My rear brake stopped working and i thought the cable just needed to be tightened, but I looked closer and the entire disk is covered with oil, and the brake pad is completely drenched. I did not put oil or grease anywhere near my brake pad.
I'm obviously going to need to take my bike in and get my brake pad replaced, but does anybody know what caused this? I don't know a lot about bikes and I'm not an experienced mechanic or anything.
Note: it's an Aventon pace 500 ebike. And yes I know my bike needs to be cleaned. I live in Canada and the roads are currently covered in snow and salt.
by OdoAndRo
16 Comments
looking at the pattern, might be possible the brakes got too hot and boiled over and started leaking through the seals. does then brake lever feel off or too soft? its either that or you ran over a puddle contaminated with oil and it got all over your bike
I have these brakes, ive had the little bleed screw leak before, by what I believe was stripped threads—had to buy a new caliper
Also could be the part that clamps the hose to the thing
Well you cant tighten the cable cause there isn’t one. They are hydrualic brakes and the piston seals likely failed causing brake fluid to puke on to your pads and rotor
I would check if the calipers are leaking from damaged seals. If this is the case, there should also be air in the system.
Do you have any brake pad left? Without looking, my guess would be you’ve worn your brake pads completley down, the pistons have extended and leaked, and that’s why theres oil everywhere.
If you want to troubleshoot before taking the bike to a shop the first step is to clean everything thoroughly. When you say the rear brake stopped working does that mean the lever bottoms out against the handgrip, or that the pull feels normal but provides no stopping force?
because it has oil on it
Why pay for some one to swap pads? It’s not like changing brake pads on a car. They are plug and play; reset the calipers, give them and the rotors a clean with isopropyl alcohol, put new pads in.
Also saying “I’ve only had bike since August!” is meaningless. Brake pads are a consumable. The more they are used, the more they are used up.
It may not have come from the brakes, winter riding splashes all the oil and grease from the roads up at your bike
Id also suggest getting a large diameter disc rotor. Go from 160mm to 180mm front & rear. That will improve brake efficiency & cooling.
Its winter? Can be Oil on the road too
Cables aren’t tight enough yet, go tighter
Is that a generator hub, or internal gearing? If the hub has gearing, could oil be leaking from it?
You have a hydraulic brake. There is no cable to adjust or tighten. Instead there is hydraulic fluid inside the system to push the pistons. Sometimes that fluid can leak. Without knowing for sure where exactly it’s leaking from, you’ll likely need a new brake caliper. Should be around a $30 part if the shop is able to source just a caliper. For labor shops vary greatly but my shop would charge $40 labor for install and bleed.
I have the same brakes and got mine in June and have done about 4000+ miles with them and they only just need a bleed now id say it’s taken a hit or something has your shop got a repair shop?
One source of brake seal failure is water in the fluid causing corrosion inside the caliper. Or the outer boot letting salt etc. in form the outside. Differnt bicycle brakes use different fluids. Mineral oil lets th water colloct in the caliper. DOT fluid absorbs the water evenly because it’s alcohol based. But this is why I still run Avid BB7 cable brakes on my Ebike.