Rear Brake issue

[brutusbikes]

All, I bought a 09 GS yesterday knowing it had a brake failure indication. THe individual I bought it from said he was told it was the brake sensor. So I drove it home. I had no issues on the ride home, well over a 100 miles on windy back roads. Again, not problem. When I rode it to fill it up today, 2 up BTW, I began to hear an intermittent squealing sound from the rear wheel. When I looked at it, I noticed that the pads had not released very much at all. The wheel spins freely. But when I tried applying the brakes, the cable moved, but nothing else happened to the brakes. Two questions...will a bad brake sensor cause this issue? Second, what do I need to do next?

 

[Zoot]

If the wheel spins freely by hand, then the caliper is opening enough (at least sometimes). As for the squeal - is there still friction material on the pads, or are they down to metal-on-metal? Is it possibly something other than the brake making noise?

 

[CopperSpyder]

First I would say if you have a brake light. Than stop using the Spyder until you fix it or know for sure what the problem is. If you are good with working on cars and bikes with this being new to you I would start with replacing the brake pad, cleaning the calibers and bleeding and replacing the brake fluid. If you can do that yourself its not that expensive and should fix your problem. Live to Ride, Ride to Live.

You should be able to find a repair manual for less than $20 buck on ebay. that is a nice thing to have. it will give you some spec. I.E. how thick min. max for the brake pads etc.

 

[pegasus1300]

1st if you are going to do your own work you need to get the manual. 2nd pre Brembo brakes are famous for flashing a brake failure code because the pads are worn and the level in the master cylinder goes down a little. Add about a tablespoon of fluid (dot 4) and see if your code goes away.

 

[brutusbikes]

I can't get a code to display, not sure what I'm doing wrong.

 

[pegasus1300]

Codes will only display if they are active. Once you turn your key off they become inactive until they hit again. Go ride, & when the code comes up pull over, shut off bike with kill switch, and go thru sequence to get code. Do not turn off key until you get and write down the code.

 

[Piratezz]

I would first, take of caliper, clean everything, see if cylinder moves freely, check pads, replace when needed, use some copperpaste between, pads and brake cylinder, fill brakefluid to correct level, (even replace fluid).
me thinks that will solve the problem...