rear brake pulsating

[djr]

New here so I hope I can get a little help on this. I have a 05 RSV and I am having problems with the rear brake rotor pulsating. It first starting showing up around 4500 miles. It took the dealer until about 11500 miles until they replaced it under warranty. Now with 14500 miles on the bike the rear brakes are pulsating again. I brought it back to the dealer and they are telling me that they will not replace it under warranty again saying it's my fault because I am riding the rear brake. I find that almost impossible because of the position of the brake pedal. And yes, I even had the dealer, I see why there called the stealer, replace the brake shoes and the tires. I'm not new to this riding stuff, being doing it for about 40 years now. Any body able to offer any help on this?

[dray]

sounds to me like your heating up the rotors and warping them !

 

[Marcarl]

Three things that can happen:

1) The bike has been sitting for some time and the rotor gets a little rusty, but not under the brake pad, maybe some salt on the rear rotor to help this along. When you apply the brakes they will pulsate, but mostly it clears up with some riding but not always.

2) The brake pads are riding too tight on the rotor, either from your foot on the pedal, even resting it there can do it, or from improper return of the fluid after you let off the brake pedal. This would cause excessive heat build up and cause the rotor to warp.

3) The same as #2 but instead you get a hot spot on the rotor giving you the same problem.

 

If it's your foot, or rust then I agree with the dealer, if it's not, something needs to done about the brake system, and that would be their problem.

[kansan29]

If they have been overheated by you the rotors will show hot spots and/or heat cracks. Otherwise make them stand behind the warranty. That is what you paid for.

[djr]

I agree, If I rode the brake or rested my foot on the pedal I would overheat the rotor and cause the damage but I do know the difference between the brake pedal and the floorboard.As far as rust, the rotors look like new, no rust at all. Any other thoughts? I am open for anything.

[1BigDog]

Im wondering if the dealer torqued them in the proper sequence when they installed the new rotor. If they just went around the the ring rather than gradually tightening them in a cross pattern the rotor could have warped. You may also want to try a better pad than the factory ones, like the EBC HH pads.

[GeorgeS]

I would just throw in a new set of pads, and see what happens.

 

Easy to do, takes about 15 min. Less time then driveing to the dealer

and haveing a discussion with them.

[ToRide1]

I have see a few thread's started about this on other forums. I'm not sure but there may be a miss alinement with the Brake Caliper and the Rotors on many of these bikes but not all! Many of the reports make a point of the inside brake pad being worn unevenly more so than the outside pad on the rear. I got my venture last year (used) the dealer said he needed to replace the rear rotor before he would let me have it and I told them about the problem other people have reported and he thanked me for that info and said he was going to look into that so far so good I have put 6,000. miles on it but I lowered the bike so the rear caliper relocate kit may have fixed the alinement problem.

[skydoc_17]

I just ran into this problem the other day, this bike was 6 months old, the owner was on his third rotor, replaced by the Stealer, Brought the bike to me, the first thing I did was remove the caliper. Now about calipers, there is nothing inside a caliper that pulls the brake pads away from the rotor. With that being said, the pistons in a caliper should "float" freely in their bores. In other words if you can't push the piston in with your finger then the brake pads are going to drag on the rotor. As the heat builds the problem gets worse. As I said I pulled the caliper, popped the pistons with my air hose, (WARNING: COVER THE CALIPER WITH A HEAVY CLOTH!) Because those pistons are comming outta' there like a rocket! I lightly honed the bores, cleaned the brake dust crud off of the pistons, lubed the seals with brake fluid, put everything back together and All was well.

By the way you can check the run out of a rotor with a dial indicator and I don't know what the spec is on a second gen. rear rotor is but you can find it in the service manual.

I'd have a good close look at that caliper If I were you.

Just my thoughts,

Earl

[GeorgeS]

Last month I pulled my rear caliper. found the Inner pad worn at an angle. ??

 

Now that I have been paying attention to this, I hear about several others reporting this condition.

 

Interesting ???

 

When I first found this condx. I was doing the check for clearance between the Rear hub ( ie. Pumpkin ) and the end of drive shaft houseing. ie. lossen the 4 nuts holding the pumpkin in place, with the Main Axel Nut, still tight ---and measure the gap.

 

I found 0.022 space on mine and made a Shim and installed. When reinstalling the Caliper, I found the Inner Pad worn about twice as much as the outer, and it was worn severly at an angle.

 

OK, Question: ???? Will installing the shim, cure the angled wear problem ??

 

Well, I guess in about 10K, I will know the answer. Hmmmm

[ToRide1]

Last month I pulled my rear caliper. found the Inner pad worn at an angle. ??

 

Now that I have been paying attention to this, I hear about several others reporting this condition.

 

Interesting ???

 

When I first found this condx. I was doing the check for clearance between the Rear hub ( ie. Pumpkin ) and the end of drive shaft houseing. ie. lossen the 4 nuts holding the pumpkin in place, with the Main Axel Nut, still tight ---and measure the gap.

 

I found 0.022 space on mine and made a Shim and installed. When reinstalling the Caliper, I found the Inner Pad worn about twice as much as the outer, and it was worn severly at an angle.

 

OK, Question: ???? Will installing the shim, cure the angled wear problem ??

 

Well, I guess in about 10K, I will know the answer. Hmmmm

 

I have seen a report of someone using shim to fix this problem, this was on another forum and I can't say how thick the shim was and just witch bolt it needs to go on. Stay tuned I will try to seek that one out and post the info here.

[ToRide1]

Ok; to fix uneven brake pads, The rear bolt or the back bolt on the rear caliper needs a shim or washer of .42 Thousandths thickness.

[djr]

Some great suggestions here, I think I will throw some of these thoughts at the stealer this weekend when I stop in to see him. They were suppose to call me back after Bike Week to discuss my problem but I guess they forgot again. After they tell me again that they won't honor the warranty, 5 years-unlimted mileage, I think I will start off with the upgraded brake pads and inspect the rotor and old brake pads to see how they are wearing. If I purchase a repair manual will that have the torque specs that I need for the rotor? I see why you people make the big bucks, this is really some great help.

[GeorgeS]

NO-- the shim does not go on the Caliper !!

 

To check for the shim thickness, Remove left side muffler for access.

 

Now just Loosen the 4 Nuts that hold the pumpkin to the rear end of the drive shaft houseing. ( Leave the Main Axel Nut Tight on right side. )

 

Now Tap Tap Tap, on the pumpkin with a plastic mallet, watch the space open up between the pumpkin, and the rear end of the Drive shaft.

 

Most likley it will be between 20 to 25 thousands of an inch.

 

Now remove the Axel, and tire. Then remove the Pumpkin, and make a shim to fill the Space that you measured,

 

I used .025 thick aluminum stock metal.

 

OK after doing all this, on re installing the Caliper, I spotted the uneven wear of the Inner Pad.

 

" JerryK " made the first posting concerning this on his 2nd gen. about 3 months ago.

 

Find his thread, and read thru it all if you are interested.

[V7Goose]

I don't know what your problem is, but if you start messing with it you will give up all hope of Yamahaha ever fixing it as they should. I have over 60,000 miles on my 05 + 13,000 on an 07 with zero brake problems (other than very short life on stock rear pads - replaced by Yamahaha under warranty), but my brother's 07 had warped rotors all the way around (also replaced by Yamahaha under warranty).

 

One thing I do know for a fact is the rear brake on the RSV almost always wears unevenly - the inside pad will hit metal when the outside pad is only 1/2 gone. You can use this to PROOVE to the shop and Yamahaha that the brake is deffective and must be fixed. No matter if you are riding the brake or not, BOTH pads should wear evenly. But uneven pad wear has nothing to do with brake pulsing, that is simply a warped rotor, which should be covered under warranty, no matter what. You can just use the uneven wear to ovecome their refusal to honor the warranty.

 

So what I am trying to suggest is that you don't bend over. If the crappy shop won't honor the warranty, call Yamahaha direct and complain about their refusal to honor a legal warranty. Don't mess with it; make them do what they legally have to do.

Goose

[ToRide1]

I don't know what your problem is, but if you start messing with it you will give up all hope of Yamahaha ever fixing it as they should. I have over 60,000 miles on my 05 + 13,000 on an 07 with zero brake problems (other than very short life on stock rear pads - replaced by Yamahaha under warranty), but my brother's 07 had warped rotors all the way around (also replaced by Yamahaha under warranty).

 

One thing I do know for a fact is the rear brake on the RSV almost always wears unevenly - the inside pad will hit metal when the outside pad is only 1/2 gone. You can use this to PROOVE to the shop and Yamahaha that the brake is deffective and must be fixed. No matter if you are riding the brake or not, BOTH pads should wear evenly. But uneven pad wear has nothing to do with brake pulsing, that is simply a warped rotor, which should be covered under warranty, no matter what. You can just use the uneven wear to ovecome their refusal to honor the warranty.

 

So what I am trying to suggest is that you don't bend over. If the crappy shop won't honor the warranty, call Yamahaha direct and complain about their refusal to honor a legal warranty. Don't mess with it; make them do what they legally have to do.

Goose

 

I concur; But it seems a number of people can't get this fixed by a dealer its either they can't figure it out or they don't care, and this is safety equipment thats has a factory defect. I have never look into it but a call to the U.S. department of transpiration should get you in contact with the right people and if enough people call and complain about the same problem! They could make Yamaha do a recall on all the effected bikes to fix this at no cost to you.

[KiteSquid]

Yamaha services the warentee, not the local dealer.

 

 

 

You can download the factrory service manual for FREE from this web site.

 

Click on the VRTech link in the left hand collumn on EVERY page here at the GREATEST foum for Royal Star motorcycle owners!!!!!!!!

 

Follow the links thur the 2nd gen.

 

you will find it there.

[djr]

I did stop by the dealer on the way home from work tonight and gave him some of the suggestions you guys gave me. I'm not sure how much of it they took in but he did say he would like to look at it and see if I might have a bent axel. I again asked him why yamaha would not warranty this and the response was that they talked to yamaha and the yamaha rep and they both said that they were not going to cover this because they fixed it once already yet the rep has never looked at my bike only talked to the dealer over the phone. The dealer did say, as goose stated, that if I took it apart it would viod any chance of getting any warranty on it. Has anybody else had this problem dealing with yamaha warranty or do any of you wise yamaha people have any suggestions or yamaha factory contacts that could help me?

[ToRide1]

As I was pointing out! There is the U.S. Department of Transportation and they will put you in contact with the people there that handle this kind of thing!! "Defective Safety Equipment". And like I said if enough people complain about the same manufacture, same Model, with the same problem, The U.S. Department of Transportation will make Yamaha motors do a recall on all the motorcycles the have this problem and have it fixed at no cost to the owner. It does not matter if the warentee has exspried Yamaha still has to fix it is the U.S. Dep. of Transport said it must.

[djr]

WELL, ALL YOUR GREAT SUGGESTIONS AND THE NICE WEATHER HERE HELP ME DECIDE WHAT TO DO. SCREW YAMAHA FOR NOW. I WENT FOR THE QUICK FIX FIRST, AND IT FEELS LIKE IT'S GOING TO WORK. I BOUGHT A GOOD SET OF GOOD AFTERMARKET BRAKE PADS, NOT YAMAHA, PUT THEM IN AND THE BRAKES FEELS NICE AND SMOOTH NOW. MAYBE IT WAS JUST THE PADS? I GUESS I WILL KNOW AFTER A FEW MORE MILES. THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP AND HOPE I CAN OFFER SOME SUGGESTIONS IN THE FUTURE. I'VE BEEN READING THIS FOR A LONG TIME AND MAYBE IT'S TIME TO PARTICIPATE. ONE OTHER THING, WHEN I PICKED UP MY PADS, THE AFTER MARKET STORE MADE SUGGESTION THAT I BLEED MY BRAKES FROM THE CALIPER BACKWARDS THRU THE MASTER CYLINDER TO FORCE ANY AIR OUT OF THE LINES, AND THAT MAYBE THERE COULD BE AIR IN THE LINE WHERE IT GOES BY THE PIPES AND IT COULD EXPAND WHEN IT GETS HOT AND FORCE THE CALIPER OPEN AND HEAT THE ROTOR. MAKES SINCE TO ME, I THINK.

[GeorgeS]

Easy fix---

 

My 03 Blazer was doing the same thing on front wheels. Only about 15K on a new set of Calipers, and Pads, had installed 2 years ago.

 

I put in a new set of Pads, this morning, bleed out both, and Wa La !!! All fixed and Wiffie is happy again.

 

No more pulsing, I guess some brands or types of Pads , just do that. Not more then 15 percent worn down on those pads.

 

But I had to work in the Rain, cause the garage is full of motorcycles !!!