Re: [ST] Re: Brake Fix (Long)

["Philip Las Gourgues" <philip.l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I must admit I'm a bit dubious about the theory that the hard
squeezing/pumping the pads in and out is reseting the seals at the caliper.
My theory is that there are small bubbles of air being introduced to the
system at the lever. Remember how the '99 ST's with the different resivour
mounting position didn't have the problem to the same extent? When you pump
the lever or remove the caliper and push the pads in and out it purges the
air and returns the solid feel at the lever. If it was the seals at the base
holding the pads further from the disk then you would expect there to be a
longer pull of the lever until the pads contact and then the same firm feel
after that point. In my experience the pads still contact at pretty much the
same point but the lever just feels spongey. Also it should take a lot of
riding to wear the pads significantly to effect the feel in this way whereas
I notice the change after a couple of weeks of riding to work. Finally,
after the wear goes beyond a certain point you would expect the large
movement of the pads to cause the seals to reset and the firm feel to
return. In my experience the feel just gets progressively worse until you
intervene.

Either way I've found that a firm squeeze of the lever only fixes the
problem for about 20 minutes worth of riding and it doesn't fix it
completely. Levering the pads apart and then pumping them together again a
number of times seems to fix the problem for a couple of weeks. If you don't
feel comfortable removing the calipers from the fork legs you can just lever
the pads apart using a pair of circlip pliers on the tabs at the back of the
pads. This method doesn't work quite as well but is much easier to do.

Phil
'02 S3


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