B737 MAX 8 Technician reported finding damaged brake assemblies while replacing the #2 and #3 main landing gear tires. The reporter also mentioned the issue had happened before years ago; and on other MAX aircraft.

2024-03 · NASA ASRS report 2101975

Date: 2024-03 · Aircraft: B737 MAX 8 · Phase: ground

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-critical|no-specific-anomaly-occurred-unwanted-situation

Synopsis

B737 MAX 8 Technician reported finding damaged brake assemblies while replacing the #2 and #3 main landing gear tires. The reporter also mentioned the issue had happened before years ago; and on other MAX aircraft.

Narrative

When Aircraft X was at ZZZ; an Aircraft Maintenance Technician found two worn Main Landing Gear Tires (MLG) worn beyond limits; which was MLG Tires #2 and #3. During the MLG tire replacement; the Technician also found two damaged brake assemblies. The #2 MLG Brake had cracks on the brackets and the #3 MLG brake had one each rotor missing.A few years ago; I wrote a report and my Lead wrote a report pertaining to the issues we were finding on the 737 MAX Brake Assemblies. During that time we did a quick research of some of our 737 MAX aircraft and found a history of damaged and/or seized brake assemblies on said aircraft. I don't know what action was taken after my report a few years ago but it seems that the 737 MAX Brake Assembly issue is still ongoing. I truly believe there is a systemic brake assembly issue for our 737 MAX aircraft that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.During my report years ago I requested that someone look into this matter more deeply and to further investigate why our 737 MAX Brake Assemblies were being found seized to the wheel assembly and damaged to the point where the brake assemblies were breaking apart and the debris being found on the ramp. At the time I also suggested that it could either be a bad batch of brakes from the manufacturer; brake failure; or a systemic issue with carbon brakes in general on the 737 MAX aircraft which needed to be addressed and investigated at soon as possible to avoid an accident. I am aware of an EA (Engineering Authorization) in place to check a different make/model Brake Assembly that we may have in stock throughout the system. However; it doesn't address the 737 MAX Brake Assemblies that are still failing or not up to standards. The brake assembly was so badly seized onto the wheel assembly that we could not separate them and therefore had to ship out both the brake assembly and wheel assembly attached together.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

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