Ticking & rubbing disc brakes on descents, and how to fix it!

My #discbrakes has recently been getting a bit noisy during steep descending when I need to do heavy braking, releasing the brakes gives that notorious "Tic" or "Click" or brake rub as the pistons are retracting unevenly back into the caliper. This had become too annoying to ignore. So decided to try and sort this out once and for all. And surprisingly it worked! Thanks for #maintenance tip Park Tool!

PP-1.2 HYDRAULIC BRAKE PISTON PRESS

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[themechanicontrack]

Hey Mate,
i wanted to share my experience on cleaning the Pistons of my Brake Calipers in an easy and fast manner:

1: Grab yourself an old Toothbrush, cut down the Brushes to about 6mm and sand down the back of the Brush head, so it just fits in the Caliper with one of the pistons pushed out. (now you have a reusable cleaning Tool ;D)

1.1: With this Brush you´re able to clean your Pistons fast and thoroughly, even inbetween the Pistons and the Caliper bore itself where it matters.

2: Push just one Piston out of the Caliper and clean it with Alcohol (or Breakcleaner) and your neat Toothbrush (Do not use stuff like Acetone cause this may damage the Seals). Push it back in and repeat two or three times for each Piston.

3: DON´T LUBE THE PISTONS!!! This may sound like a controversy, but its pretty simple: Lube (or Mineal Oil) attracts Dirt. This Dirt or Brakedust to be exact is extreamly fine Dust that can clog up your Pistons pretty Fast!

3.1: Lubing the Pistons is Technically not necessary: Your Pistons work due to the Flexibility of the Seals, this is also the Mechanism that is resetting the Brakepads away from the Rotor as you release the Brakelever. Lubing could actually contaminate your Brakepads if you´re not careful(!)

3.2: The only Time your Piston "slips" through the Seal is when you reset the Piston and pump it back against the Rotor, or the Piston adjusts itself automatically as your Pads wear out. All the necessary lubing for the Seals comes already from inside the Caliper.

4: Dont forget to realign your calipers every time after you pushed back your Pistons to prevent noise.

I hope this helps somebody and it was worth writing this long comment ;P

TheMechanic

[rhenceocampo]

I know this video is old but I just wanted to stop by and comment that you saved me from going to the bike shop with this tutorial. Thanks a million 🙏🏻

[richardjones]

Top tip, It's a lot easier and safer to push the pistons back if you open the lever bleed port screw first.

[feltusfeicit]

Shimano recommends using isopropanol to clean the pistons, then their mineral oil to lube the piston. They also only recommend using a plastic tyre lever. Always be careful to push the ceramic ones in evenly, as I've found cracked pistons.

[richcole]

Thank you. Fixed the tick driving me to insanity.

[djlespommes]

Good clear explanation and props for camera set up. This is how "how-to" videos should be.

[thomasnielsen]

I experience about 20 seconds of rubbing from my Shimano 105 hydraulic rear disc brake after steep descending. Thank you for super clear instructions that makes me confident I can fix the issue.

[superstrada]

Nice vide: you are a natural at this. When I hear the "click" I will know what to do.

[zbs]

I have that tic tic tic noise also and i know now what's going on . Thanks a lot guys.

[paolocapozzi]

I had the very same issue on my Canyon Endurace, with Ultegra brakes. What you suggested works quite well. However in my case I did not always manage to solve the issue like that. By looking closely at the disc I realized that the disc was not totally straight. Such small misalignment "become worse" when the disc is heated up. Some minor adjustment with the Park tool DT-2 worked like wonders in this respect. Yet another thing that I tried was to remove the pads and manually slightly increase the opening of the spring between them, so basically bending it a little bit more open. I'm not sure if this effect is permanent after a lot of braking but those two things helped me a lot in getting rid of this issue. It could also be that I've waited too long to clean the pistons...And one last tip...the good old trick of aligning the calipers by loosening the bolt, squeezing the brakes and tighten the bolts again does not work very well with flat mount (at least that's what I think). Or better said it can work if the disc is absolutely dead straight. You might be better off just slightly loosening the bolts and then, with a bit of patience, moving the caliper until it's well aligned. If you do the "good old procedure" and you have one piston that works better than the other you will never get alignment. But if you manually adjust the caliper you can compensate for that.

[cmorrowster]

I was having the same exact noise ... thanks for the tip! Super annoying to have anything but silence from your bike ;-). Keep up the great videos!

[patricknewman]

Just used this method on my pistons and it worked a treat! Easy fast and affective

[SeeYouUpTheRoad]

Interesting I thought it was the warping of the rotor because of the heat. Good video thank You

[deepakvrao]

Thanks. In the Alps on a cycling vacation, and this has been happening. Never happened at home, where I dont have long descents. Now, I know what the issue is.

[DavidJKM]

I find this seems to happen when I release the brake lever slowly. Pulling the lever again then releasing it abruptly sometimes results in the pistons retracting and the noise going away.

[gabkoost]

I just bought a mountain bike from a 65yo men who was way over his head with that build (got tricked by a hungry sales man) and noticed the exact same thing although with a much more noticeable noise.

The bike was completely silent and working wonderfully until i got into a long steep descent (20%) with a rough cobble stone pavement. As soon as i let my front brake go for the first time i noticed this intense metal ticking sound. I actually thought it was the chain slamming hard into the frame or something into my wheels. I pump the breaks to stop and the sound stopped too. I start to go downhill as fast as before and the same thing happened. I pump the breaks and it stopped again.

Mid way into the slope i even considered if it was a suspension problem due to the high speed on a rough road. I proceeded to block the suspension and the same thing happened clearing the suspension of any problem. When i got on the main road, i started to climb out of the saddle and noticed that this metallic clinging noise was also present when swinging my bike side to side despite perfect surface.

If ridding normally on a good road or in common trails over bumps using the breaks moderately, no problem at all. But if i go downhill fast enough and use the front break, the sound gets really high despite the actual breaking showing no signs of problem. Again, every time i break the sound disappears and only comes back when i let go the breaks.

Using them a few times and slowing down slowed the problem although i now got a very slight and constant disc rubbing.

I will check with my mechanic (i suck with tools) if this solution works. Thank you for this video because ive spent weeks trying stuff like tightening hubs, check the spokes, re centering the wheel and even listening to people swearing ludicrous stuff like "carbon frame flex", as if millimeters of flex would cause such a preeminent noise.

[pelegrinsamblas]

I have the same annoying noise on my Specialized Roubaix during steep descending -10% -12%. I'm going to try your method. Thanks a lot.

[faintscrawl]

This is the next engineering challenge for hydraulic disc brake companies. I am always fiddling with my Force brakes to avoid rub. There needs to be a way to adjust the pad clearance. The way hydro brakes work now the pads just about float on the disc. If anything goes out of whack even a fraction of a millimeter there is friction. In a cx race it is very annoying: even a splash of dirty water on the disc is enough to create a rubbing noise.

[rudytoth]

I found the cure last night of this ticking sound that was earlier that came from my mountain bike. All you need to do is take an old t - shirt and remove the excessive grease on your chain by rotating your pedals counter-clock wise. This removes the ticking sound. Must have been a stiff link in the chain. 👍🏻😎

[IGotsBadFeeling]

I know discs stop much better than rim brakes but sometimes I really miss the simplicity of rim brakes. It's easy to maintain, cheap and lighter.