2018 Goldwing DCT Tour Brake Issue

[tirvin100]

I put the centramatic balancers on my new Goldwing DCT Tour. I had to remove the calipers and wheel in order to do so. After I reinstalled everything now my brakes are acting weird. I have pressure when I am at the stopped position. But as soon as I take off and need to stop, the brake lever damn near bottoms out before the bike stops. I blead the brakes using the sequence according to the service manual top left, top right both with front brake lever. Bottom left and bottom right with foot lever, then the rear caliper with foot lever. No air that I can see in the clear plastic tubing.

[WingAdmin]

I put the centramatic balancers on my new Goldwing DCT Tour. I had to remove the calipers and wheel in order to do so. After I reinstalled everything now my brakes are acting weird. I have pressure when I am at the stopped position. But as soon as I take off and need to stop, the brake lever damn near bottoms out before the bike stops. I blead the brakes using the sequence according to the service manual top left, top right both with front brake lever. Bottom left and bottom right with foot lever, then the rear caliper with foot lever. No air that I can see in the clear plastic tubing.

When the brake lever almost bottoms out, can you pump it a couple times and immediately get normal function from it again?

[tirvin100]

Yes. But as soon as the bike moves forward it bottoms out again

[WingAdmin]

Yes. But as soon as the bike moves forward it bottoms out again

OK, so it sounds like whatever is causing this problem is forcing the pistons to retract more than they should. Anything that moves the caliper laterally on its slides will cause this to happen. I would have a very careful look at the Centramatic balancers and make sure they are not contacting the calipers in any way. Lift the front wheel, pump and squeeze the brakes on until they are tight, then spin the wheel and look very closely - the calipers should not be moving when you do this. If you see a caliper moving (will probably be within the first revolution of the wheel) then you've got an issue.

Also check out the disc rotor runout - excessive runout will cause piston over-retraction, with the same result. However, the fact that this started with the installation of the Centramatics points the finger at them.

[WingAdmin]

Did you find out what was causing the issue?

[tirvin100]

Warped rotor. $900 for dealer to replace

[WingAdmin]

Warped rotor. $900 for dealer to replace

OK, that's rotor runout, which is what I had said you might want to check.

That's extremely odd for a hardened bike rotor to warp - did they give you any idea what might have caused it? Did the wheel get laid on its side (i.e. on the brake rotor) when you had it off the bike?

New front rotors on the 2018 are $370 apiece, did they change them both?

[tirvin100]

According to the service manual the rotor bolts should be replaced After rotor removal and I may have over torqued them. The rotor bolts come with a special loctite already applied to the bolt. I questioned the price as well but I had to pay for the diagnostic time I still didn't agree because I told them what was wrong when I brought it to them based in all the advice I received on line. Well I have the service manual now so I won’t be making 900 dollar mistakes anymore. The help in these forums is good And appreciated but a lot of people leave out small details that are probably more important than the obvious.

[newday777]

According to the service manual the rotor bolts should be replaced After rotor removal and I may have over torqued them. The rotor bolts come with a special loctite already applied to the bolt. I questioned the price as well but I had to pay for the diagnostic time I still didn't agree because I told them what was wrong when I brought it to them based in all the advice I received on line. Well I have the service manual now so I won’t be making 900 dollar mistakes anymore. The help in these forums is good And appreciated but a lot of people leave out small details that are probably more important than the obvious.

Welcome to the forum tirvin100

Was it just 1 rotor the shop replaced, if so which rotor?

As well as to your mention of the need of proper torque, the need of when tightening rotor bolts, to be sure to tighten in several steps and in proper sequence, not to tighten all at once on each bolt, so that equal pressure is applied on each bolt area around the rotor as you tighten, so as not to warp a rotor. This applies to all brake rotors, on any vehicle.

I'm sorry you had an expensive lesson. I'm not giving you a hard time, just putting that in so any who read this over the years to come will gain from your lesson. That's why this forum exists, that others will learn as we contribute from our learning, if they seak out before they run ahead and we input what we have learned, so be sure to reply back when you learn what the results are when ever you ask a question, be it you do the repair or as happened here, a shop found the problem, as many will read to try to figure out what went wrong on their bike in years to come by using a search tool (anyone who uses a forum needs to do this!)

The service manual is number one tool on any goldwing model if anyone is going to do work on them, no matter your capabilities, these are complex machines. The wings have gotten more complex with each model release and even in between years of models.
Too many people have had expensive lessons as you did, on many wing project bikes over the years thinking this can't be a difficult thing to do and I don't need any directions to do even a tune up on them.

Hopefully you will continue on here and contribute so others will learn also in the years to come.
We all aren't always able to be online all the time because of life's needs of each, but as each can get on line, we can be here to help others.

[Don3755]

Speaking of a shop manual, I just acquired a 1986 1200 and need a manual. Is one publisher better than another? Looking at a Haynes?

[newday777]

Speaking of a shop manual, I just acquired a 1986 1200 and need a manual. Is one publisher better than another? Looking at a Haynes?

Honda manual is better.