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Had an interesting end to my day today. Left work as per usual and got to a small roundabout, brakes on and then all of a sudden a vibrating sensation. WTF was that? Pulled over and had a look at the calipers, seemed ok, got back on the bike an noticed a bit of what i first though was metal on the floor. toad thats not my brake disk surely? Nope it wasnt it was part of my brake pad, got my finger in the caliper and another bit fell out The friction material had come off the metal backing!!

I was so damn thankful it happened when it did because i was just about to head onto the slip road for the A14 to head home. All i could imagine was either the brake not working at a critical moment cos they would have just had the lever hitting the bar or some of that pad wedging in and looking the front wheel. Nursed it home on the back brake and didnt go above 50.

Anyways i got it sorted after travelling 90 miles round trip from here to Seastar Superbikes in Norwich (in gf car) and the rest was easy. For two sets of pads, new fluid and some cleaner (didnt really need it but did so anyway) all came to just over 50 quid!

Just as i got one problem fixed i found another tho, the left hand fork leg is leaking oil which is rather strange since i had the seals done last september

A few pics for your delight!

Feck that!

Good luck you caught that before it did you any misfortune, Rob.

those pads look pretty low anyways!!
ive seen it on cars a few times, seems to happen more on cheaper 'budget' brake pads rather than genuine sets but it does happen when the get low sometimes.glad it wasnt too expensive a fix and its all sorted

What pads were they? Complain, see if u get some free sets :p

they are what came with the disks when i bought them, i got those though a company called ABE in london and according to the paperwork when i got them i had to use those pads to keep the warranty or something or other.

The rest of the pads are quite low but this one in particular that came off is actually quite meaty, just over 4mm in fact and they have covered about 6k miles too, what i think has happened is that rust has made it way in between the material and backing and slowly peeled it off if you like.

Im not after getting a free set as ill probably end up with some that do the same, i also had a proper run in with them (long story) when i bought the disks as they sent me the wrong one for the rear which took 3 or 4 months for them to produce But in my experience they dont call you back and have some of the worst customer service skills ive ever seen, for the sake of 40 quid for some quality pads i really dont think its worth the hassle.

But i think your right, its just cheap pads. Replaced with carbone lorainne pads so none of this cheap toad.

Why is your Disc red in the second picture. ?

Are the calipers binding on & massivly overheating.

This could by why the material has come away from the plate.

The pistons look a long way out on one side of the caliper compaired to the other.

My rear disc used to look like that, my caliper needed an overhaul as it wasn't working to its best.
After some new seals, the wear on the disc was markedly more even.

It ain't supposed to do that - and it certainly shouldn't ever be able to let rust in and then peel off!

It looks like that caliper isn't working at it's best, but if it was going to heat up to that kind of failure level then it should be the low pads that did it - not the one with all the meat on.

I know what you mean, though - is it worth bothering with now it's sorted? You should, really, but it'll be a lot of hassle...

The disk isnt red, it reflecting the red of my tool box

And the reason the piston is out further is because when i was beside the road after it happened, i grabbed the front brake lever and of course it sank into the bar and pushed the pistons out. Just counting myself lucky i really am!

RedexRobB wrote:The disk isnt red, it reflecting the red of my tool box

And the reason the piston is out further is because when i was beside the road after it happened, i grabbed the front brake lever and of course it sank into the bar and pushed the pistons out. Just counting myself lucky i really am!

But....... the pistons that are out are on the side still with the brake pad on..

Surely the faulty side without pad would go out to compensate for the lack of material

Mad Phil wrote:But....... the pistons that are out are on the side still with the brake pad on..

Surely the faulty side without pad would go out to compensate for the lack of material

Thats because the pad has worn down. The pad will naturally come out of the caliper as the pad wears down.

And the side without the pads has come out, hence why you can see the shiny bit on one of the pistons.

funnly i had 100% the same problem with my 400 (friction pad fell off the metal). not sure what caused it and they were HH rated EBC so not overly cheap rubish.

Well i guess it just happens every now and then, we got the 1 in 1million chance of it happening i suppose.

erm then count me iin too happened with mine....it flew out at 90mph!!! not a good thing...

Do a search on visordown im sure many years ago i read a post about the ABE stuff there and the quality.

BTW, the same has happend on EBC brake pads too, it does happen every so often. Not heard of it happening so much on OE pads though.