How to clean disc brakes?

[scubadude]

Finally mowed the lawn last night, (bear with me...) and in doing so shot abit of WD40 on the relavent parts of the mower so next time I get around to it it might work :-)

In doing so I inadvertantly had abit of overspray and only discovered thismorning (while braking for traffic lights and almost ran the Red) that I had hosed down the read brake disc with the WD40!

Any tips on cleaning the disc?

[OneDs]

Give the discs & pads a soak and wipe down with meths, then rebed in (20 stops from highish speed), should be fine, if not better than before the WD40 incident, unless the pads are badly contaminated which shouldn't be the case.

[egomeister]

Brake cleaner might work?

[the_kato]

Meths for the rotor and bin the pads

[neilski]

Ride down a very steep hill then lick them clean when you get to the bottom.

Please film yourself doing this and upload to YouTube.

[scubadude]

the_kato said:

Meths for the rotor and bin the pads

Oh crap, I hope I can avoid that, the pads are abit pricey- stupid mechanical RST crap :-(

Thanks for the tips folk

[budgie smuggler]

Doesn't meths leave oils on the surface? I use IPA.

You will probably end up binning the pads I reckon. I struggled with a set for ages trying to sort them out. Heated with blowtorch, scrubbed surface with sandpaper, repeatedly cleaned the rotors. Never worked properly again.

[the_kato]

Meths is alcohol so no. White spirit will leave oil

Bin the pads they would have soaked up the WD40 and no amount of cleaning will fix them

[Raven Flyer]

New pads and get some aerosol brake cleaner from a motoring shop.

[the_kato]

Don't use car brake cleaner on bike discs. It has oil in it

[BliarOut]

Bit of Fairy and a sponge, they'll be fine

[a11y_m]

Pads are never the same after contamination so new pads required unfortuantely.

And IPA works out cheaper than any of these bike-specific disc cleaners, and IMO does a better job: http://www.maplin.co.uk/isopropyl-alcohol-28994 - £15 for a litre container.

[scubadude]

Cheers for the advice folks, new pads ordered (cheap on ebay) and IPA at home in the garage (next to the WD40 ironicly) just have to take it easy going home, which is mostly downhill :-)

[Lemans Party]

WD40 has a lot of petroleum distillates in it, so you could aid their evaporation by having a small, controlled fire.

[budgie smuggler]

the_kato said:

Meths is alcohol so no. White spirit will leave oil

Bin the pads they would have soaked up the WD40 and no amount of cleaning will fix them

Right you are, it was white spirit i was thinking of

[shouldbworking]

Dont be ridiculous about the pads. I've gotten wd40 on disc and rim brakes plenty of times in the past. A quick wipe down with a rag with some muc off or other cleaner on has seen it disappear immediately with no diminished performance from the brakes.

[the_kato]

Fair enough, I spilt mineral oil from my brakes on my discs and pads and the pads were never the same after

[a11y_m]

shouldbworking said:

Dont be ridiculous about the pads. I've gotten wd40 on disc and rim brakes plenty of times in the past. A quick wipe down with a rag with some muc off or other cleaner on has seen it disappear immediately with no diminished performance from the brakes.

Fair enough but my experiences are the opposite: they never work the same once they've been contaminated in any way.

[budgie smuggler]

a11y_m said:

Fair enough but my experiences are the opposite: they never work the same once they've been contaminated in any way.

Same here, and in my case it was a tiny amount. Also seen the same thing happen on mates bikes a few times.