next day, would probably cook in the heat and make them more grabby....

*rushes off to inventing shed*

 

[screenman]

Why use anything other than brake cleaner?

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Why use anything other than brake cleaner?

Here we go again. Why favour a task-specific product over a general purpose solution. Aren't our homes and garages full of products meant to do only one thing and one thing only?
Target for crawling insects
Target for flying insects.
Kitchen Cleaner
Stainless steel surface cleaner
Glasstop stove cleaner
Stove cleaner
Bathroom Cleaner
Shower Cleaner
Ammoniated cleaner
Toilet cleaner
Bleach
Thick bleach
Thin bleach
Bleach for coloured items.
Carpet cleaner
Upholstery cleaner.
Leather cream.
Leather saddle cream
Eyeglass cleaner
Windscreen wash solution
Window cleaner
Keyboard cleaner
iPad wipes
Car shampoo
Dog shampoo
Bicycle shampoo
Engine cleaner
Chain cleaner
Brake cleaner
Engine cleaner
Kettle descaler
Coffee machine descaler.
Steam iron descaler

All this BS was invented to get my money. If you read the ingredients on the bottles of household cleaner you'll see they all contain the same stuff.

Don't even get me going on cosmetics - eye cream, wattle cream, hand cream, moisturizer for day, moisturizer for night, shampoo, shower gel, bath soap... And whilst I'm at it, will the moderator in charge please get rid of the auto spell correction thing on here with an American bias. I did NOT spell moisturizer with a Zee.

Screw this I say. The only cleaning products you need in the house is vinegar and toilet paper. The next chapter in my rant will be about all the different paint products they've forced me to buy and store in half-empty little tins.

 

[sidevalve]

Brakes work by turning kinetic energy [ you] into heat. The oil soaks into the pads and heat will bring it back to the surface even after loooong cleaning. A short test won't do it - only a long descent will generate the heat to bring the goop nicely back to the surface. Buy him a pair of new pads or book him into A&E to save time

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Brakes work by turning kinetic energy [ you] into heat. The oil soaks into the pads and heat will bring it back to the surface even after loooong cleaning. A short test won't do it - only a long descent will generate the heat to bring the goop nicely back to the surface. Buy him a pair of new pads or book him into A&E to save time

Aaah, the old "not now but later" delayed scare tactic. You have not tried this have you?