lovegroova

I took the car out of hibernation at the weekend, and the ns front disc was bound.

Got it free and went for a drive including some heavy braking to try to clean it up but have noticed it juddering at lower speeds and it was a fair bit hotter than the other wheels.

I'm going to have a look tomorrow, so any tips for how to clean it up (assuming it's deposits on the disc) would be most welcome.

I'll give the calliper piston and sliders a good clean up, too. Speaking of which, is there a good way to get the piston out all the way for a good clean up without pushing it out too far?

Thanks all.

Irish TuneR

Unbolt caliper and pop small bit of wood/metal in where pads go along with one pad, pump pedal. Angle grinder with wire brush attachment will clean small stuff but a sanding pad for bigger. Might have to take the disk off to get at the inside.

Nottm_S2

Depends how bad it is, I have used wire wool to remove surface rust but pad deposits are probably too hard for that. If the caliper is working ok it should resolve itself over a bit of use so another b road blast once you have solved the problem would be my approach
otherwise take it off and get it gently skimmed

lovegroova

Thanks both

I don't own an angle grinder - could I use some sort of drill attachment for a similar effect?

engifineer

I have never needed to use any tool to clean a brake disc nor actually heard of anyone needing to. Driving should take care of any mile corrosion from a winter sitting.

trails

If its warped it's new disk time

Binding callipers will transfer a decent amount of heat to the wheel so you can compare the temp of the wheels by touch after a short drive to confirm if it's binding or not. The greater the heat difference the worse the binding.

This kind of thing will be fine on a drill...remember your eye protection as these blighters do tend to fire out horrid bits of metal

lovegroova

I don't think it's warped as it hasn't moved since November, and the disk was pretty rusty. I'm planning to take a proper look tomorrow (I give the calipers a once over each year anyway) and see what's what.

The same caliper was a little sticky at the same time last year. Fortunately, I have a full set of refurbed spares sitting around.

trails

Swap it out if you have spares; I had a sticky rear and tried everything...freed up for a while and then started binding again. Most frustrating!

engifineer

yeah you do need to address the caliper if binding. If it has caused the rotor to get out of parallel then you would want to replace it. I dont like machining them personally with the relatively low price of rotors these days and tend to just replace in many cases. Pull the brake off, grease the slide pins, see if they still try to bind. Make sure the pistons push back in properly and are not bound up.

But if it is pulsing it could be build up of corrosion around where the pad was touching the caliper all winter, so I would make sure the caliper is freed up and drive it around for a while to get some of it cleaned up and then do a couple of fast stops like you are bedding in pads to clean it up. See how they look and feel after that.

lovegroova

I expect it's the latter, and I'll do my usual checks of the piston and pins. I've done a good few fast stops already and that hasn't sorted it.

Worst case is to get everything swapped, but I have spares from the "track day days" to keep me going for the time being.

I've been through quite a few calipers in the past (mostly rear ones) so an annual clean up and service is something more people should do to make them last longer.

I'll report back.