OT- brake pad contamination

[Land Yacht]

Late model, s-10 pickup. Rear axle seals went out, gear oil on disk brake pads. They always reccomend replacement of pads/shoes if they get contaminated with oil/brake fluid. I want to try and clean them, maybe wet-sand off the surface to get past the oil contamination, seems like this should work just fine? Anyone have any idea why this wouldn't work?

thanks

John

[wayne petty]

Late model, s-10 pickup. Rear axle seals went out, gear oil on disk brake pads. They always reccomend replacement of pads/shoes if they get contaminated with oil/brake fluid. I want to try and clean them, maybe wet-sand off the surface to get past the oil contamination, seems like this should work just fine? Anyone have any idea why this wouldn't work?

thanks

John

it can and has been done...  but... oil soaked linings cannot be cleaned properly... oil will always seep out..   the friction of the linings will be reduced... so there will be increased braking distances ... by how much.. i cannot say...  

if you did this on a customers car... and they crashed... not good for your bank account...        

if it is just surface grime...  not soaked in... clean with brake cleaner.. and sand paper...

brake cleaner also tends to harden the axle seals ... sometimes hard enough to leak soon after they get cleaned..

[tomslik]

for the price of brake shoes and the potential for a lawsuit, i'd replace 'em.

BUT if you've got lots of time, throw them in a bucket of floor dry for a while (like a month).
it WILL suck the oil out of them...