Polaris OBark

Well, just do the pads first. That is dead easy and might make all the difference. If you do use the fluid, wear gloves and eye protection.

Is the whole caliper moving? If so, you absolutely have to address that. If it has an adapter, figure out which part is moving. If it is between the adapter and the caliper, you have nothing to lose. If it is indeed the fork, I would very cautiously tighten it a bit more, and perhaps use some locktite. The force vector should be straight down, so it shouldn't have to be insanely tight.

dedhed

I've never replaced a brake line that corroded from the inside out. Either corrosion from the outside (especially where strapped to the frame) or a rubber hose/caliper/wheel cylinder failure first. Living in the salt belt, owning a plow truck, and having replaced hundreds of feet of brake lines, I now only use Ni-Copp on replacements with stainless fittings and bleeder screws.

tomato coupe

Different applications often dictate different solutions.

Polaris OBark

The MSDS that comes with every container labels it corrosive. Not me.

My main objection to its use is that it is hygroscopic.


How compelling. Just like the chain smoker who says they've [cough-cough] avoided lung cancer.


Dismissing mineral oil because it isn't good for stopping a semi is equally comical.

DaveSSS 

SRAM has many videos on bike maintenance. The bleed video is particularly good, since there are certain steps that must be done in the correct order. Buy a bleeding edge .bleed kit first.


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NoWhammies

Both my bikes are Shimano/mineral oil. I do a lot of hill riding and I ride my brakes a lot on descents. Because of this I flush my disc brakes annually. For the cost of my time and one bottle of Shimano mineral oil, I find the time to be well invested.

fooferdoggie 

yes our tandem needs the back line flushed more often steep hills that need hard braking will do that.

Canker

The whole fear of Dot is way over done. Water gets into both Dot and mineral oil systems. The difference is Dot distributes the water throughout the whole system while with mineral oil it gathers in the lowest point often the caliper. And yeah Dot is corrosive so don't leave it on your skin or paint for hours or drink it. If you can avoid those things you will be fine.

Kapusta

I would flush the fluid at intervals where the fluid actually gets noticeably dirty. Try it after one year, if it looks pretty clean, extend the interval.

On my XTs, they are just noticeably dirty after one year of heavy riding.

Of course, some people never flush their fluid or do a bleed. Sometimes it works out OK for many years, other times not.

I will add this: I can’t speak for road brakes, but half the time I try someone else’s hydros on their mountain bike, it feels to me like they need to be bled.

rosefarts

I guess I’m not worried about the fluid if it works.

So many people, have had terrible experiences with SRAM brakes, and good experiences with Shimano and Magura. The mind likes to make connections ya know.

GhostRider62

Thanks for posting that, I have a few tools to buy and the SRAM bleeding kit. Looks easy.

Canker

The thing about Sram brakes is they are less forgiving about half assing bleeding than shimano. There are multiple ways you can bleed shimano brakes and still get a pretty good lever. Sram you have to follow the directions. If you actually step by step bleed shimano brakes the way you are suppose to Sram really isn't much harder these days. Back BACK in the day avid(sram) were a pita. My fingers would hurt for a day or two after bleeding my juicy 5s but my Avid elixirs which are still pretty freaking old aren't bad.

prj71

That would be me. But actually had to do bleed on my mountain bike last year. Lost my rear brakes.

Bald Paul

If you have ABS on your car, you may want to re-think that. Failure to flush out your braking system is bad, but not flushing it on an ABS equipped car can get very, VERY expensive. Have a shop do it, as they will probably need special tools and/or procedures to do a "secondary bleed" of the ABS unit itself, which opens the solenoids and activates the internal pump to flush the fluid out of the unit.
Believe me, if the fluid in the ABS unit is allowed to get bad enough to corrode the sensitive parts in the unit, you're looking at a huge bill, both in parts and labor.

Lombard

My Shimano hydraulic disc brakes went 5K miles before I flushed and bled them. Probably should have done it earlier. Braking was starting to get soft.

greysquirrel

Would just changing brake fluid be enough or are saying it has to be a flush?

Bald Paul

Changing the brake fluid won't do it. The solenoids, pump and valves within the ABS unit have to be activated by a tool (usually a computer) in order to get all the old fluid trapped in the unit itself out.

big john

If there is moisture in there it could be considered cheap insurance to flush the system but flushing is certainly no guarantee the ABS module won't fail. Not flushing is no guarantee that it will fail.

Kapusta

I was not aware that ABS was so common in bikes these days.

big john

It might be coming.

fooferdoggie 

its not and even then I think its only a couple of e bike brands like bosch and strromer that really have it and only on a few bikes.

wolfchild

Not might...It's 100% guaranteed that few years from now high end bikes will have some sort of ABS , traction control,, radars, sensors, all kinds of detectors and maybe even electronic assisted steering.. Even cycling bibs will have built in sensors to keep your whole body in perfect harmony while riding.

big john

Can't wait.

Lombard

Next thing you know, we will have automatic cyclists and all the actual cyclists will stay home and drink beer.

tomato coupe

Drone bikes.