seems that I somehow sprayed it on my disc brakes and now they brake only when i press really hard. I
tried and washed them with a degreaser but am not seeing any improvement. what should i do next? help please.

Brake cleaner is available at auto stores.

thx, should I remove the brakes and then spray them or can i just spray the whole mechanism?

I would guess your pads are contaminated. You could try removing them and using some kind of solvent to clean them. Personally, I would just buy new pads, not worth the risk.

Try using some dish soap and water, then rinse. It might take a few time but should work.

replace pads or bake them

If you ever meet a total scuzzball on a bicycle - Teflon-spray does a bang-up job on the rims & pads. Other than this - be very careful around your brake-pads when working with lubricants.

bm - you want bearings/pivots inside the brake caliper to remain lubed, and you don't want to damage the paint on your bike, so my suggestion would be this:
1) Remove rotors and thoroughly clean them with brake cleaner; when reinstalling, make sure to (a) tighten the bolts *in steps* (b) *in the crisscross pattern* and (c) to the manufacturer's spec torque.
2) (with wheel removed) Remove and discard old pads, install fresh ones.
3) Dispose of your can of WD-40 in a fire!

thank you all for the suggestions. I cannot get new pads at the moment, so i have washed the brakes a few more times and I can see improvement.

@mondoman: with my clumsiness I doubt step 3 would end with satisfaction but rather with 3rd degree burns.

Just ride. It will wear off eventually.

That's a lie. If you have some water that needs displacing, WD-40 is definitely what you want. Just don't be fooled into thinking that "water displacer #40" is a lubricant or anything else.

Here here! unless of course you got it super saturated, it should wear off within normal riding. Sure they might squeal like a banshee when you first start braking, but that's only for a little bit. If they don't stop squealing, you might have to replace but I'll bet you won't.

This will clean your brake discs and rims from WD-40 (and most petroleum products). Soak and wash the brake pads until you can replace them.


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and how long would a little bit be?

I would say within a ride, Basically the contamination will be broken down by the heat generated by the friction of the brake pads contacting the disc. So clean off the excess WD-40 and ride for a bit, it has more to do with how hot you can make the brakes and less to do with duration of ride, though these two things sometimes correlate.

WD-40 is good for cleaning gunked up components, particularly shifters. It will dissolve or thin hardened grease. Many of us have "repaired" brifters with WD-40.

The War Department became the Defense Department long before WD-40 came along. WD is short for water displacement.

You really need to get out more.

From one Neil to another....

In addition to displacing water and cleaning pretty effectively, WD-40 IS a lubricant.

Is it the BEST lubricant? No. It's pretty lightweight (read: short-lived).

But ... chemically ... it IS basically equivalent to home brew -- mineral spirits + lubrication.

There's a time and a place for WD. Just learn its limits and stay within them. Use it where you should. Don't use it where you shouldn't.

He's British ... btw.

Aside from being very eloquent, I'm willing to let him slide on this one

Not to worry. WD-40 is not a lubricant so your brakes will be OK in a few minutes as soon as the solvent dries.

Just Sayin.

it still leaves behind an oily substance that should be removed.

Let the pads sit in some naphtha-based solvent. I suggest charcoal-lighter fluid. It's cheap, clean, and available all over. This will dissolve the oil in the WD-40. Voila! Now attach the pads and take a ride to check for any continuing problems.

The friction material is glued on to the backing. I would not bake brake pads unless I knew what their max temperature is. 350? 450? who knows?

This is what I do. The OP suggests that braking hard will have an effect. Well, just brake hard for a while so eventually you won't have to.

Half of this is the biggest bunch of BS I read here in a long time.

I wouldn't use WD40 as chain lube or any other type of lube, but it works really good to disperse water and to clean dirty oil and crud off of stuff like chains and gears, spraying it on wet ignitions disperses the water so that cars can start, chases out water out of things so that A, it won't rust, and B, prepares the surface for a true lubricant. I wouldn't use it to clean your brake pads or disk on you bike, I would use a brake cleaner, it leaves no residue behind and evaporates away completly. If your lucky the pads will clean up, I would try that before buying new pads just to see if cleaning them works. You may need to clean the pads several times since pads can absorb oil then release it over time, but since it not subject to the same high tempertures car pads can reach they shouldn't crack due to the heat and oil, but keep an eye on them to make sure.

Multigrade automotive oil works in a pinch, but it attracks dirt like a magnet thus you would have to clean and relube your chain after every ride. You need a lube on your chain and gears like ProLink or the Finishline Products (not the wax base crap like Pedros or White Lightning because these only last about 60 to 100 miles max before you would have to reapply), these products are a dry lube which means they go on wet but a carrier carries the lube into the chain then evaporates away leaving a dry non wet chain after about 12 hours of waiting.

While lithium grease can work on bearings etc there is different kinds of lithium grease which can make it confusing as to which one to use. I've used Mobil 1 Synthetic grease on my bearings for years with no problems...when I say years I mean years...I have over 150,000 miles on my Trek's Suntour Superbe hubs and crank bearings and still going strong.

Using kerosene or mineral spirits which can work for cleaning along with a brush, but it can be messy so use it slowly as not to splatter it everywhere, plus kerosene is extremily flammable so use extreme caution. I like the little chain cleaning machines like the one that FinishLine Chain cleaning machine (which I think is the best on the market) because it cleans very well and it leaves hardly no mess. Do not use Simple green to clean chains because it will leave water behind unless your willing to bake the chain to evaporate the water.

My face is worth more (to me) than the cost of a set of brake pads...even with installation labor.