Disc breaks rubbing can be really annoying, but it also saps your valuable energy and speed
So this is how to keep your disc brakes running freely.
So there can be two reasons why your brakes aren't spinning freely. The first one is your disc brake is actually bent
The second one is that your caliper isn't centered so need to identify which one of those the problem is, that we've got
The first thing I do is check the rotor to make sure it's straight so spin your wheel
Make sure you keep your fingers away from excess super shard and look down the caliper
And you're basically looking for that disc, to see if it moves side to side, and if it touches a brake Pad
Then you know it's time to straighten out, in this case, you can definitely see the rotors bend
So obviously I know that my disc is bent, and that's why my brakes aren't running freely to straighten that up
You've got a few options really you've got these specially made disc brake tools that go over there
It makes it a little bit easier to bend it and go the old-school way and use an adjustable spanner
Get a nice tight fit and try and bend it back or actually I've had some pretty good results
Just by using my hands you can just pull and push a little bit obviously be careful again
They're really sharp. You will get some oil from your hands onto that disc brake, but to be honest I've never found that a problem
It's not a lot, and you should burn that off when you use the brake anyway, but for now
I'm Gonna use a proper tool
So I'm gonna Spin the wheel and look for the rotor to move on to the disc brake Pad there you go
It's actually sort of stopping the brake so I'm gonna use a tool put over just gently Sort bends it back
rather than just pulling it back in one big
Go, you'll feel it sort of trying to bend itself back in shape if you just bounce it a little bit
Give it a spin
It's not too bad a little bit more keep doing that until you get it spinning freely
You might not be able to do this if the brake if this rotor has bent too much
Then it might be a case round to replace it, but definitely try and straighten out the hands first
It's important to make sure you do get that rotor as straight as possible because if it is too
Bent it can actually push into the brake pads and push the pistons back into the caliper
So when you pull on the brake it won't be there the brake lever will pull all the way back to the bar so make
sure, it's nice and straight. So it doesn't push those pistons
So the other reason for this brakes rubbing might be that your caliper isn't centered so the rotor doesn't spin freely through there
It's important to do that again
So it spins freely
But also so that you don't get uneven wear on the brake pads
Meaning that you have to replace them earlier in the long term so the first trick
I'll do to try and center this caliper is just to loosen the bolts off
Holding the caliper on to the frame and don't go too mad just make sure that the caliper can move slightly
But it's not going to raise up off those posts and what I'll do is grab hold of the brake lever
Pull it on to the disk and now just tighten down those bolts ever slightly so just sort of half a turn
See if that's worked
Actually spinning freely, but it's actually not centered it perfectly doesn't always work that method so what I'll do is
I'll do it now by sight again
I'm just gonna actually loosen off one of the caliper Bolts now
So that's loose that one's still got half a sort of turn on it
I'm actually just going to push the car around to try and center up, so I'm just pushing the front of the caliper
So I've got even gap either side of the disc
To the pads now I'm going to do the rear one same again
I'm just have to push this caliper over slightly towards the rear wheel and
then just nip that down a little bit
So it looks nicely centered now, so I'm looking down the pads with the rotor in the middle. Give it a spin
Pretty good
So when you're just using this method of loosing off one bolt at times or shuffling the caliper over just take your time
Give it a spin
Make sure it's moving freely
But also make sure you've got the caliper straight over the disc so you get even brake Pad wear
And also again put on the brake lever and make sure the pads are
Contacting at the same time on the rotor if one's sort of touching the brake too early
And you want to sort of shuffle the caliper towards that side
When it looks good, just remember to torque down those caliper bolts
so if you tried all these little tips
And you still can't get your wheel to spin freely?
then it might be a case of your pistons being a little bit stuck and
Very least you can need to do a seal service on that caliper
Or it might be the old brake rotor is just too bad you have to replace it
When I see some more maintenance videos related to brakes you can click up there for how to fit your disc brakes and rotor
And click down there for how to change your disc brake pads
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