Noisy disc brake pads: How to silence your bike brakes
So, a few weeks ago I was changing the brake pads on my road bike and I took the time to also change the mineral oil. Unfortunately I wasn’t carful enough and I managed to contaminate the rotors with a lot of oil. If you don’t know what that means, good for you: it’s such a squeaky noise that hurts your ears and, as if disturbing the whole neighborhood wasn’t enough, contaminating your brakes results in much less stopping power which is definitely quite dangerous. I found a few solutions online on how to fix this, but depending on how much oil you spilled on the rotors/pads, they will or will not work.
After a few trial and errors, I found the perfect fix, and since it has already helped a few friends of mine, I thought of writing a blog post to leave it out there for anyone who might have this same problem, as a last solution before buying new pads.
You will need to buy two things: 100% pure acetone and sand paper. I initially used nail polish remover – unfortunately they are only 60-70% acetone and contain oily substances useful for nails that you definitely don’t want on your brakes. For sand paper, you want extra fine sand paper, 240 grit or similar.
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Remove brake pads from the caliper and clean both brake pads and the rotor with acetone and an old t-shirt until there is no more dirt coming off of them. I actually prefer cleaning the rotor while the wheel is still on the frame as it is easier to not spill acetone inside the hub.
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At this point the rotor is good to go. The problem is that brake pads are like sponges and have easily absorbed the oil, especially if you have actually ridden with the oil and got it through the pads. To remove all the oil residues, put the brake pads on an oven tray and bake them for 30 minutes at 230C/450F. You will see that your pads will actually smoke, this is good as the oil is going away from them. They will be pretty hot when you take them out.
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After they cool down, scratch the pads on the sand paper to remove all the dirt that came out with the baking part.
Done. After this, you will basically have SILENT brakes and as-new stopping power. Obviously, since there will be no residue on the rotors or the pads, you should bed them in before going out for a proper ride (there are tons of videos regarding this on youtube, each with their own strategy).