Fitted New Rotors and Pads, now there's weird wear marks! Is this normal?

[GFrog]

Has anyone experienced this? And is this normal for these disks and pads?

With only 5000 kms (3100 miles) on my Spyder I had to replace my rotors and pads due to significant vibration and pulsing when braking. It felt like there was a warped disk somewhere on the Spyder.

I replaced them with EBC Rotors (MD853) and EBC Pads (FA630HH) for the front.

The Calipers, disks, and pad were cleaned and particle free. The hub surface was cleaned and particle free when the disk was installed.

After 350 kms (215 miles) of smooth riding with no hard or prolonged braking, the front rotors are showing the same wear pattern on the inside and outside of both rotors.
There is no brake squealing, but now I can hear the pads rubbing against the rotors when driving slowly. I assume that this must be due to the copper content of the pads causing a sort of metal-on-metal sounds at very slow speeds.

I still have some warped disk symptoms happening by not as bad as before.

I have bought the EBC Rear Rotor (MD854) and EBC Pads (FA631HH). I plan on installing those this weekend.

So is this wear pattern and sound normal?

Thanks

 

[Dasmoetorhead]

Have you bedded them in yet? Might clear up after that?

 

[GFrog]

Have you bedded them in yet? Might clear up after that?

I basically followed the procedures printed on the back of the Rotor Sleeve below.



The EBC website only covers Racing applications of YellowStuff or BlueStuff brakes.

https://www.ebcbrakes.com/race-motorsport-articles/bedding-in/

 

[BertRemington]

There is no brake squealing, but now I can hear the pads rubbing against the rotors when driving slowly. I assume that this must be due to the copper content of the pads causing a sort of metal on metal sounds at very slow speeds.

I suspect your caliper pistons are not retracting properly. I suggest completely flushing the brake system, all three wheels at least twice using at least 16oz of name brand DOT4. The front wheels need to turn easily with just a light "swoosh" sound.

Failure to retract properly (it's just a matter of a few mm but it's very important) might be a master cylinder problem rather than a caliper piston problem. Make sure the brake linkage is adjusted properly and that the pedal is fully retracting. Some lubrication on the linkage may be needed, especially if your roads are salted.

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

I suspect your caliper pistons are not retracting properly. I suggest completely flushing the brake system, all three wheels at least twice using at least 16oz of name brand DOT4. The front wheels need to turn easily with just a light "swoosh" sound.

Failure to retract properly (it's just a matter of a few mm but it's very important) might be a master cylinder problem rather than a caliper piston problem. Make sure the brake linkage is adjusted properly and that the pedal is fully retracting. Some lubrication on the linkage may be needed, especially if your roads are salted.

:agree: ..... also if you still have the old rotors put them on a sheet of glass ... ( that's well supported ) ... and try and slide a piece of thin paper under it at various points .... this could identify any warpage .... Mike :thumbup:

 

[Peter Aawen]

I dunno, I reckon the noise described is likely to be the 'more noise' that all sintered & semi-sintered pads & brakes make to some degree, above that made by organic pads, and I don't think it's worth worrying about that noise at this stage, altho the comments above are good value IF it ever gets that far!! :lecturef_smilie:

I'm more inclined to go back to that bedding in thing - bedding in sintered/semi sintered pads is effectively wearing some pad material off the new pads and spreading it evenly around the surface of the disc. It takes longer to do this if the discs are new too! The procedure printed on the back of the Rotor Sleeve only tells you not to do any hard braking initially, and then goes on to say that "if you are not familiar with how to bed pads in, ask your local dealer to do this for you" - that brake pad bedding procedure is NOT JUST intermittent light braking, and JUST intermittent light braking for 200 miles - 300 km is very likely going to produce the wear marks like those seen on your discs, because there's not enough pad material worn off the pads/spread evenly onto & around the discs -
those discs simply look like new discs do when the DISCS/PADS STILL NEED TO BE BEDDED IN PROPERLY!! nojoke




I guess that if you've swapped the pads & discs yourself, your local dealer might not be too happy to be asked to bed the pads in properly, so here's an outline for you to do this yourself:

1. Find a clear stretch of reasonably straight road and without any traffic behind or around you to interfere with or object to you doing this (could be hard, but needs must! ) for sintered pads & new discs, perform 5 to 10 slow-downs, gradually applying moderate pedal pressure from roughly 30-40kph, but without coming to a stop. Don't lock up your brakes! Gradually apply your brakes, easing them on, then gradually increasing pedal pressure, only before you stop or the wheels lock up, release the pedal & ride/drive on for at least 50 metres or so.
2. Repeat this process 5-10 times. If you have a section of road with a reasonably long gentle descent, where you can repeat this 'gradual application then release' process a few times on the way down, so much the better; but you need to be able to coast long enough between applications to avoid over-heating your brakes, and it's also a very good idea to be sure that there's room at the bottom for you to roll on safely for a fair while if you do happen to run out of stopping power.
3. Once you've done these first 5-10 'gradual application then release' slow-downs, do an additional 3 to 5 slow-downs applying heavier pressure from a speed faster than before, only once again, do this without coming to a stop/locking the wheels up, and leave some time & distance between applications!!
4. All this done, give your brakes some time to cool down. Don't compress the pedal at all for a while. Let the heat from the pads & rotors dissipate into the air, not into your brake calipers.

Do all this and your brakes should be pretty well-bedded in, or at least well on their way toward bedding in - it can take a while to bed some pads in, especially sintered pads, as organic/resin pads wear faster and so need a different process as they will bed in faster than sintered pads.

I don't think I've forgotten anything (not yet, anyway! ) and I don't usually do anything much more than that list ^^ when I've changed pads/discs on someone else's vehicle; but I do recommend the owner does the following at their first opportunity, and I definitely do it when it's mine! After bedding in the brakes, I try to ride on 'normally' for a further 50-100 kms on some roads where gentle to moderate braking is required without any really heavy/hard braking or anything often enough to really over-heat the brakes, and then after about 10 km more of gentle 'brake cool-off' riding, I do/practice a few 'Emergency stops', just to make sure everything is truly working as it should, including the 'drop-down foot plate' on the 2010-2019 RT's and the Extreme Braking that enables. hyea:

Just Sayin' :thumbup:

 

[NorwegianRT]

I resently changed all my brakepads and for the first time I followed Peters instruction.
My brakes have never been better and the disks looks like the pads have full width contact :thumbup:

 

[CloverHillCrawler]

Find a clear stretch of reasonably straight road and without any traffic behind or around you to interfere with or object to you doing this!nojoke

:agree:No kidding on this one. I went out to bed in my brakes at 1:00 am after doing a late night session of wrenching. I was out on a back road that nobody was on with a long stretch with only a couple of houses on it.

Coming up on one of the houses I was hitting my brakes for the third time as soon as I hit the brakes a deer jumped out from behind a panel truck and right as I stopped my frunk went in between it's legs and stopped right before the windshield.

My wheels knocked it legs out from under it and it's head and antlers hit the left fender, broke it and bent the fender support arm. I had to bend it back by hand to get it home. Luckily the damage was limited to the fender and support.

I was able to order the parts and fix it myself for about $400 dollars and then get the wheels aligned.

 

[GFrog]

I dunno, I reckon the noise described is likely to be the 'more noise' that all sintered & semi-sintered pads & brakes make to some degree, above that made by organic pads, and I don't think it's worth worrying about that noise at this stage, altho the comments above are good value IF it ever gets that far!! :lecturef_smilie:

I'm more inclined to go back to that bedding in thing - bedding in sintered/semi sintered pads is effectively wearing some pad material off the new pads and spreading it evenly around the surface of the disc. DISCS/PADS STILL NEED TO BE BEDDED IN PROPERLY!! nojoke .....

Thank you Peter and all.

It was just really interesting to see that all marks on both sides of the rotors were nearly unidentical. Like looking at 4 acoustic grams of the same class submarine but with each sub having slightly different mods.

In any case, as soon as I install the rear disk and pads, I'll carry-out your suggested bedding procedure.

I'll update the post with my results.

Thank you all again! :2thumbs:

 

[Peter Aawen]

Thank you Peter and all.

It was just really interesting to see that all marks on both sides of the rotors were nearly unidentical. Like looking at 4 acoustic grams of the same class submarine but with each sub having slightly different mods.

In any case, as soon as I install the rear disk and pads, I'll carry-out your suggested bedding procedure.

I'll update the post with my results.

Thank you all again! :2thumbs:

The 'similar but different' pattern is likely due to slight variations in the sintering material distribution in the pad material itself, and how that matches/conforms to the disc surface as the initial wearing process/bedding in occurs; and it's a big part of the reason behind the NEED for bedding in - because there ARE variations, so you need to wear some pad material off in order to match/mate the surfaces exactly!

Get that bedding in done, so that as much of the disc surface as possible is actually in contact with pad surface under brakes, cos all the tiny ridges, peaks, & troughs in the disc machining that we can't see or feel are now reflected in the surface of the pad and the wear patterns will start to iron out, but right now, your pads are only touching the high spots! :lecturef_smilie:

That said, even if you're planning on doing the rear brakes tonight, if you're gonna be riding at all before you get that done, there's nothing to stop you doing the bedding in process for the front's NOW, then repeating it once you've done the rears - it's not going to hurt anything by repeating it; there's not going to be any appreciable 'extra' wear occurring; and there's a whole lot of very good reasons for getting your front brakes working properly as soon as you can after changing the pads & discs, cos until you do the bedding in, your brakes simply aren't going to be working as well as they can!! :yikes:

Ideally, the bedding in process is the very last & quite essential step of any brake pad &/or disc change job!! You really shouldn't ride the bike too far or hard at all until it's done! :thumbup:

Just Sayin'

 

[BertRemington]

So I grabbed my jack and lifted a front wheel. Spun it slow and fast. Just the softest whisper of a swoosh. Grabbed the wheel and pulled hard. Easily made a full turn before it stopped. My rotor surfaces look better than yours and they have 95K miles on them.

 

[PMK]

Hopefully, the original person posting finds what he desires in his brakes.

I merely wanted to make mention that there are two distinctly different bedding in procedures, often interchanged freely, but should not be.

For metal type brake pads, yes, several hard braking events are typically needed to transfer pad material onto the disc, optimizing the brakes performance.

In regards to non metal organic type pads, including organics with the semi metallic title, accomplishing hard stops to bedin the brakes is incorrect, and can cause decreased performance, andmore.

Organic type brakes require several low heat cycles to fully cure the organic materials.

Fully understand that most folks do run full metallic brake pads, however organics can still be found, often at an apparent bargain price.
Know what you buy, and correctly bed them in.