Brake problems????

[FatDog]

Well I finally got the dog out the other day for a walk and I noticed some kind of small greasy splatters on the front wheel and on lower front of the bike. Also my front rotor had some greasy dark film all over it and the more I drove, the front brake started going away. Got home and starting wiping it off and looking a little closer and it looks like it's coming from the front brake caliper.

So I took it off, pulled the pads out and discover all kinds of goopy, greasy shit and some road grime in by the caliper pistons and the pads were covered in black shit. So I cleaned the the caliper, pads and rotor really good and then checked the caliper itself over. Everything seemd to be working okay on it, so then I checked reservoir. The reservior was only down a tiny tiny bit, so I topped that off and buttoned everything back up and took it for ride.

Went on about an 80 mile ride as I went the front brake seemed to fade a little but not as bad as the first time. As I was riding, I kept track of it and no more splattering but the rotor got a dark film on it once again. When I got home I pulled the caliper and removed the pads to find the inside of the caliper with barely anything inside. The pads had a light film on them and the rotor was of course black.

Well, one more time I cleaned everything up really good and put it back together and took it for a 5 mile ride. Once I got back, the rotor had that black film back on it again.

So I guessing I have a caliper piston seal going???? Anyone else have any other ideas???

It's a 2006 with 1900 miles, has anyone else had similiar issues???

 

[Raywood]

No problems with any of my PM calipers over the last 20 years. Maybe you got some grit or something in an o-ring on one of the pucks. The PM calipers are pretty bullet proof!
Hope you get it fixed.

Later,
Ray

 

[FatDog]

Definatley narrowed down to the brake caliper. Spoke with Big Dog direct and they said they had a run of front calipers a while back that had leak problems. They said it probably is one of the piston seals or the caliper housing itself may be machined wrong.

I'm thinking it's a seal, I got the bike new last year and put about 1700 miles on it without any problems. It's going in next tuesday, so we'll wait and see I guess.

 

[LDO]

FD,
I had a very similar problem and ended up buying a rebuild kit from a local shop for like 14 bucks. I had 13,000 miles on my bike and like Ray said, those PM calipers are really quality stuff.

Cleaned everything really good, dipped the seals in Dot 5 and put everything back together and torqued per spec. Bled the front brake really good by tapping the lever fast while watching the bubbles in the master cylinder. Took a while to bleed it but the lever is hard and I've got good feel in it going down the road. Rebuild kit comes with all the seals you need. Cleans up good with simple green or brake parts cleaner.

Good luck.