Hey folks!
I got this question in regards to replacing brake pads.
When should I replace my brake pads?
And today, I'm going to talk briefly about when to replace
the Shimano brake pads and how to replace them,
and a few other things that you can, or you should do at that time.
Most probably what you're going to need is
these are tire levers, you're going to need needle nose pliers,
and you will need some hex keys so keep those handy.
The good news is that the previous generation brakes
and the current generation brakes from Shimano
use the same brake pads.
Here's G01S pads, these are the ones mentioned on the DEORE.
Here it also says SLX.
And the you have F01A, this one says XTR, XT, SLX,
Deore is not mentioned but it works just fine on it.
So any one of these brake pads
work with any one of the current, or previous generation Shimano brakes.
Going by the book, Shimano says if noise occurs during brake operation,
the pads might have worn down.
Well, I strongly recommend not waiting until then
because it might be a bit too late.
The original pad is about 2 mm thick.
When it gets down to 0.5 millimeter thickness, it's time to replace the pads.
So I would take that as a good advice
and not necessarily what they say here -waiting for the noise to occur.
Measuring these pads - this is the finned one, resin, it is 4 mm thick.
Looking at the non finned one,
resin as well, is 4 millimeters as well.
So when it comes down to 2.5 mm thickness
you know that the actual pad is worn out and it needs to be replaced.
Checking the pads right on the bike it's usually fairly easy.
You just look through the top here, and this is - you see a Deore 615,
pads without fins,
and you can see clearly how much brake pad is left.
Trying to do the same here where I have the finned pads
doesn't really work, mostly because you can't really see.
You get a glimpse of what's in there but not enough.
But most of the time, in this situation, I would suggest just taking down the brake pads,
and checking them out.
Removing the pads, if you have an XT or an SL X with this little bolt,
just remove this safety clip,
that's installed here in the back,
and then use a 3 mm Allen,
Allen key, just to remove your bolt.
So now, as you do that, you can pull out the brake pads from the top.
Here we go.
If you have something like a Deore that you see here,
or an older SLX, all I have to do is straighten the end of this clip,
enough so you can push it out.
And then, same thing, just remove the pads from the top.
Every new set of brake pads comes with one of these new clips,
whether you need it or not.
Reinstalling is fairly simple, push it in,
grab the end of it and just bend it,
enough so it keeps it in place.
With the brake pads out you can take a look
and see the pistons, they're white, the white ones in my case.
And if you have any leak or anything like that around the piston or in the piston,
this would be a good time to spot it.
Since I wanted to clean up the caliper as well,
I have removed the wheel.
And what I'm going to use is just rubbing alcohol,
trying to get rid of all this brake dust that's in there.
So rubbing alcohol, and paper towel...
With the caliper cleaned up
this is a good time to use the tire lever
just to push your pistons back.
Now, as you do this, is going to make room for the thicker pads.
It's also going to push some of that fluid
back into your lever.
So here it is.
One last thing that I want to do before I install the new pads,
is play a bit of a detective,
and take a look at the old pads that I have removed from here.
And of course, what you want, you want even wear on both sides.
I just found out that my caliper is kind of like that onto the disc,
That's why I have uneven wear on my brake pads over here.
So this is the perfect timing to adjust that.
With the wheel installed you want to center the caliper to the disc.
And to do so, you see this line here
that shows you pretty much the center of the caliper.
You want to make sure you center that one with the disc,
so it has to be right in the middle of the disc
Obviously, to do so you use your 5 mm Allen key.
With caliper ready to go, if you look at the finned pads,
you can see a right and a left designation here.
Obviously, leftis my side and right is the drive side.
And you're going to install this little spring that also has a left and right,
just like that, around your pads.
And they are ready to go in.
When reinstalling your little bolt,
make sure you put a little grease on the thread over there.
Screw it in all the way, and don't forget your little safety clip.
One last thing that I would do,
take your paper towel, get some alcohol on it,
and just clean up your disc just in case you touched it with your hand and whatnot.
And that's pretty much it folks.
Hope you found it useful.
If you have any comments et me know
in the section below.
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and I will see you on the trails.
Cheers!