I must have contaminated the pads or rotors. There was that oily squeak going on. Thought I'd try the Ultra Sonic cleaner (pads and rotors). Might save me £12?
by Top_Island9380
I must have contaminated the pads or rotors. There was that oily squeak going on. Thought I'd try the Ultra Sonic cleaner (pads and rotors). Might save me £12?
by Top_Island9380
17 Comments
Probably not. You could soak them in brake cleaner or alcohol but now you’re just soaking them up with whatever cleaning liquid you’re using. New pads are cheap. Don’t waste your time
What kind of solvent did you use?
Blow torch not too light and not to hard and sanding paper afterwards worked for me a couple of times. But probably only if not soaked in oil.
No, it won’t.
Buy new pads, they are relatively inexpensive and Brakes are obviously safety critical.
In a pinch I have used some fine sand paper, a bit of Isopropyl, fire in that order and then repeated to bring my pads back to life after a long road trip on a towbar rack in crap weather. It worked but I then just chucked a spare set of pads in my tool box.
Pads are porous.
Easier to replace
Ive managed to save contaminated pads by soaking them in rubbing alcohol and then thoroughly torching them on my camping stove. They were only lightly contaminated tho so results may vary.
Even if it does work, I promise it will squeal like a pig. Probably won’t ever grab good again. And if you had the pads make contact with the discs, you will probably have problems with new pads as well. Also, squealing can be caused by a lot of things. Loose spring tension holding pads, slight angle hitting the disc, or even the quality.
Noooooope
Asking after you’ve already done it is top tier.
I have contaminated brake pads with oil several times (dont ask me how). I have always managed to save them by burning out the oil by heating the pads with heat gun or blowtorch. When the pads stop smoking, it is a sign, that all oil has burned and you have clean pads. At least, thats how it worked for me.
I’ve tried all the popular pad cleaning methods at some point or another. Just buying new ones is by far the best solution.
Nope
You can clean a rotor but pads will just grease up the rotors you just cleaned
I‘ve boiled mine in water before and worked fine afterwards.
Buy new pads and sand the disks with fine glass paper and clean with brake cleaner
I wouldn’t ride with those pads. Even if it does work, you may just have compromised the adhesive used to hold the braking compound onto the metal backing plate. Ultrasonic cleaning should strictly be used on non-organic materials, with only mechanical or welded fastening methods.
I just cleaned a contaminated set with carby cleaner by spraying them and cleaning with a paper towel (repeat until no more residue). I used carby cleaner because I didn’t have brake cleaner to hand, seems to have worked fine.
I see people saying brake pads are cheap. At $20, they’re not as cheap as a $3/can of solvent. Also less waste.