Rubbing brake pads

Front brake pads rubbing against the disc to the point if u ride and not use front brake it gets very hot to the touch. When on centre stand there is no free spin the wheel just stops when u stop spinning it by hand

Changed brake fluid. Went to 5.1 then back to 4 now.
No air bubbles, lever feels good.
Discs are straight.
Aftermarket levers doesn't interfere.
Changed seals 2 months ago. (Seals only, they have been placed correctly lubed in the correct piston size, altough maybe a too much lube))
Cracked the bleed nipple nothing changes.
Return port clear.
EBC brake pads. (Tried with backplate and without same thing)
Just went out to check the pistons i cleaned and applied a tiny bit of rubber grease to try to improve the movements. (Nothing changed)
Spring pad are correctly installed, pad hangers are fine and both are correctly lubed.


Whats left to do, is to try to do that fork alignment. Both sides behave the same, bikes left side very slightly less bite.
Maybe I used a bit too much rubber grease when installing the seals.
Thinking about just getting oem brake pads as current EBC one are used still plenty of life though

Any advice? Or just take the wallet hit and get the seal kit and stainless pistons kit? £££££ expensive rather not.

So after writing, this post probably goimg to be pointless as not much advice can be given i guess apart to spend money on new pistons and seals. Worth a try to see if anyone can give advice it.

Rear, is okay

 

Some good diagnostic info there. When you crack the nipples nothing changes so you know hydraulic pressure is not the problem and replacing pads, flushing fluids etc is not going to help.

Your root cause seems to be excessive binding between the seals and the pistons in the calliper. My suggestion is to strip the callipers fully:
1. Make sure the grooves for the seals are cleaned out properly; gently scrape out any corrosion etc so the seal grooves are pristine; if not you may have too much pressure pushing the seals onto the pistons so they can't easily retract
2. Make sure the piston surfaces are smooth and shiny; any corrosion here will cause binding. A bit of corrosion on the exposed end of the piston (outside of the seals) is of no consequence. I use a green scotchbrite pad to clean pistons, plus some Autosol metal polish to finish
3. As longs as the seals are the right size, they should be OK to reuse, but clean them before use, I use some silicone spray and a rag
4. Fork alignment probably won't be a factor as the pistons will move to take up the clearance (within reason). You can't misalign the right side, and the left side just needs to be loosened, then bounce the forks to find a happy place, and retighten. But I doubt that is your issue.

You should be able to move the pistons back with firm finger pressure.

 

Any chance I can avoid draining the entire system to reseat the seals and pistons. I was gonna do it and pinch it with vice grips but it didn't look right. As the first time when I drained it to do the seals getting the air bubbles out was challenging.

And do you think I should still use the rubber grease or just use the brake fluid to lube it and insert it.

Thanks again

 

The Tokico pistons are, to quote Powerhouse "absolute fucking crap, shouldn't be allowed" they corrode really easily and you'll never find the minute bit of corrosion going on under the plating <<< that's why your brakes are sticking

I replaced all mine with stainless from Powerhouse @16k, they were misshapen under the plating, which was also starting to lift

Bite the bullet and get stainless from Powerhouse, I've now got braided stainless lines all around, always use OEM pads and recently had to fit Brembo RCS 19 pumps to accommodate my carpal tunnel syndrome getting worse

If you do it now you'll have your bike sorted for what's left of this summer, such as it is

 

If calibers are floating type, check that they float. If you are overgenerous with lube on the pins you can have trapped air causing troubles.

 

Sorry; you really need to undo the banjo bolts and get those callipers onto the bench. What you can do (and this will sound counterintuitive) is tie the lever back to the bar, that puts the piston in a place where fluid can't just leak down by gravity so the lines and reservoir should stay "mostly" full even with the callipers removed. You'll still need to bleed but shouldn't be near as bad as dealing with empty lines.

Looking at the service manual for the callipers on my VFR1200, this says to use brake fluid on the fluid seals and silicon grease on the dust seals.

 

We're in the 8th gen forum here; 4-piston radially mounted callipers here so no sliding mounts involved.

 

I used the EBC pads on my 2014 and they worked great, however, they made a strange whirring noise from the holes in the discs, changed to new ones once and the same. Always thoroughly cleaned the calipers each time. Always freed up the floating disc bolts with a few turns with a socket wrench (I think there is post on here about how to)

 

I also use (and like) EBC HH pads but they do make noise when you use them; I don't notice any excessive noise from them otherwise. Definitely a feature, not a bug.

 

Hate EBC pads. Aside from that, if you can't move the pistons individually with your fingers, you may have gotten something wrong with the rebuild/seals. They should move easy as butter. This lets them back off once the lever is released, combined with the small hole in the master.

 

i always clean and grease slider pins if im toucing the brakes at all, work it in and out

 

I'll use something like sil-glyde, but not grease/petroleum.

 

there is no mechanism that pulls the pads back from the disc face when you release the lever. they always skim the disc surface. I do 2 - 3 pad change outs a year on whatever bike I use as a daily. I've never had a front wheel spin on the stand like a pedal bike tire after pumping lever pressure back up (extending pistons back out) and bringing pads into contact with the disc surface.

I'm assuming you threw in "HH" pads. That H rating is the friction coefficient, and H is the highest you can get for street bikes. Hence the mentioned whirring sound previously, which I've always noted with HH pads doesn't matter the bike. That's why HH pads are noted for their stronger bite. Higher friction pads skimming discs = more whirring noise and more heat.

If you stand next to the bike can you push it around the garage fine? If you can wheel the bike around on a level surface without feeling brake drag my gut would say nothing is wrong.