There seems to be lots of 'loose' 
threads about front disc rattle/wheel wear so i thought i'd put this together.
My front discs on my 113,000 ml R1100GS were rattling like a shithouse door in the wind. The only way to stop it was applying the front brake. There was about 3-5mm play up and down with the wheel off, face down. The bolts were tight and the wave washers were as slack as Dale Winton's arsehole on a good day.....
On inspection the problem was neither the discs, bobbins, washers, top hats or whatever you want to call them, the discs had worn away the mounting boss on the wheel...
It has been suggested on here that if you take a bastard file to the boss on the wheel, you can successfully 'file' away the boss to meet the worn section. I would suggest this is a fix ONLY if you are handy with a file, DrFarkoff made a comment which made me laugh, and scared the shit out of me as well..
"I mean would ya really let some of this lot near their bikes with a rough bastard file??
For some reason the image of the chair with one leg shorter than the other"
If you get the 'filing down' bit wrong, the lever will feel, when braking, like you have severely warped discs, so, you will then go and buy new discs at 70 odd quid each, fit them up and guess what? It'll be exactly the fucking same cos its your wheels that are now gefurked!!!!
So, if you have rattling discs, do this first.
1. Remove the front wheel.
2. Remove the discs. If the wheel look's like mine in the photo above, you need to do the 'Washer Mod'
3. Buy 10 of these, 67p each plus VAT from memory.
DO NOT fuck about trying to source cheaper alternatives. I bought some from Screwfix, 8mmx25x1.5. Too wide, too thick. The BMW ones are 8mmx20x1 stainless, perfect. They are made for the job as BMW fitted them to the Rocksters to prevent this problem from happening. Here's one from Screwfix up against a BMW one...
4. Thoroughly clean the wheel and discs, then re-mount the discs with the washers UNDER the disc. Might be a good time to wire brush the loose paint from the wheel and touch up the paint, I am having mine powder coated black so didn't bother...
You can see from this picture that the washer is almost the same size as the wheel boss was...
This gives the disc something solid to sit on and the top hat washer something substantial to tighten on.
5. Tighten to 30nm using the correct Loctite (Loctite 246 i think). As you can see, with the bolt tightened the wave washer still does it's thing.
All you have done is moved the disc 1mm further out, the calliper will not foul, all it will mean is as your pads wear one side pistons will come out 1mm further than the other side...
6. Replace wheel.
7. Sit in a chair and have a beer, smugly grinning every so often thinking about all the money you have saved....
I used Wonder Wheels to clean the wheel. It was absolutely 'Minging' when i got the bike
And now looks lovely(er)....
threads about front disc rattle/wheel wear so i thought i'd put this together.My front discs on my 113,000 ml R1100GS were rattling like a shithouse door in the wind. The only way to stop it was applying the front brake. There was about 3-5mm play up and down with the wheel off, face down. The bolts were tight and the wave washers were as slack as Dale Winton's arsehole on a good day.....
On inspection the problem was neither the discs, bobbins, washers, top hats or whatever you want to call them, the discs had worn away the mounting boss on the wheel...
It has been suggested on here that if you take a bastard file to the boss on the wheel, you can successfully 'file' away the boss to meet the worn section. I would suggest this is a fix ONLY if you are handy with a file, DrFarkoff made a comment which made me laugh, and scared the shit out of me as well..
"I mean would ya really let some of this lot near their bikes with a rough bastard file??
For some reason the image of the chair with one leg shorter than the other"
If you get the 'filing down' bit wrong, the lever will feel, when braking, like you have severely warped discs, so, you will then go and buy new discs at 70 odd quid each, fit them up and guess what? It'll be exactly the fucking same cos its your wheels that are now gefurked!!!!
So, if you have rattling discs, do this first.
1. Remove the front wheel.
2. Remove the discs. If the wheel look's like mine in the photo above, you need to do the 'Washer Mod'
3. Buy 10 of these, 67p each plus VAT from memory.
DO NOT fuck about trying to source cheaper alternatives. I bought some from Screwfix, 8mmx25x1.5. Too wide, too thick. The BMW ones are 8mmx20x1 stainless, perfect. They are made for the job as BMW fitted them to the Rocksters to prevent this problem from happening. Here's one from Screwfix up against a BMW one...
4. Thoroughly clean the wheel and discs, then re-mount the discs with the washers UNDER the disc. Might be a good time to wire brush the loose paint from the wheel and touch up the paint, I am having mine powder coated black so didn't bother...
You can see from this picture that the washer is almost the same size as the wheel boss was...
This gives the disc something solid to sit on and the top hat washer something substantial to tighten on.
5. Tighten to 30nm using the correct Loctite (Loctite 246 i think). As you can see, with the bolt tightened the wave washer still does it's thing.
All you have done is moved the disc 1mm further out, the calliper will not foul, all it will mean is as your pads wear one side pistons will come out 1mm further than the other side...
6. Replace wheel.
7. Sit in a chair and have a beer, smugly grinning every so often thinking about all the money you have saved....
I used Wonder Wheels to clean the wheel. It was absolutely 'Minging' when i got the bike
And now looks lovely(er)....
