Old bike, new brakes - set-up question

[blueovercream]

I've just bought a used hardtail mountain bike. The previous owner had very recently changed the (Shimano XT) rotors and pads and told me that after 1 ride, the front had "still to bed in".

I suspect that in fact he's not bedded the new bits in properly.

Despite a good clean of pads and rotor plus re-alignment of caliper, then an attempt at a bed-in process on my street, I'm still getting a lot of noise and much less braking power than I'd expect. I can hear a faint rubbing of disc on rotor when spinning the wheel with the bike in the stand. Inspecting the rotor, there's definitely an uneven wear mark on its outer surface.

So is there anything else I can do or is it a case of a new rotor +/- pads?

Thanks

[frisbee]

Brakes should work reasonably well without any bedding in. The pads are probably contaminated and need to be replaces. The disk might recover with a sand and a good clean.

[lufbramatt]

Take the pads out and check very carefully for traces of brake fluid around the pistons. Shimano brakes have a tendency to leak and contaminate pads.