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Front Brakes Freezing


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Hello fellow VFR Owners; I have noticed my front brakes are intermittently freezing up. The lever becomes difficult to pull then all of the sudden the brakes grab and you are thrown forward. I have removed the calipers and sprayed them down with brake cleaner, it seemed to help, then a few days ago it started again. Fortunately, this only happens when the bike is cold, once the calipers and discs warm up the freezing up stops. First, I am hoping to find out if anyone else has had this experience, if so, how did you handle it? Thank you for your thoughts and comments. Cheers.

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  • Member Contributer

Eeeesh....

Hopefully someone with some ideas will chip in soon.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'd be much use on this one.

Welcome to the forum!

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  • Member Contributer

Also, the caliper slide pins require a very thin film of high temp grease - might check that, too.

For an older VFR with sliding front brake calipers, I agree this would be a useful suggestion.

For bikes with radial-mount front brake calipers (like a 7th gen), I believe this would be unnecessary. But I don't have any first-hand experience with radial-mount brake calipers, so I cannot confirm. Just my impression.

Ron

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • Member Contributer

check your rotor for warping.

you may not feel it but the rotor can be rubbing a pad and heating up your fluid to the point its making the lever hard to squeeze ..

then as you say, blamo! near lock up.!!

another thing to check.. dirt on the pistons..

take off the brake, take out the pads.. pump the psitons out far enough to see a dirt ring.. clean if off with brake cleaner and a tooth bush.. :wink:

press pistons back in and reassemble brake..

pump the brake to " normal" :beer:

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  • 1 year later...

G'day mate. I have too have a 2010 VFR1200FA and it sounds like I am experiencing exactly the same braking issue as yourself. I also live in Brisbane, so I doubt I'm suffering from problems related to salt and grime on the road that so many northern hemisphere fellow VFR riders talk about. I have owned nearly 10 bikes over 20 years and have never experienced this unnerving problem. For myself, the front brake lever is jamming about 50% of the time of application. At the very instant I apply pressure on the front brake lever, even 1 finger pressure, I know if it has jammed as the lever feels totally solid and hardly moves and the brake only feels like it is providing about 5% of normal braking force with virtually no retardation to the bike's speed. The instant I feel that, I simply release the lever and then reapply, and the brake will work normally again. This remedy is reliable so far. I wondered if the problem would behave differently if the front brake was first activated by the combined braking system by activating the rear brake first - but it didn't seem to change the problem. Again about 50% of time the front lever would feel solid until I cycled the front brake lever again.

What was the fix for you...?

Cheers

James.

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remove the calipers and pop the pistons out....there will be a ring of corrosion/accumulated road grit around the exposed area of the piston ......use a very fine sandpaper and/or steel wool to clean them...clean the entire caliper with a good cleaner...i used PJ1 super cleaner............i still have a feeling that there is an issue with the ABS Modulator on these bikes ...i had these strange bleeding issues which mysteriously cured itself and a road issue similar to to yours

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Definitely flush the brake system. A full caliper disassembly may not be fully needed. I noticed this very thing almost immediately after buying my used VFR1200 (11,000 miles). Didn't matter if it was hot or cold/ end of the ride or beginning/ hard or easy breaking. It would happen erratically but almost always a couple times a day. The original fluid doesn't seem to be good to use for too long. I used the basic DOT4 fluid from Maxima but I'm about due for another change and I think I will upgrade over to the Maxima Synthetic Racing 600 type (just clicked over 42k miles tonight). I have been very impressed with the regular Maxima fluid, I just figure if you can upgrade why not. The change is a simple pump through that you can do with a friend keeping an eye on the level. After my change it took about a week of ridding (I have about 100 mile daily commute) and the problem slowly faded away and it hasn't done it since.

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Don not mention to Ishark this is an easy to bleed bike - he will not like it :biggrin:

Agreed, old fluid gives you even more problems. The stock fluid needs to be flushed after 2 years tops.

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Thanks for the feed back gents. I have dropped off the bike to a Honda dealer this morning for it's 12K service. As the bike is 4-5 yrs old and has been in storage for a bit, it's well over due for a complete fluid change over. After explaining the problem to the mechanics, they said old brake fluid can certainly cause this. I keep my bike 'toothbursh' clean and it has only seen rain once, so I'll be quite disappointed if these brakes need some sort of extra cleaning requirements above and beyond any other bike I've owned. Hopefully it's simply a case of old fluids. Anyway, I'll should be able to pick her up this afternoon. I will ask the Honda mechanics about their opinion on cleaning the pistons and pads, or whatever, to make sure this problem doesn't come back. I'll report back soon.

Thanks again guys...!

cheers

James.

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been there, done that... dirt is mostly comming off the brake pads it is sticking into the house that keeps the pads in place. i doubt if any mechanics would take the time to clean that well. if i ware you i would ask to call if the brakes are been dissassemblyd and go there myself to clean them...

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Happy days...! The brakes are fixed and back to that one finger power feel I remembered. Speaking to the mechanics and mentioning the advice I've read here, they said it was all true. They said they pulled off the calipers and cleaned the grime out. I asked them if that was something that needed to be done on a regular basis with the VFR1200 and they said not if you get your brake fluid changed every 2 years as scheduled, as that's something they do in the service.

I must also add that I was exceptionally happy with the service from the guys at Brisbane Motorcycles. They gave me a brand new CBX500 as a courtesy bike and my bike was ready on the same day as they said it would be. But more importantly, my bike feels a heap different and actually feels new again.

So there you go. Hope this might help somebody one day.

Thanks everyone.

cheers

James.

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VFR 1200 calipers get very dirty very quickly. Remove the calipers / pads. Put a screw driver in between the calipper in place of the pad so they dont pop out and squeeze the brake until the screwdriver is held in place by all pistons. Clean the pistons with warm water, washing up liquid and a toothbrush (wet&dry sandpaper) gently on real grimey parts. Get some "Red Rubber Greece" and put a layer all around each piston. Re-assemble and your issue should be solved and they should last a bit longer between service. Also, check your line has no air in it, bleed if required.

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Never ever use any sandpaper for cleaning the brake pistons. The residue sand will remain and scratch the surface. Very no no no.

Scotch Brite is absolutely everything you would ever need. Some don't but I started to use ATP brake caliper piston paste for assembling.

Some says use the brake fluid only and I say of course, but use the special lubricants for brake purpose as well.

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Mine froze in front of my house,after a ride. Bled the caliper, and got it in the garage. Mine still had the original fluid from new,so I figured that was part of the problem.Disassembled both caliper and cleaned inside. Put back together with synthetic fluid. Problem solved. I own a 1200,so bleeding system is a little more involved,but not difficult.

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I really doubt the brake fluid is a factor in this. All that does is transmit pressure from the lever to the pistons. If the brakes are seizing on then the pistons are not retracting into the calipers or the pads are sticking in position. Just sounds like the VFR is particular about caliper cleanliness to me. I am not saying you shouldn't change your brake fluid when it needs it but it won't help fix the problem described above.

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With the difference the brake fluid is hygroscopic and will eventually collect some humidity - yes, seals will not stop all the moisture.

Second, temp of brakes slowly cooks the fluid, Im sure you saw your oil in kitchen to become more sticky and thicker over time.

Cant deny that vfr 1200 calipers are fragile to dirt but not more then any other caliper.

Cant agree with you, sorry.

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Jeremy,brake fluid will eventually collect moisture,and what does water do when it's heated.? Expands and causes caliper to activate. Clean fluid and clean caliper = a proper braking system

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We can agree to disagree but even heavily contaminated fluid does not cause brakes to lock on. Yes the water may boil off but this generally only happens under conditions of prolonged heavy braking and even when that happens the water vapour is compressible so braking action is lost. The brakes don't lock on. The pads or pistons in the VFR caliper stick for some reason, and dirty fluid aint it.

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We can agree to disagree but even heavily contaminated fluid does not cause brakes to lock on. Yes the water may boil off but this generally only happens under conditions of prolonged heavy braking and even when that happens the water vapour is compressible so braking action is lost. The brakes don't lock on. The pads or pistons in the VFR caliper stick for some reason, and dirty fluid aint it.

No, the pistons in a brake caliper tend to block on due the old fluid - I'm talking form experience and I have car calipers in mind as well - in case some might not realize car

calipers have additional dust seals(some bikes have them too) so the road dirt is not the problem here.

What is that moisture will contaminate the fluid to the state of jelly and would eventually restrict the piston free movement - you can disagree ,that's ok.

What you need to agree with is a fact that moisture will sooner or later inhibit cause a corrosion either on pistons or caliper body.

And yes, aluminum corrode as well and its called oxidation - there's not better oxidation inhibitor catalyst as water is.

The pads stick to the rotor and the piston stick to the caliper body. Seen both many times.

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I have had to regularly clean the calipers on my 2010 DCT (ride all year round here in UK). There is very close tolerances between the calipers and the pads, doesn't take long for brake dust and road dirt to fill the gaps between pads and calipers walls causing the pads to 'seize' in the calipers. I'm not sure why the lever would appeared seized though.

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