Brembo rear pad failure

[onelogue]

I have had the "hidden brembo caliper" mod for about 3k miles. Bought the caliper for cheap off ebay and i knew that the pads were cheap but not this bad. Went for a ride yesterday with about half pad life left prior to the ride.
Anyways at one point i hit about 130 mph and got on the brakes really hard. The rear brake completely heated up and lost a good amount of braking power. When i got home i surprised by what i saw....
Pads are toast. Never seen a pad wear so uneven. The front of the pad is down to the metal. So now ill be looking for higher quality pads.
Moral: avoid these pads if you do any fast riding (track/canyon).

 

[Jobe Zeebuh]

wow! I knew that already. So you wasted $$$ bro

 

[onelogue]

Well i got the caliper which is what i wanted, but i should have upgraded the pads immediately. If I had a girl on the back with more weight, this kind of break fade could have be scary.

 

[vanson1200r]

You dont ride the rear brake do you with out knowing it? I have seen some people who ride "duckfooted" rest there foot on the lever and not even know it. Maybe that caliper bracket is not square?

 

[anrkizm95]

you could have a problem other than cheap pads.

 

[onelogue]

You dont ride the rear brake do you with out knowing it?

Definitely not! I ride on my toes.

you could have a problem other than cheap pads.

Like what [confused] Its a dual piston brake with both sides reacting the same. I check my pads everytime i wash my bike and have never seen the pads wearing unevenly. Just this one time from slamming on the brakes.

 

[anrkizm95]

to me it looks like the top of the outer pad is wore more than the top of the inner and the bottom of both less than the tops maybe it just the pic

 

[onelogue]

You are right. I honestly think its the pads because when i first installed the caliper the pads were rubbing evenly. But idk maybe the outer piston is pushing harder. When i get new pads ill pay even more close attention to signs of uneven wear from the beginning.

 

[anrkizm95]

you might be getting some flex under heavy braking.

 

[onelogue]

Most likely. I was on the brakes HARD!!!

Anyone have options for better pads?

 

[anrkizm95]

i use the ebc-hh,i get on the brakes hard a lot they have held up great no fade at high speeds.had to lay on the brakes hard at around top speed because of some deer and had no problems

 

[onelogue]

i use the ebc-hh

You have a link?

 

[anrkizm95]

ebc brakes also available at asb

 

[crxtasy169]

If the pads is wearing uneven then more than likely you needs to rebuild the calipet with new seals and use a scotchbritepad to clean the pistons. Clean all parts until they are %100 percent clean and put everything back together. Ueven pad wear is caused by sticking pistons that don't push out evenly. As a result the pads are wearing on the corners and you get what you have here! Rebuild kits are usually cheap enough. Good luck.

 

[anrkizm95]

also bracket deflection,excessive runout ie wheel bearings,rotor i would say you have a deflection problem.since the upper part of the pads wich contacts the rotor first in the direction of rotation is wearing faster.imo,i would run another set of pads and check the wear pattern before doing anything else.

 

[onelogue]

crxtasy169, i just took it apart and everything looks really clean. hard for me to believe the caliper having flaw when its pretty much new. But who knows.

Wheel bearings are good and rotor is in great shape.
I understand that the outer part of the pads would rub the most but whole front of the pads wore the fastest.

 

[anrkizm95]

i wouldnt worry to much unless it does it again.clean the slides good and grease with brake grease.clean the rotor good.you wouldnt see the runout with your eyes.

 

[crxtasy169]

Since it was used the person who used it before you may also have had a warped rotor or other alignment issues. If it looks clean and all the seals look good your pistons don't have any discoloration your probably ok then. Just put some new pads in and you should be ok.

 

[onelogue]

Ok after further examination, the piston was coming out at an angle. cause it started to again after i pressed the piston all the way back in and hit the brakes.

I didn't take it completely apart, just cleaned the parts that were visible but ill tear in down now and spray everything with brake cleaner.

Thanks for the input guys. I guess the new moral is that the pads just have a bad life span, and the caliper my lay pressure unevenly.

 

[crxtasy169]

just pull the pistons out and clean them with a scotchbrite pad. Here is a quick way to get them out if you can't pull them out with some snap ring pliers:
1 pull the pads out
2 put a small shim of wood in between the caliper pistons
3 take the bleeder screw out
4 use a small nozzle with compressed air and stick it in the bleeder hole and let it rip they should both pop out hitting the wood (don't do this w/o a shim you can get hurt or damage parts) so you can clean them and the seals easily
5 put back together bleed and test you should be good