Why Are My Honda Motorcycle Brakes Hissing?
If the brakes on your Honda motorcycle are making a hissing noise after you changed out the brake pads, could it be that you swapped them out with pads made of a different compound?
Partzilla’s Honda motorcycle expert John Talley hosts live Q&A sessions on our YouTube channel every Friday at 3pm Eastern. In this session, John was asked what could be causing the brakes on a 2006 Honda VTX1800 to make a hissing sound after brake maintenance was completed.
Honda VTX1800 Brakes Hissing Q&A
I replaced the front tires, the brakes and the air filter on my 06 Honda VTX 1800. Replaced the front and rear brakes, and the front and rear tires, but when I apply the front brakes, I’m hearing a hissing sound. Any idea what it could be?
John Talley: Did you go with a different type of brake compound? I’ve run into that a couple of times, when just changing out brake pads, it makes a hissing kind of sound on the front end. If it really bothers you that much, well, let’s back up a second. The reason that probably happened is if you did change your pad compound, your rotors were already embedded with the previous brake pad material. So if you change that, they’re going to react to it a little bit differently. And that may be what’s causing the hissing sound that you’re experiencing. One of two ways, either you have to re-bed your brakes into those existing rotors or disks, which is not easy to do because they’re already embedded. Or if you’re really wanting to get rid of it all the way, then I would suggest replacing the disk. It may or may not be time to do so, but from experience I can tell you it takes a long time to wear down those discs before they have to be replaced.
Watch the video below to see how to change the front brake pads on a Honda VTX1800 motorcycle.
Watch the video below to see how to change the rear brake pads on a Honda VTX1800 motorcycle.
Watch the video below to see how to bleed the brakes on a Honda VTX1800 motorcycle.
Want to see more live repair questions answered? See more motorcycle and ATV repair questions answered here.
