Ok, had a go at bleeding mine, and to be fair it seems not too much of a faff if it goes right, once you get used to it and use the avid manual/you tube clips. Patience seems the key. However, a couple of questions.

Preping the syringe.

Avid seems to give two ways of doing it. Pulling the plunger say 5 times, tapping each time then expelling the air in one go seems better than pulling it once, tapping and expelling the air and repeating several times. Does this seem right and do you have to worry about the many tiny bubbles?

Bleeding the lever and caliper.

It took me a good 10 minutes each end to expell all the air. Is this about right? Also towards the end, it was impossible to draw all the bubbles out of the lever as the plunger and been pulled almost right to the top of the syringe to get enough vacuum to extract the last few bubbles. Any way around this? In the end, the plunger gave way, but i disconnected before air seemed to get back into the lever – by the results anyway.

Thirdly, one lever is making a clicking/squeaking noise when pulled which seemed to start when I shortened the hose. Any thoughts?

You’ll never get all of the bubbles out of the syringe. I just did it about 5 times to remove the larger ones.

It took me a good 10 minutes each end to expell all the air. Is this about right? Also towards the end, it was impossible to draw all the bubbles out of the lever as the plunger and been pulled almost right to the top of the syringe to get enough vacuum to extract the last few bubbles. Any way around this? In the end, the plunger gave way, but i disconnected before air seemed to get back into the lever – by the results anyway.

my ebay kit says that if you pull too hard you can draw air past the seals and you will never be bubble free. I imagine this is what you are doing.

I have no idea on the third

Ive had to remove syringe ,unclamp it and push the air out (holding it plunger side down so you only push the air out) and start again but that was after a lever rebuild which meant the lever was empty before starting.If youve only shortened the hose id say your pulling air into the system somewhere .Did you use new olive ?
Squeeky lever sounds like the seals on the piston inside the lever body .You could try spraying silicone spray in and around lever but id say it wants replacing realy you can get them as a spare ebay is as gooda place as any .
If youve bled the system you will have moved crap around inside and the seals on the piston dont last forever ,unfortunately, especialy if debris has been shifted.
You can download full service manual from sram and stripping lever is easy enough if a little messy.

Yep new olive, and it started straight after the hose shortening. Would tightening the nut more help?

Brake only 4 or 5 months old, not that it counts for much, but yet more time consuming maintenance by the looks of things.

The nuts do need to be cranked a fair amount as your having to set the new olive not just thread it home.
If it were mine I think id give it a try somewhere not too demanding, then do a half re-bleed (just attaching quarter full syringe and do the bubble extracting part rather than full pushing new fluid through ) and see how you go.
If the brakes arnt that old you might get away without doing anything much else .
Do the levers spring back to normal resting position if you pull them hard and let them go ?

The noise form the lever seems to have gone now, but on bleeding just the lever, air is still coming out almost continually and on checking its the same with the other lever. Found an Avid brake hose shortening video and its possible i’ve screwed in the barbs too tight which may damage the line apparently and realised that black bit on the avid bleed kit is to enable you to torque the nut right, but i was not far off. Must be a leak in both, but i’m stuck now 😕

They are probably fine. Go steady when you are creating a vacuum at the lever end. If you are getting a stream of bubbles out, then you are pulling air past a seal somewhere. Both my sets of Avids do this.

I find most of the air comes out when you push fluid through from the caliper to the lever. Not much air should be left behind after that.

On either brake did not notice any air when pushing fluid through.

I’ve read its possible that if you are pulling too hard air gets pulled in where the syringe attaches to the port, and then gets pushed in when the vacuum is released.

It is entirely possible.

Bleed them again. Push through lots of fluid from the caliper end. Be gentle with the vacuum. If no air comes out after going through the vacuum/pressure/flick lever cycle, stop. Put it all back together, space the pads as per the instructions, put the wheel back in, pump the lever and see how it feels.

coatesy (username) is the guy you want to speak to about these.
He IS the man… 😉

Tried a bleed with less vacuum and the results were worse. Even got out a spare older Elixir to practice on and the result was still a poor bleed. Evidently doing something wrong and surely brakes can’t be this difficult to bleed right, and i’m not a complete idiot 😀

Only thing i can think of is using even less vacuum so the plunger is hardly moving.

coatesy….. 😉

I spend about 10 minute sully degassing the caliper syinge. I do not start untill I get very few bubles forming when creating vacuum. then I start the beeld proceedure. Bleeding this way is noramlly quicker but if there not enough fluid I will use a larger syringe for the lever and over fill the caliper syringe and push more fluid through. This way the lever syringe does end up pulling out of the syringe body.

You have to be able to get vacuum to bleed these brakes.

I find bleeding Avids and PITA which is why I would not recomend them to anyone.Shame most MTB’s come with them now. If you ever get tired of them try some Hope’s or Shimano brakes and enjoy bleeds that take as little as five minutes with nothing more than 1 hose and a small spanner.