Brake pads

[paulotex]

Thanks everyone for the replies and for the concerned shown! I'll remove the caliper this evening for a thorough cleaning...

[black-k1]

and would be getting a very angry person in their showroom shouting from the roof tops if it were me.

They did! I was!

[paulotex]

Quick update.

To answer my own question: sintered rear pads are also NOT recommended. After 2 weeks & less than a 1000 miles usage, mine are already pitted. Will order the OEM ones now.

[alaskier]

I doubt whether anyone will believe this but I changed my front pads to Brembo sintered pads on 33,000 miles. I have just clicked over 79,000 miles and there is still a couple of millimetres there. My front discs are now on 4mm so I will probably replace the discs and pads whether they need it or not at my next service which is about 4,000 miles time.

Out of interest, I have replaced the rear pads twice during this time. Also, I tend to use the gear box to wipe speed rather than using my brakes. I am the same with my car.

Sorry, just noticed, this post was intended to be in response to AndyLP's post of sometime in 2016 - it was at the foot of the first page of this thread. . Smileys don't work for me either - supposed to end this paragraph with a line of embarrassed faces ...

 

Cheers for now,
Tony

[alaskier]

Maybe the smileys do work after all. And AndyLP's post was March 09 2016 so as usual I am a couple of years and more behind the trend.


T.

[Phmode]

No smiley's for me  ...

,,,and this is about all I have left on my line of smiley's above the text entry box...

[TomL]

And then I get some flak occasionally for saying only buy a K with a full dealer service history...

If you don't know how your bike works, take it to someone who does.

To enlarge on what Steve said about the seals, piston seals are designed to 'flex' when the brakes are applied, stretching outward ever so slightly. When you release the pressure, the seals return to their 'normal' shape and position in the groove, taking the piston back with them ever so slightly and if it works, this link shows you in a piccie...

https://goo.gl/images/TNLqeU

There are tons of images and good videos on the web showing how to do stuff properly, so please, either do it the right way or take it to someone who knows how, we can't afford to lose members to brake failure and make sure that you get the caliper stripped, cleaned and new seals fitted and if the pistons are corroded in the seal 'swept' area after a good clean up, then new pistons are in order too.

Just to give the other side of the picture

My K1300Ss have both been fully dealer serviced. After one such service, I picked up the bike, met with a friend and we then picked up my two sons for a long weekend in France looking at WW1 and WW2 sites. As I pulled off the A12 onto the M25 slip road, with my eldest son on the pillion, having been travelling at ... er ... speed, I slowed for the trafic lights on the round about and applied some brake. The lever came back to the bars and nothing happened. (Luckily I always use foot brake as well so slowing was done on the rear.) I pulled over to find the right hand front caliper swinging freely from the end of the brake line and totally separate to the "fork leg".  The new brake pads had been fitted correctly without the wrong type of grease but the caliper mounting bolts had not seen a torque wrench!

Just make sure you take your bike to someone who knows what they're doing!

The mechanic was probable distracted by a phone call or something similar and thought that he had done them up. I always place the spanner on the fixing that needs to be tightened next, when my mobile rings when I'm working.

[black-k1]

And then I get some flak occasionally for saying only buy a K with a full dealer service history...

If you don't know how your bike works, take it to someone who does.

To enlarge on what Steve said about the seals, piston seals are designed to 'flex' when the brakes are applied, stretching outward ever so slightly. When you release the pressure, the seals return to their 'normal' shape and position in the groove, taking the piston back with them ever so slightly and if it works, this link shows you in a piccie...

https://goo.gl/images/TNLqeU

There are tons of images and good videos on the web showing how to do stuff properly, so please, either do it the right way or take it to someone who knows how, we can't afford to lose members to brake failure and make sure that you get the caliper stripped, cleaned and new seals fitted and if the pistons are corroded in the seal 'swept' area after a good clean up, then new pistons are in order too.

Just to give the other side of the picture

My K1300Ss have both been fully dealer serviced. After one such service, I picked up the bike, met with a friend and we then picked up my two sons for a long weekend in France looking at WW1 and WW2 sites. As I pulled off the A12 onto the M25 slip road, with my eldest son on the pillion, having been travelling at ... er ... speed, I slowed for the trafic lights on the round about and applied some brake. The lever came back to the bars and nothing happened. (Luckily I always use foot brake as well so slowing was done on the rear.) I pulled over to find the right hand front caliper swinging freely from the end of the brake line and totally separate to the "fork leg".  The new brake pads had been fitted correctly without the wrong type of grease but the caliper mounting bolts had not seen a torque wrench!

Just make sure you take your bike to someone who knows what they're doing!

The mechanic was probable distracted by a phone call or something similar and thought that he had done them up. I always place the spanner on the fixing that needs to be tightened next, when my mobile rings when I'm working.

Indeed, easily done. The good thing that came from it was that the dealer instigated a process where torque settings were check by a second person before the bike was released to the customer.

[Phmode]

As one who comes from and was inculcated by the military system, being a licenced engineer is no small responsibility.

As an  overseeing engineer, signing off an aircraft as being 'Fit to fly' was the ultimate act before the pilot took charge of the craft and took to the sky. There was always the 'risk' that the crew would perish if your signature was not based on solid engineering oversight.

You either knew your engineers and trusted them or you checked and checked again. I have found things wrong on a (small) number of occasions and as an electronics engineer the risk of aircraft or crew loss was exceedingly low. The thought, however, that you were being flippant with your craft, was always a very sobering thought.

Licenced engineers in the auto industry should be the norm. The number of indecipherable scrawled initials I have on my bike's documents are way too many for my liking and if something goes wrong it has to get to the heights of a coroner's court before anyone is held to account.

[markyates]

Ditto the above - I had torpedoes, missiles and nameless weapons to think about.

[MadMountainbike]

This is an interesting thread... I understand the 'comfort factor' in picking an OEM pad... But frankly the discs are just steel discs, standard fare on nearly every bike out there. Why would sintered pads not work?

It's a well tested and proven compound and is universally used with steel discs. If they didn't work they wouldn't get their safety mark or be allowed to retail them for bikes. I'm pretty sure after looking at the OE pads that they aren't an organic compound and it's unlikely that they are a ceramic mix as they don't fare that well in road conditions which leaves me suspecting that they're a Brembo Sinter compound.

Just curious if there's any actual evidence that you're not supposed to use sintered pads on K12/13s (if so how come every brake manufacturer who offers K12 compatible pads offers them as sintered?) or is this chat just speculation and anecdote?

[fjtwelve]

I've had sintered pads since I replaced my discs 19-20000 miles back. I managed to warp one of the front discs but not so much as its a problem, don't know if it was a dodgy disc or the pads but its not been an issue since. Wasn't a particular choice, they were recommended with the Brembo discs I bought. I discovered during changing them that all the OE stuff was Brembo anyway.

[TomL]

They are made by Brembo in conjunction with BMW and only available from BMW.

MadMountainbike use the Brembo sintered pads and watch how quickly your discs wear.

The cost of OEM pads is crazy but they work much better than anything else out there which is why I use them and nothing else.

[Phmode]

or is this chat just speculation and anecdote?

It's just speculation and anecdote from long time users who wore their discs out really quickly 

[MadMountainbike]

But if all your doing is burning through £200 sets of pads to keep from replacing cheap standard Brembo steel discs where's the common sense in that?... Or are you telling me the discs are a special super secret steel only available to BMW 😄