Bicycle Maintenance: How To De-Contaminate Disc Brake Pads
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- Heat is used to de-contaminate mountain bike disc brakes. In some cases, contaminates such as oil or lube may leech deep into the pads to where you can't just sand it off. In this case, heat may be applied to "cook" the pads and boil out the contaminates, restoring the pads and averting an unneeded purchase of new pads. Simple bicycle maintenance!
Subscribe and visit me here: grokshop.tv
Disc Brake Quiet: geni.us/eYeGtji
Shimano Pads: geni.us/IAAy
Find it on Amazon:
www.amazon.com...
Music:
Special THANK YOU to my friends at Epidemic Sound!
player.epidemi...
#grokshop
#thegrokshop
#mountainbike
#bicyclemaintenance
#discbrakes
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites
Hello, the trick worked!
I accidentally soaked my brakes with WD40, then I realized the brakes were gone when I used the bike, they were squeaking loudly and basically useless at braking.
Someone told me that boiling the brakes can bring them back to life, so I boiled them then heated them until they became red.
Left them to cool down for a few minutes (no water was used), then used sand paper and removed a good layer.
Now they are working perfectly fine, the braking power is strong. No squeaky sounds.
I did all of this instead of buying new ones because I didn't want to wait for an order, the brakes were also new, with plenty of material left, so this fix was Worth it.
Baking my pads at 300 F, then doing a light sanding fix my pads.
While bleeding my brakes I managed to get mineral oil on my pads pretty bad. They were very loud and didn't have the stopping force they should. The lesson I learned, always remove your wheel and pads before bleeding, it'll save time in the long run.
I do it every time
Did the oven stink?
I torched my pads until the smoke stopped, only about a minute. Work great now. Thanks.
Thanks this is the best brake advice I ever got. I just saved several sets of old pads doing this.
excellent video, love that its not 10 minutes long, thanks.
It worked! Thanks man, i drove around for quite a while and now its fixed!
No problem 👍
Working perfectly! only I placed them in my BBQ , removed them once the smoking stopped, sanded and finished off with isopropyl. brilliant!
Thanks for the invaluable tip! Wasn't sure how I was gonna deep clean my pads since I touched them with my greasy n oily gloves while servicing my bike. Great vid! Subscribed! 🤙🤙🤙
thank you so much ! wierd stuff started boiling out of mine and now they work perfect again
Its most likely the 'contaminates' e.g mineral oil, dirt, oil
Just did this to my mom’s howling breaks and now there silent. Thank you
Thanks for this, worked like a charm!
Omg i didn't expect that it will actually work thank you so much im just planning to buy new brake pads thankfully i find this video first thank you so much
So I did all - sanded down and wiping with brake cleaner both the pads and the rotors. I also cooked the pads in 250 °C for 30 min. in the oven. Stinked up whole apartment but thabkfully the stench faded away fairly quickly, including from the oven. None of this helped. What did help, but to an extent was submerging the pads in brake cleaner and leaving them to soak up overnight. Then I sanded them again and wiped off. They got stronger, but not as strong as the uncontaminated pair. I've also seen people soaking them with vinegar, but never tried it. Still I will give it a try with a blowtorch.
on what types of pads this works? Even resin types and organic ones?
This trick works everytime. Cheers.
I just cooked mine in the oven at 250C the apartment smells pretty damn bad, but I had to cook them til they stopped smoking, hopefully they work now...
Lubed my chain and got some in the pads. Did this hoping it works
me too :)
can we try this on resin pads?
Just what I was looking for. Thank you for the excellent tips!
Buying new pads first but going to give this a go.
Well my own method of soaking the pasta in alcohol for an hour then removing and setting fire to remove alcohol and finally the all important sanding 😉
Soaking pads in alcohol dries out the resin and results in the pads deteriorating soon after.
Hi! Thanks for this video. I wanna try this. What kind of blow torch can I use? Obviously I don't wanna get any heavy duty one, because this is the only reason I'll need it for and if I have to spend way more money for a fancy blow torch, I might as well just buy new pads, right? Do you think I can use a kitchen blow torch that's used for certain cooking recipes?
Or otherwise I could try going the pads in a toaster oven as you mentioned!?
I would really appreciate your feedback. Thanks.
🙏🌷
It works!
Would it work with a lighter?
Yeah it does but the pad turns black from the soot so u gotta sand it for a bit
hi.
By coincidence i also bought the disc brake quite apray you showed .
Where do you recommend to use this product? Directly on the pads?
At first i thoughr was a diac brake cleaner but immediately i saw the blue layer it left so i didnt use it anymore
Do you use 320 sand paper?
I tried that the middle part is just metal 😐
Will this technique work for the disc rotors too?
Interesting question. Seems logical that it would. I guess the rotors don't absorb contaminants as much as the pads, so for me - sanding the rotors seemed to do the trick there.
Don't heat the rotors you'll warp them
@@dabooge Makes sense. I torched the pads, cleaned with alcohol, lightly sanded and cleaned again with alcohol. Did the same for the rotors but did NOT torch. Brakes work great now.
Is it possible for these brake pads to crack from excessive heat?
I dont know about cracking but i just tried this and it bent the backing plate so now are ruined forever i dont recommend this method
I've done this a few times over the years with no issues. I am careful not to go too crazy with the heat though
Would heat gun work?
Hmmm... interesting question. Well it depends on the max temp you can reach. So like what is happening is you're basically boiling the contaminants out. These are usually things like oil and grease which tend to have high boiling or "fractional distillation" temps. Let us know if you try!
what grade sandpaper u suggest.
100-220
I just hit it with some bleach and then pressure wash the pads directly. Seems to work for me so far.
I have plenty of torches in my house.
My stove has four of em!
what!!!
Who needs baked 🍕
When u can have baked pads🤣
Throw mine in the oven 👌
Yeah never ever ever ever do this... you will simply destroy your pads... they will cool down then break off from the pad itself.
Lol 🤦♂️
You don't need to disassemble your entire bike, just get acetone or lighter fluid , push a cotton swab against the pads to douse it with your flammable liquid and light it up. I just did that and it worked perfectly, no more squeaking and the brakes lock like they used to.
Ya I don't think so.
@cosmicheretic8129 it worked for me, that's why I commented it.