Had a brake pad drop out on 2nd ride causing pistons to come out so far that lbs couldn't push them back in and new Xt caliper required.Know someone else who has had same thing happen.Is it just the downside of cheap pads ? ( these were Bucklos)
Did you not have a split pin or bolt securing it?
How are they coming out when they have a threaded pin holding them in?
The pad falling of the backing plate? It used to be a thing with cheap pads, not heard of it for years. From memory they needed some heat cycles building in to them to stop it from happening??
Don't cheap out on brake pads. Lots of fake Shimano brake pads around, which have been reported to fall off the backing plates at just the wrong moment
Correctly fitted pads do not fall out of an XT calliper.
But the braking material may fall off the backing plate on a cheap pad.
Personally I have never felt the need to cheap out on the thing that is responsible for bringing me to a stop.
Correctly fitted pads do not fall out of an XT calliper.
But the braking material may fall off the backing plate on a cheap pad.
Personally I have never felt the need to cheap out on the thing that is responsible for bringing me to a stop.
my thoughts for many years (after having the pad/backing plate failure once)
was that a brake pad contains only three components. a backing plate, a braking surface, and the glue holding them together.
and sometimes you get an new retaining pin and spring in the pack.
theres not much plausible cost cutting to be done without a quality reduction.
In the Alps this summer, a mate had a brake pad fall out. His brakes just stopped working. We checked his bike - pin intact, one pad in place, one pad missing
Puzzled, we walked back, and actually found the missing pad, which was intact, the hole for the pin was intact also. Can onyl guess he somehow fitted pads without putting the pin through both holes, and that one pad somehow stayed in place for two-and-a-half days riding without falling out.
In the Alps this summer, a mate had a brake pad fall out. His brakes just stopped working. We checked his bike - pin intact, one pad in place, one pad missing
Puzzled, we walked back, and actually found the missing pad, which was intact, the hole for the pin was intact also. Can only guess he somehow fitted pads without putting the pin through both holes, and that one pad somehow stayed in place for two-and-a-half days riding without falling out.
pin was still in place, guess pin didnt go through the plate but surprised it lasted a ride and a bit before dropping out
I managed to blow a piston out of my XTs while bleeding them. It went straight back in using a tyre lever.
Surely the caliper doesn't need replacing just because the pistons are but pokey outy?
Popping it out during a bleed probably means no damage. Imagine braking using the piston...
I've used dozens of sets of cheap pads from Ali Express in brakes from Magura, Shimano, Formula, Tektro. I've only ever had one where the backing surface came off the backing and that was right at the end of its life and not while riding.
Even if it did come off and the backing is touching the disc, it shouldn't be enough for the piston to pop fully out.
A mate lost his retaining pin, we put everything back together and used a couple of skinny zip ties looped round for the rest of the ride (another 30km round the Cotswolds.). They don't seem to need that much retention. (Though it was a rear brake and he did weigh 9 stone wet through!)
This question
Is it just the downside of cheap pads ?
Followed by this statement
pin was still in place, guess pin didnt go through the plate but surprised it lasted a ride and a bit before dropping out
Suggests no, even the most expensive OEM pads won't lessen the chance of failure when faced with mechanical incompetence.
For what it's worth, I don't buy safety critical parts from marketplace sellers like Amazon or eBay who have absolutely no control, liability or care about the quality of the products being sold on their sites. Those Bucklos pads only seem to be available from there. I use the likes of Uberbikes who should know the providence of the products they are selling.
I had this with a Hope brake, the bike shop put the split pin in the brake but didn’t bend the end over. It lasted from Coniston into the top of Grizdale. Then spent 15 mins looking for the pads and pin. The brake went back together and worked as normal.
just as well as we were doing the Polaris Challenge.
How on earth does one manage to get the retaining bolt or split pin installed without going through the hole in the pad?
Although saying that I did see that it is actually possible to get L+R mixed up and put pads round the wrong way even on the shaped fins versions, but even then the pin still fits thru the hole. Think it was GRX/Ultegra rather than XT.
I've worn pads down to bare metal and the pistons still didn't come out too far. The pad spring got well mangled, since it was the braking material. Think that was Formula though, not XT.
Same... on a 5 grand bike my teeth are worth more than a few quid saving on safely critical components, but I understand others may have less disposable income. It was cheap pads above that wore down to the backing and/or big chunks coming off, from a supplier that used to be kinda popular on here back in the day.
And on the same trip it took us half a day riding in Morzine trying to work out where a friend's noise was coming from. Turned out that that 1 tightish, and 2 loose bolts and 3 missing bolts is more than enough for a rear brake rotor to function 😉
How on earth does one manage to get the retaining bolt or split pin installed without going through the hole in the pad?
We were pretty baffled, but he managed it somehow. How it stayed in as long as it did was the real mystery, not like he was taking it easy
