OK, my mate is restoring his bike ready for spring. One of his Hayes s0le brakes wouldn’t bleed and when we looked in the lever reservoir it was blocked with this white gooey mess. 😐

What is it and how can we clean/flush without spending any money on brakes that aren’t worth anything anyhow.

cheers

Clean with a rag get as much mank out and then flush the brake with plenty of brake fluid until it comes out nice and clear.

Syringe filled with fluid on bleed nipple of calliper. Remove brake top cap, open bleed nipple and depress plunger. New fluid in and old fluid out the top.

Get something to catch the overflowing stuff. When it is clear, tighten bleed nipple, replace top cap.

Go ride…

To clarify, the hose seems to be blocked, probably with the same white gunk in te resevoir – never seen anything like it before when bleeding brakes.

I wish he’d bite the bullet and replace the brakes tbh but if they’re fixable then great.

Cloth over the open reservoir, air line in calliper…

has somebody mixed DOT4/5.1 with DOT 5 in there?

That’s what it sounds like. If so, the seals are probably half ruined as well.

Sounds like someone has put some mineral oil fluid in there. They should use normal car type from what I can see on google.

Flush them out with a few syringes of dot 4 (buy a small 250ml bottle from your local motor factors/halfords) and see if they can be saved. Failing that replace them with some cheap Deore ones (latest type). I hates my Sole brakes if they are the same ones I had.

Would the white stuff look a bit furry by any chance? If so, it’s likely to be aluminium oxide (corrosion), Hayes seem to suffer corrosion quite regularly, and if it’s from an area where the seals fit, will probably render it scrap.

Aye they’re cheap, nasty brakes. I had a set go like that and ended up binning them.

They could possibly have been saved. But the brakes themselves being crap, and the terrible bleeding system Hayes use ended it for me. +1 new brake time

Cheers guys