Mister Tee Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Okay, I replaced all my brake pads at 22,000 miles with Carbone Lorraine pads. Bike (08 12RT) presently has about 26,000 miles. The fronts are fine. The rear pads are GONE! Yes, the left side was credit card thin when I pulled the caliper off to inspect it! The right side had no noticeable wear. No time to order from Beemer Boneyard, so I did a road trip to the dealer for some overpriced OEM pads. Brake dust generation on the front wheel is minimal with these new pads. The rear goes almost solid black within 1,000 miles. I have had, in my opinion, excessive drag on the rear brake (noticeable binding) and the dealer insists it's completely normal. I'm not sure what to do. I freed up the pins that cause the caliper to float (mentioned in a couple other previous threads) but I don't think that's the problem. I think I have a sticking piston. I noticed that the front of the worn pad was thinner than the rear. Link to comment
smiller Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Yes, the left side was credit card thin when I pulled the caliper off to inspect it! The right side had no noticeable wear. It's not unusual to have one pad wear more than the other but if one pad is completely shot while the other is barely worn then something is clearly wrong. Check all the usual suspects (both sections of the caliper able to move freely, pads not binding in the caliper, pistons not sticking, etc.) Gotta be something along those lines. Link to comment
pokorskij Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Well, there are many factors involved, but your wear is not that much different than what I have experienced. First item is I commute about 70 miles per day in traffic, so a majority of my riding involves a lot of stops etc. Second, I caught my first set of rear pads, just as they were completely worn and I think they might have roughed up the rotor slightly. Which I believe causes the pads to wear faster when replaced. Third, the front has two sets of pads and rotors, while the rear has only the single rotor, and the size might be smaller. Not certain of that. And I realize that the fronts do 80% of the work, but. Fourth, I always use both the hand grip and the foot pedal for braking even though the brakes are integrated. I believe in being prepared if I switch bikes. Or at times and under certain conditions I do use only the rear brake. Fifth, I think the rear on my bike also has a constant slight drag, but the mechanic, who is excellent indicated that it is a normal amount or feel. Sixth, I suspect the linked brakes and proportioning on each bike might just be slightly different. I have changed my own pads, as well as have had the dealer do them. In fact, I just ordered two sets for the rear as I believe the rear needs to be changed soon. Total mileage 47,000, this will be the third set, so the average is just under 16,000 miles for the rears, and the fronts are still fine. Not an expert but just my thoughts, and I am certain the real experts on the site will set us straight. Link to comment
BanjoBoy Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Yes, the left side was credit card thin when I pulled the caliper off to inspect it! The right side had no noticeable wear. It's not unusual to have one pad wear more than the other but if one pad is completely shot while the other is barely worn then something is clearly wrong. Check all the usual suspects (both sections of the caliper able to move freely, pads not binding in the caliper, pistons not sticking, etc.) Gotta be something along those lines. Yeah, 4,000 mi out of a set of pads is the worst brake mileage I've ever heard. I bet your 750 track bike is getting better mileage! Like smiller, I'd make sure the pistons are moving freely. P.S. I would have just swapped sides, credit card thin one for the almost new one, and kept riding. That way you could get another 4,000 mi out of them! Good luck, Link to comment
CoarsegoldKid Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Tee, that is not normal wear for rear pads as far as I'm concerned. I suspect something is not allowing the pads to return. Something is either binding or the brake wizzardry has been malfunctioning. I have seen this on a friends "in warranty" K1200GT recently and the dealer is also perplexed. All they do is change pads and say they have never seen this before. Amazing. Link to comment
Mister Tee Posted June 14, 2009 Author Share Posted June 14, 2009 Well, I've verified freedom of movement of the float pins, but beyond that, I'm not really prepared to rebuild a caliper, or perform a rear brake bleeding operation that requires me to nearly totally dismantle my motorcycle. If I go through another set so fast, I'll just dump it off at the dealer again. Link to comment
pokorskij Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 Sorry my first response was made without realizing that you only got 4,000 miles on the rear pad. So the information in my first response is just my experience etc. Two other ideas come to mind. First is there any chance you are resting your foot on the brake pedal? New boots or riding position maybe. Second, could the pads themselves have been defective? Hope you find the source of the problem and keep the board informed. Link to comment
HexST Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 On the ST the thickness of the rear pads was different so they had to be installed a certain way or else excessive wear would result in one side. When I switched to EBC pads the rear pads were the same thickness. Link to comment
Mister Tee Posted June 15, 2009 Author Share Posted June 15, 2009 I don't think there is an option on the RT's rear brakes to reverse the sides, since there is a pin hole on one end of each shoe. I guess the fronts can be reversed. Anyway, (knock on wood) I'm thinking that a binding floater pin might have been the culprit, and that would be consistent with both one side excessively worn, and one end of the pad worn down more than the other end. So, I'll just have to see if that fixes the problem. Otherwise, it's a binding piston. I'm positive I'm not resting my foot on the brake lever. In fact, the only time I use the rear brake is when I need to hold the bike still on a hill. Link to comment
Mister Tee Posted June 21, 2009 Author Share Posted June 21, 2009 Okay, I've only had the opportunity to put a couple hundred miles on since I put the new rear brake pads in, but I am "cautiously optimistic" that I solved the problem by freeing up the floating caliper pins. The usual dust spatters after a 1-2 hundred mile ride weren't there. Knock on wood. Link to comment
Hall Vince Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 On the ST the thickness of the rear pads was different so they had to be installed a certain way or else excessive wear would result in one side. When I switched to EBC pads the rear pads were the same thickness. My rear OE pads had one pad worn more than the other side when I removed them at 24k. The EBC pads I replaced them with were different thickness from new. I assumed it was due to the floating design as one pad would touch for a fraction longer & earlier than the other on application? \v/ Link to comment
rglassma Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 I just brought this thread back because I just had a similar phenomenon. I replaced my rear brake pads at about 24K. The bike now has 32K on it and I found that the rear brakes were starting to eat into the rotors on the left side after only 8K miles... Fortunately, I was able to catch it in time. The rotor is only lightly scared on the left side. I replaced the pads. Turns out that the brake line from the rear M/C was twisted. Therefore, the fluid was not able to retract back into the res. when the brakes were released. So the pad must have been rubbing. I would check for a similar condition on your rears as well. Link to comment
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