Rear brake problem. Panic.

I had my '06 into my dealer yesterday to have 2 new Pilot Roads installed for my cross country trip later this week. Because it was convenient, I had the oil changed as well. Today, I took it for a shakedown run to see how the tires felt. I love new tires. I'm happy with them.

However, about 40 miles out I pulled over to snap a photo, and I noticed my rear wheel was black with brake dust. Not just a bit, but heavily coated. I had just washed the bike. I wash it every week, and had never noticed ANY brake dust on the rear wheel. More alarmingly, when I touched the rear rotor, it was red hot! The fronts were cool. I'd just been cruising and had hardly used the brakes!

I put the bike up on the center stand and spun the rear wheel. A good bit of friction, but how much should there be? The brake linkage looks okay. The tech should not have had to get into the hydraulics to do the tire, right? Could I have a caliper piston hanging up? 6500 miles. Any ideas anyone? I know. Next time I'll do my own tires and LOF.

Old Michael said:

I had my '06 into my dealer yesterday to have 2 new Pilot Roads installed for my cross country trip later this week. Because it was convenient, I had the oil changed as well. Today, I took it for a shakedown run to see how the tires felt. I love new tires. I'm happy with them. However, about 40 miles out I pulled over to snap a photo, and I noticed my rear wheel was black with brake dust. Not just a bit, but heavily coated. I had just washed the bike. I wash it every week, and had never noticed ANY brake dust on the rear wheel. More alarmingly, when I touched the rear rotor, it was red hot! The fronts were cool. I'd just been cruising and had hardly used the brakes!

I put the bike up on the center stand and spun the rear wheel. A good bit of friction, but how much should there be? The brake linkage looks okay. The tech should not have had to get into the hydraulics to do the tire, right? Could I have a caliper piston hanging up? 6500 miles. Any ideas anyone? I know. Next time I'll do my own tires and LOF.

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The pads may not be installed properly after they removed the wheel and replaced it. I think that I would remove the brake caliper, inspect it and the pads, open the cover on the brake fluid resevoir and then compress the caliper and then reinstall everything and step on the brake a few times and see if the brake is still sticking.

Don't keep running it like this or you could boil the fluid and add more probs to the mix.

Look at the tech article on the rear tire change and make sure the rear space is on correctly and the ABS arrows line up.

The article has good pics and an easy check without taking the wheel off.

FJRFencer said:

Don't keep running it like this or you could boil the fluid and add more probs to the mix.
Look at the tech article on the rear tire change and make sure the rear space is on correctly and the ABS arrows line up.

The article has good pics and an easy check without taking the wheel off.

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Thank you all. It looks like it was that rear spacer.

Hold a sec. DO NOT touch that damn thing. If dealer worked on it. have them fix it. You now probably lost part of the disc and some of the pad life. I would at least demand that they install all new hardware. Make a call to yama mama as well. What kind of morons they have working there if they can't install the damn brakes right? the finest would probably be the answer

cougar8000 said:

Hold a sec. DO NOT touch that damn thing. If dealer worked on it. have them fix it. You now probably lost part of the disc and some of the pad life. I would at least demand that they install all new hardware. Make a call to yama mama as well. What kind of morons they have working there if they can't install the damn brakes right? the finest would probably be the answer

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GUNNY!! A new rotor and new pads are in order, on their dime. Insist on nothing less. No motivation for change if customers keep bailing out their doofus teknitions......I've had the back wheel off Frank a dozen times, and still have the manual open to the wheel breakdown to be sure I assemble it right every time. They should do no less.

radman said:

cougar8000 said:

Hold a sec. DO NOT touch that damn thing. If dealer worked on it. have them fix it. You now probably lost part of the disc and some of the pad life. I would at least demand that they install all new hardware. Make a call to yama mama as well. What kind of morons they have working there if they can't install the damn brakes right? the finest would probably be the answer

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GUNNY!! A new rotor and new pads are in order, on their dime. Insist on nothing less. No motivation for change if customers keep bailing out their doofus teknitions......I've had the back wheel off Frank a dozen times, and still have the manual open to the wheel breakdown to be sure I assemble it right every time. They should do no less.

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Thanks. I've decided not to take it apart myself. The dealer was apologetic and offered to send his boys the 30 miles to trailer it back and make it right. He's ordering a new rotor and hardware and is having it overnighted. He admitted that the "technician" who did the work was not as experienced as he would have preferred. (I had waited while the young man put the tires on - 3.5 hours!) It was a Saturday morning, and they were short-handed I was told. I must say the service manager is doing all the right things now, with no hesitation. I reckon anyone can make a mistake, and perhaps both sides have learned from this. It could have turned out a lot worse. I could have been in the middle of my VERY long awaited 2 week road trip, three or four states from home, in the rain. THAT would have had me going sideways on them.

Good for you for taking the bike on a shake-down cruise to make sure everything was right. You saved yourself some trouble on the trip. I don't trust any dealerships. Unfortunately many people do not have an option. Glad they are taking care of it.

Glad they are replacing the rotor. There shouldn't be any friction in the rear wheel.

God.....The more I read stories like this about dealer service, the gladder I am my Dear old dad taught me to turn wrenches very early on. Secondly The happier I am I found this forum and you guys, Collectively speaking, I would put the experience found on this forum against any service dept. anywhere. Thirdly I am glad I bought the official Yamaha Service manual so I can do whatever needs to be done with the proper guide to go by.

The biggest indication I was on my own as far as service goes, was when I brought my '07 AE in for its first sticker and the mechanic goes, "Oh, you got one of the AE models huh?", "Yeah, what do you think of them?", I said. "Dunno.... first one of 'em I've seen." :dribble: :huh: ...

Ummmm, O.K. Tiger; put the sticker on please, and take a good look, because you won't ever be servicing this one..... :bleh: :bike:

DailyCommuter said:

the gladder I am my Dear old dad taught me to turn wrenches

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Yup, my dad taught me. He drives a truck for a living and sometimes has to get it fixed/serviced on the road. Boy has he got some stories, my fav is the oil change where the tech forgot to drain the oil! :blink:

Michael, out of curiosity how is the axle in relation to the right side of the swingarm? Is the axle flush with the swingarm or not? (It shouldn't be flush, the axle is tightened from the left).

Nice to hear that you are getting take care off. Good luck on your trip.

"The dealer was apologetic and offered to send his boys the 30 miles to trailer it back and make it right. He's ordering a new rotor and hardware and is having it overnighted. He admitted that the "technician" who did the work was not as experienced as he would have preferred. "

Now THERE is a stand up dealer... :fan_1:

Okay, just got home with the boy. I had dropped him off this morning to have the problem addressed. Everything checked out fine. The service manager went over everything. Had it all taken apart, checked, re-assembled, checked, test-ridden. I'm assured that it had been put back together properly the first time. The spacer was in the right place, the sensor ring aligned. Everything looked perfect. They checked the axle, the caliper, the rotor, the hardware, and the whole brake system. Everything looks good. The pads are like new-worn almost perfectly evenly - inner and outer. The rotor is not discolored or burned. It was miked and is not worn or warped. I'm assured that the heat was not abnormal. Well, alrighty then. I suck. Did I jump to conclusions? Over-react? Sound a false alarm? Perhaps.

I'm told that the rear rotor gets hotter than the fronts under normal circumstances. The brake dust covering the rear wheel may not have been brake dust. (they cleaned it off - I'll monitor.)

So perhaps I'm out of line here, and if so, I'll readily admit it. I'm gonna ride the hell out of it in the next couple of days, before I head east on my adventure. Not sure how I feel about the whole thing, but I must say that I was treated well by this Yamaha dealer. Upward and onward.

Thanks for the input and advice all. This forum is gold.

Yeah, kinda figured they weren't really gonna give you a new rotor out of this. Good job on his part of talking you out of it. You were well within your rights to clamp down and hammer him on this, but now that it's over, oh well.

Having worked for one in my own youth, I fight tooth and nail to avoid having to let a dealership ever TOUCH my bike. I'd rather pay the $$ to rent special dealer tools even rather than let them do anything more than tire changes. If it fails, I *know* it's my fault and not because some underpaid 23 year old, hung over or jonesing to get out of there for the day, has taken apart and reassembled critical assemblies. Like I said, I worked parts and I know firsthand how a lot of wrenches are. They know their stuff and when it's a bike they care about, they're anal. If they think the rider is a squid in their book or generally hate the model etc, a lot of them really go through the motions. I'm admittedly jaded, take my ramblings with a pocketful of salt, not just a grain.

I suspect a slight and temporary hangfire in the hydraulic system; likely culprit the rear master cylinder piston if both pads looked equally worn.

No big deal here. I had a rear wheel bind up once on an 8 year old bike that some older looking brake fluid. I just cracked open the bleed nut, let it un-pressure itself and the brake released. Then changed and bled new fluid when I got home.

A nearly new low mileage bike shouldn't need to have the brake fluid replaced but it couldn't hurt to do it anyway since one partial lock-up already occured.

v65 said:

DailyCommuter said:

the gladder I am my Dear old dad taught me to turn wrenches

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Michael, out of curiosity how is the axle in relation to the right side of the swingarm? Is the axle flush with the swingarm or not? (It shouldn't be flush, the axle is tightened from the left).

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Um, I would suggest looking on page 4-50 in the manual on the 06 under, "Installing The Rear Brake Caliper", it shows a clear picture of the right side of the swingarm while instructing the proceedure for aligning up the rear wheel sensor housing and the rear brake caliper bracket. It clearly shows the axel as being flush with the swingarm. The Allen head should be flush with the swing arm. Is this what you are speaking of? PM. <>< :blink: