This has probably been covered before, but I have not been able to find it.
I was having tires replaced and the service rep at a Maine Honda dealer pointed out that all of my brake pads were worn "razor thin." My '05 ST1300 has 46000 miles, and I know the rear brake pads have been replaced, but I think the fronts were originals.
The technician that performed the service took it for a test spin, and handed it over to me. The first thing I noticed was that the brakes seemed to stop a lot stronger, and that the front brakes applied before the brake light switch clicked. Before the pad replacement, I could always disengage my McCruise Control by a slight squeeze of the front brake lever -- the brake light switch would click, the McCruise would cancel, but the brakes would not actually engage until after the switch clicked. In other words, there was now little or no "free play" at the lever.
After riding on about 100 miles or so, I was running on the Interstate at about 70mph on cruise, when the engine started bogging. We pulled to the shoulder and checked oil level, and listened to the engine note, and all seemed OK. My riding buddy then noted that my rotors looked dark, and felt the discs -- hot!
McCruise uses engine manifold vacuum to pull the throttle open to maintain speed. The dragging brakes put more and more load on the engine, appearing to drag more as they got hotter, until finally, the manifold vacuum dropped as the throttles opened farther to maintain speed, but that speed could no longer be maintained, and the engine was struggling.
We limped off the Interstate and called the service rep in Maine where the pads were changed. He consulted the EBC rep (yep, no Honda OEM pads at a Honda dealer) and some lame explanation about dirt blocking the fluid line was proposed. They referred me to a local dealer for service, but I wanted to make our day's destination, so we removed a little fluid from the reservoir, and continued onward at a slower secondary road pace.
The pads stopped overheating, but the free-play at the lever has increased only a tiny bit.
I remember back in the day when I pulled all my own maintenance on my '65 VW Beetle that I hopped up with a 1600cc, dual-carb motor that brake pedal free-play had to be carefully set so that the master cylinder piston could retract enough to uncover the relief port. Otherwise, the shoes could not be pulled away from the drums, heat would build up, increasing pressure, etc, until the brakes locked. I investigated such an incident where a VW that had recently had brakes serviced had run off the road with locked brakes. The pedal was as solid as if it had been welded.
If I can get to my home dealer, I'll schedule a brake service, or maybe try using my service manual for once and get my hands dirty.
I'm baffled what the cause is in my case. It should not be like the VW incident above, since there should not have been any lever to master cylinder piston free-play adjustment, right?
Feel free to speculate, or offer suggestions.
I was having tires replaced and the service rep at a Maine Honda dealer pointed out that all of my brake pads were worn "razor thin." My '05 ST1300 has 46000 miles, and I know the rear brake pads have been replaced, but I think the fronts were originals.
The technician that performed the service took it for a test spin, and handed it over to me. The first thing I noticed was that the brakes seemed to stop a lot stronger, and that the front brakes applied before the brake light switch clicked. Before the pad replacement, I could always disengage my McCruise Control by a slight squeeze of the front brake lever -- the brake light switch would click, the McCruise would cancel, but the brakes would not actually engage until after the switch clicked. In other words, there was now little or no "free play" at the lever.
After riding on about 100 miles or so, I was running on the Interstate at about 70mph on cruise, when the engine started bogging. We pulled to the shoulder and checked oil level, and listened to the engine note, and all seemed OK. My riding buddy then noted that my rotors looked dark, and felt the discs -- hot!
McCruise uses engine manifold vacuum to pull the throttle open to maintain speed. The dragging brakes put more and more load on the engine, appearing to drag more as they got hotter, until finally, the manifold vacuum dropped as the throttles opened farther to maintain speed, but that speed could no longer be maintained, and the engine was struggling.
We limped off the Interstate and called the service rep in Maine where the pads were changed. He consulted the EBC rep (yep, no Honda OEM pads at a Honda dealer) and some lame explanation about dirt blocking the fluid line was proposed. They referred me to a local dealer for service, but I wanted to make our day's destination, so we removed a little fluid from the reservoir, and continued onward at a slower secondary road pace.
The pads stopped overheating, but the free-play at the lever has increased only a tiny bit.
I remember back in the day when I pulled all my own maintenance on my '65 VW Beetle that I hopped up with a 1600cc, dual-carb motor that brake pedal free-play had to be carefully set so that the master cylinder piston could retract enough to uncover the relief port. Otherwise, the shoes could not be pulled away from the drums, heat would build up, increasing pressure, etc, until the brakes locked. I investigated such an incident where a VW that had recently had brakes serviced had run off the road with locked brakes. The pedal was as solid as if it had been welded.
If I can get to my home dealer, I'll schedule a brake service, or maybe try using my service manual for once and get my hands dirty.
I'm baffled what the cause is in my case. It should not be like the VW incident above, since there should not have been any lever to master cylinder piston free-play adjustment, right?
Feel free to speculate, or offer suggestions.
