Thursday, June 19, 2008

New Front Brake Pads for Brigitta

I'd noticed the left side caliper brake pads on the front of Brigitta seemed way low, not as bad on the right side calipers but had decided to replace them anyways since it looked like the left side pads needed replacing.

I finally got around to the dealer today and picked up two sets of pads, not too bad, under $37 each pair. Could have gotten third party ones, from ATE I think, but they only had one pair and I needed two. Oh well, next time I probably will buy online ahead of time.

It's a good thing I decided to replace the pads, the ones on the left were worn down to less than 1mm at the thinnest point, with the thickness of the abrasion material at 1mm (barely) at the thickest point! The right side, as I had figured, were at just over 3mm and well within spec. I'll keep those as spares I guess.

I forgot to shoot the "before" shot of the left side calipers dang it, but here's the "after" shot for the left side brakes.

Above, left caliper, before the change the metal plates on the old pads pointed to by the black arrows were almost touching the retaining spring, pointed at by the red arrow! You can see that the new pads are well away from the retaining spring now.

Right Side, Before

Right Side, After


Pretty easy job, did not take me more than 30 minutes tops. The last retaining pin went in a bit harder than the other three, but it looks ok and well seated.

I noticed while compressing the pistons back into the caliper in preparation for the new pads, that the fluid level in the brake fluid reservoir kept climbing. It had been at the midpoint before the work, now its at the bottom of the cap. Something to keep when you do work on your brakes.

I put the brake covers back on, tested the brakes manually, got geared up and went for a short ride. Brakes work just fine. I realized on my return that its probably a good idea to not do the front AND the rear brakes at same time, this to ensure you've got at least one set of known good working brakes before riding to test the new set! : )

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