Pulsing brakes / new pad bedding procedure

Discussion in 'Mechanics Garage' started by sfdownhill, Aug 8, 2017.

  1. sfdownhill

    sfdownhill New Member

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    My brakes pulse badly after installing new OEM pads. I probably heated up the new pads too hard, too soon in the bedding-in process. Any input/insight would be greatly appreciated.

    Backstory:
    I did a delink with 5/8" front master cylinder and RC51 SP2 calipers [32mm/30mm pistons] on my 5th gen. These brakes were operating smoothly, running Galfer street/track pads with 80% pad left. Then I rode member RVFR's 5th gen. His full CBR600F4i front brake system [F4i 5/8" master cylinder and F4i calipers with 34mm/32mm pistons] running OEM pads STOPPED LIKE WOW with full control, great modulation.

    What I did:
    [1] Installed OEM pads in my SP2 front calipers. I carefully scuffed the existing stock rotors with emery paper, starting with coarse, then medium, then fine, to remove material the Galfer pads had deposited on the rotors' surface. Cleaned the rotors with brake cleaning fluid until rag came away clean.

    A fellow 5th gen owner shared that he has the same brake system and only lightly cleans his discs with very fine emery paper, so perhaps I went at the discs too harshly.

    [1A] Noted that the brakes with new OEM pads were working normally on surface streets and freeway on the way out to the country road where I would bed the pads.

    [2] Bedded the pads in to transfer pad material from the new OEM pads to the just-scuffed rotors. All brake applications were made smoothly, starting with light lever pressure then increasing quickly to high lever pressure, then releasing steadily, never 'snapping' the lever pressure off. Made 6 hard decelerations from 70mph to 30mph, with no cooling time between brake applications and never slowing to less than 25mph [Never coming to a complete stop].

    [3] After the 6 decelerations from 70mph to 30mph, was careful not to come to complete stop and rode with no brakes for several minutes to allow full cooling of the brake components.

    The result:
    Front brakes pulsed intensely from high speeds [80-100mph] or mid speeds [50-70mph] all the way down to 20mph or less before they smoothed out. Even at 20-30mph, strong application of the brakes caused pulsing.

    Guesses:
    Perhaps I started too hard on the bedding in process; I probably should have done 4-6 decelerations from 40mph to 20 mph with modest lever pressure before moving on to repeated heavy braking from higher speeds. In the bedding process I applied too much brake force too suddenly and deposited pad material unevenly.

    Attempted solution:
    I went back to the emery paper and scuffed the rotors again, doing three rounds on each side of each rotor with coarse, medium, then fine emery paper. The pulsing smoothed out somewhat, and now, 1200 miles later, has smoothed further, but is not gone.

    Research indicates uneven deposits of pad material may be a major cause of pulsing brakes:
    https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?21352-Not-warped-discs-but-pulsating-brakes!

    Post #16 here has some pointers:
    https://www.pnwriders.com/threads/cure-for-pulsing-brakes.194058/

    Next steps:

    [1] Definitely purchase dial indicator and check rotors for warping/runout

    [2] Possibly remove discs, place on very flat surface, and lightly re-scuff with only very fine emery paper.

    [3] Possibly have rotors bead blasted.

    [4] Possibly send rotors to truedisk [truedisk.net] to have them ground flat.

    [5] Possibly install new OEM pads after bead blasting or flat grinding.
     

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