New pads rubbing - what gives?

[Alpman]

Hi all. After my debacle with the wrong brake pad I bought a set of the right ones and installed same yesterday expecting the best. All went well until I spun the front wheel.The pads are impinging on the rotor, stopping the wheel after a couple rotations. Will this excess brake pad material wear off after a short while or do I need to bleed off some fluid? Is this normal with SRAM Code RSC’s? BTW the rotor is true and the calipers perfectly aligned so we don’t need to worry about that. I depressed the pistons as far as possible before installing the pads but they wouldn’t retract much which leads me to think I need to bleed some fluid...

 

[118]

I'd be inclined to remove the pads, remove the bleed screw on the lever, once the screw is at it's highest point on your bars, push the pistons back, retighten the screws, reset your levers, reinsert the pads..

 

[steve_sordy]

And have a big bunch of paper towels to catch what spills out of the hole previously occupied by the bleed screw!

 

[R120]

Start over and follow these steps, and you won't go wrong - likely you just need to put the pistons back in fully, dont remove the bleed screw unless you need to, which in most cases you shouldn't.

Disc Brake Pad Removal & Installation | Park Tool

 

[Alpman]

Start over and follow these steps, and you won't go wrong - likely you just need to put the pistons back in fully, dont remove the bleed screw unless you need to, which in most cases you shouldn't.

Disc Brake Pad Removal & Installation | Park Tool

Very good video. Those Park guys put out some slick productions.

 

[Alpman]

I'd be inclined to remove the pads, remove the bleed screw on the lever, once the screw is at it's highest point on your bars, push the pistons back, retighten the screws, reset your levers, reinsert the pads..

I’m going to have another go at resetting the pistons and if that fails will bleed some fluid.

 

[Squatch]

I also agree with Member 118 aboves comment.

Sometimes sram can be a pain.... I do bed the brakes after a new set is installed. This gives a good even grab but it can also take off the rough nicks etc. from install, and from being dinged up from shipping and handling.

I now use the the little install spacers now. They don't hurt anything by using these, and they are cheap! In addition..... I hold a white piece of paper on the other side while looking at the gap, this gives me a good contrast.

Another good video from Clint Gibbs below.

 

[salko]

Well my experience with this brake caliper adjustment spacers is they work fine as long as you have smaller rotors, but if you have larger rotors (200-220mm) which tends to side-flex a bit more, then this spacers usually will not help you as you wish, because when you are tightening the caliper with brake lever squeezed, the force of bolts and your allen key tends to push the caliper+rotor sideways for a bit (AFAIK only Dominion A4 brake calipers have small side bolts in mounting eylets, which eliminates this problem). And when you're done tightening and you release the lever, the caliper will stay still, but the rotor will return to its normal position and will most likely rub aganst one of the braking pads, or at least not be perfectly centered between pads ... And if you have slightly untrue rotor, the problem is even bigger. So with large rotors I tend to center the caliper only by eye of sight.

 

[Pabs]

Don't RSC levers have a little dial for fine tuning the pad clearance? Maybe double check that is wound in the correct way too.

 

[salko]

RSC levers have a bite point adjustment dial, which will change bite point at lever end, it will NOT change brake pad clearance against rotor.

 

[Alpman]

Easter morning sitrep. Somewhere in occupied France. Thanks for the help guys. Woke early and attacked my brake problem. Removed the bleed valve on the brake lever and introduced a SRAM brake block (red). This displaced a fair amount of fluid enabling me to push the pistons home. I wet some string with DOT fluid and flossed the pistons until they were clean and pulsing evenly. Reinstalled the wheel and put in my new pads. After truing the caliper I bedded in the new brakes (SRAM organics). Happy to report that the braking action is now eye watering. Lesson learned is that if the brake bleed is performed on worn pads you will need to bleed some fluid when you put in new ones. Job done. Thanks again.

 

[Funkeydunk]

Take of, nuke the site from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure. Then buy some maguras ...booom

 

[Alpman]

Take of, nuke the site from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure. Then buy some maguras ...booom

Love that movie Heh heh

 

[salko]

Lesson learned is that if the brake bleed is performed on worn pads you will need to bleed some fluid when you put in new ones. Job done. Thanks again.

You should always remove brake pads and install bleed block before bleeding, so condition of the pads does not affect bleeding itself...

 

[KennyB]

You should always remove brake pads and install bleed block before bleeding, so condition of the pads does not affect bleeding itself...

Also, brake fluid will contaminate the pads.

 

[brizi2003]

Nearly all my cases of brake rubbing and poor brake performance are caused by sticking piston/s. Whenever pads are changed I always make sure all the pistons are clean and moving freely.