Shimano disc pad retaining bolts #saynotoshimanoscrews

Brake pad bolts stuck. They're also conveniently made of cheese so after too many failed removal attempts now looking like it'll need drilling out or something.

Any good ideas before I just kill it with a hammer and buy a new bike? I replaced mine years ago with allen head bolts because I knew these were shit, the grrl didn't get the memo, however.

Yeah I've tried a bit of lube on the threaded bit, yeah I've tried pliers on the other end, I've tried the elastic band trick but nothing is budging.

Im not entirely sure which screw you're talking about, what tool interface is required to take them off? got a pic?

This is one of my favourite 'stuck screws' removal devices. you select a suitable bit then hammer down on the top. the thing twists as you hammer down. has worked well for me in the past.

Hate these screws, totally insane to have them. Have rounded my own ones too. Bike shop drilled them out and replaced with those clip things

What about using a hacksaw blade on the far side of the pad spacer? You'd then have a decent length of bolt accessible to use pliers on. Maybe

Yeah my dad has one of those. "Impact driver" I wanna say. Probably been used 3x in the last 30 years but handy when you need it. Unfortunately he's on the other side of the planet.

I thought about cutting the pad off so I could get bigger pliers into the caliper but gave up, rode the turbo and let the missus take it to the LBS to have a go. I think they've removed it.

I've got some Copperslip I think. Thinking about adding that to threads. But I don't really want to put any oils near brake pads.

Alternate better (more expensive) solution is get Hope calipers instead. I think I've ruined two Shimano road disc calipers so far through clumsy maintenance. Replaced with Hope RX4s instead and they work far better + all the bits are easily replaceable if it does go wrong. Bleed kit far nicer to use as well.

I've not sure that's a "better" solution. My solution was to install a couple of quid worth of allen key bolts instead of the flat head ones. Changing braking systems on at least 3 bikes just ain't gonna happen. In the past I'd have said Shimano spares are easier to find too but that's not necessarily true, although I've never looked for Hope pads so dunno how easy they are to find in Bulgaria or whatever.

I forgot your needs are more specialist... I definitely wouldn't rely on finding Hope pads abroad.
To be fair I still have Shimano discs on one bike and they're fine. My cracked pistons were down to very inept bleeding using improvised spacers. I can't remember what went wrong with the other caliper.

I've not had much trouble with mine - these bolts are shit, true but easily enough fixed. The pads wear way quicker than rim brakes seem to and they're noisy compared to rim brakes but I guess I'm happy to take that for the functional improvement and not eating rims, etc. Not really specific to Shimano either.

Just bin the bolts and use split pins like Shimano do in loads of the MTB calipers. That’s what I did with mine after having the same problem.

I don't like those. I have them on my white Inbred's Maguras and they're functional but I dunno. I think the allen key ones.

Pair of Neji Saurus’ have helped me out in the past.

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/screw-removal-pliers-neji-saurus?variant=22058056007

Fucked one of these myself today only it sheared off flush with the caliper and I went ahead and snapped it flush at the back trying to get it out. Sick.

How TF did you mash it like that? They shouldn't need to be even torqued up, it's the retaining clip on the other end that stops it coming out.

How about remove the whole caliper from the frame, secure it in a vice and then gently hacksaw the pin in the middle section where it sits between the pads while avoiding sawing into the caliper?

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I’d suggest taking it to a bike shop, say it’s yer mate who did it

I've got some Copperslip I think. Thinking about adding that to threads. But I don't really want to put any oils near brake pads

The pad retaining pins on my TRP have a small dab of blue loctite on. Might be worth a tiny bit on your new pins? Possibly helping to prevent any corrosion seizing the parts together

You'll probably be ok just having the allen key heads. The slotted end seems daft, as people might not use a screwdriver that fits well on those

I've got some Loctite 222 here. That might work. My allen bolt versions have been fine. Missus has my old flat head bolts for now. I'll maybe try the anti-seize stuff instead on hers.

A wrap or two of silicone tape? Or loctite purple?

I’d worry that the blue would be too strong..

Edit, yeah, 222! I’d use that over blue

Also, did you use this to try and undo it?

loctite purple?

That'd probably be better. The blue stuff in the bottle seems stronger than the pre-applied stuff ( whatever that actually is )

#notmybike The thing was pretty bad when I started trying and I then made it much worse but left a little bit for the bike shop to work with - the head of the bolt was just crumbling onto the floor. I tried hammering the edge instead but no dice, tried pliers, no dice. There's no way my missus did it up this tight so I can only assume it's maybe heat cycled its way into some kind of welded state or there's some kind of corrosion going on or brake pad dust is like glue?

It's my partner's bike so she did exactly that. They drilled it out.

I used three different screwdrivers, a hammer, a cotton tip with WD40 on it, two types of pliers, swearing and then a bike shop. It was fucked when I started so I didn't feel too bad about hammering fuck out of it - it was either gonna let go or it was gonna get drilled.

I should've just made it a bike shop problem. Tried to extract the stuck bolt using a left handed drill bit but managed to damage the caliper in the process.

#fuckshimano