OK before I go the the LBS and buy a can, does anyone have a home made remedy for cleaning discs.

cheers

Yes – washing up liquid and water. Why do yo want to clean them? Contamination ?

poss, I have bleed them a few times but TBH they dont stop as they use to.

When bleeding, all pads etc were removed as instructed but I dont seem to get it right, I wonder if I’m doing something wrong.

Meths and set them on fire, then sandpaper.

Washing up liquid and water, as the man says. Sandpaper for the pads. I find I have to do them at the same time. If you just do the rotors or the disks alone it won’t fix it

OK, i’ll give it a go first.

Just get some disc and clutch cleaner from Halfords, I wanted to get pure isopropyl from the chemists but this stuff seems to do the job fine.

Get the brake cleaner from euro car parts. It’s much cheaper and the same as the stuff in halfords. They do free delivery as well if there isn’t one close by.

Didn’t work, but Halfords have the following –

Muc-Off Disc Brake Cleaner 400ml £4.15 😀

I just dug out my big brakes for my upcoming European vacation, and the rear is a funny blue colour (hope floating rotor)- does this indicate damage or should it clean up ok?

Will contact cleaner from halfords do the job?

fine wet and dry and water works for me.

Smother mud all over the disc/pads and do a couple of stops. Rinse off and do it again a few more times. If its not too bad this usually works as long as the pads haven’t absorbed oil or anything.

If this doesnt work I find the pads probably have something embedded in them. Get a blow torch and heat them up really hot then douse in water. I did this three times and it worked the other week.

My other suggestion is oven cleaner for contaminated rotors…but mud is free. so i usually use that one.

can you tell I contaminate them to frequently with my grubby mits?!

Remove rotors and scrub on a flat surface with abrasive kitchen cleaner and nylon/bristle brush.
Wash in boiling/v hot water and scrub clean.
Leave to air dry and refit with gloves to prevent finger grease contamination.
New pads if old are suspect.

Or you can keep trying one element at a time and continuously cross-contaminate the cleaned components.

Fresh start and all will be good.

PaulD

Will contact cleaner from halfords do the job?

If I remember right that’s just Isotropyl Alcohol, which is exactly what you want.

some contact cleaner contains a small amount of oil – it will say on teh can

I just dug out my big brakes for my upcoming European vacation, and the rear is a funny blue colour (hope floating rotor)- does this indicate damage or should it clean up ok?

It’s just discolouration from the heat, tends to happen if you drag the brakes long enough for the heat to build up in the rotors enough to get the bits not being continually polished by the pads hot. All my <160mm disks end up with this, not a problem on big disks usually as they run much cooler.

Isopropyl alcohol- cheap from a chemist- and 3m scotchbrite pads- expensive from paint suppliers, £1 for a pack of 3 from Tesco. But tbh you shouldn’t often be cleaning brake pads.

You could always stickem in the oven and burn the fluid off. I’d try 90deg for 1/2 hour.

You could always stickem in the oven and burn the fluid off. I’d try 90deg for 1/2 hour.

All that does is blow all the cruddy cooking oil that coats the inside of your oven over the disks, brake fluid doesn’t boil unitl almost 300degC.