I’ve been having problems with my Shimano LX brakes.
When I come to use my bike after a week of it sitting in the shed the brakes make lots of noise but the brake performance is crap, (even though the lever feel is spot on). Once they’ve got some heat in them the noise goes and they work as they should for the rest of the day. If I use the bike again within a day or two it takes a lot less time to get rid of the squeak and get good brakes back again.
I had them bled last year when the back one went completely and was told there hardly any fluid in them, but that there wasn’t any noticeable way the fluid was escaping.

Any ideas? (other than the obvious “buy some new brakes”)

Ta
Wiksey

they sound like theve got some oil on them.
contaminated with something.

freshly creosoted shed?

yep, sounds like oil on pads / rotors.

Personally I just chuck the pads away when this happens – then clean the rotors with isoprop alcohol and fit new pads. The pads are never the same again if you just try sanding them down.

have you tried Drum n Bass ?

I would try new pads before new brakes

It's FUBAR'd

(F*cked up beyond all recognition)

I may be a mile wide of the mark – but my brakes used to do that when they were wet.

Is it wet in your shed? Or could it be related to washing?

It's FUBAR'd

(F*cked up beyond all recognition)

It is also BRAKES.

Got exactly the same prob on my Louise rear brake. It's contamination of some sort. A good downhill drag burns it off for one or 2 rides but it always comes back. Got new pads, will replace when I can be bothered. I live on a hill so invariably by the time I've got to the bottom it works fine so it's not really an issue.
Oh and it's beyond all REPAIR!!!! 😀

It's FUBAR'd

(F*cked up beyond all recognition)

Whilst that might be true – seeing as they're Shimano brakes, perhaps SNAFU would be more appropriate….

Ah, yes. spelling isn't my strong point:-)

I suspected contamination of the pads so have changed them and at first they were great but then did the same thing again.
Other bike has mech discs and I've never had a problem so it can't be how I'm washing the bike and they are both stored in the same shed.
If the brake fluid has been dissapearing over time too I'm thinking some sort of calliper leak? Would this be a fixable problem? (can you get new seals for Shimano brakes?)

My mate has exactly the same problem on exactly the same brakes.
Strange trombone like noises as he tooled gently around the carpark last Friday.
It looks like Shimano don't do a service kit so its a new caliper from CRC for £30(includes new pads,though).

I had the same problem and went through 2 sets of pads before realising the seal in the caliper was shot and was leaking small amounts of oil onto the pads. As shimano are not serviceable I just had to buy another brake.

Best of luck with this

ride more then it wont hapen simples 😉

Thanks everyone.

imp999/hustler – sounds like you are both confirming what I feared

taka – I did over the weekend and it was much better 🙂

OK, so my shopping list has just grown by 1xNew set of brake calipers or new set of brakes.
I had been thinking of going for some Hope X2s… hmmm

imp999/hustler – sounds like you are both confirming what I feared

Did you clean the rotor inbetween changing pads though? Even the merest hint of oil left on the rotor will cause this IME

BTW you can sometimes get bargain replacement LX callipers on Ebay for about £14

Ah, yes. spelling isn't my strong point:-)

Well done on the bigger words you did get right though.

People nevar praze the good speling.

Retro83 – Yes I used brake cleaner before putting new pads in. I even went as far as blaming the fumes from my car (swapped to a diesel about the same time as it all started) but again the mech disc bike had no problems.

SV – Ta 😉