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I know I need to keep the disks clean on my bike, but if I've got them covered in grease, what should I clean them with?

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I'm afraid the grease has already ruined your pads. – domsterr Oct 16 '10 at 13:28
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Work on your accept rate; when you get a satisfactory answer to a question you've asked, you should be marking it "accepted". – meagar Oct 16 '10 at 16:07
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@meagar - Will do. May I also suggest you work on your questioning/answering rate - you haven't yet asked or answered anything :) – Scott Langham Oct 17 '10 at 15:57
Um... sheer volume isn't a good metric by which to judge somebody. Otherwise you get accounts like this :p – meagar Oct 17 '10 at 16:01
@meagar - That's not bad though is it. Only a very small percentage of that person's questions got down-voted, many q's got lots of upvotes, so I think they've made a valuable contribution. Good luck with the charity cycle ride by the way! – Scott Langham Oct 17 '10 at 16:48

2 Answers

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the pads are likely trash, but you can use isopropyl alcohol to clean the disk rotors (say, to remove grease BEFORE it gets into the pads).

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The Hayes service manual says: "The brake disc and pads should only be cleaned with isopropyl alcohol (not disc brake cleaner)." – csadam Oct 16 '10 at 20:11
@csadam; do you know why? – sixtyfootersdude Oct 17 '10 at 10:49
I'm not sure. Maybe because it does not leave any film residue on the surface. – csadam Oct 17 '10 at 11:04
up vote 1 down vote

I've heard that boiling the disk brake pads in water can help remove the oil from them if they've become contaminated. It wouldn't be the first thing I'd try, but if you're trying to restore an otherwise trashed pair of pads, it might be worth a go.

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