So during a crash I’ve put a dent, an actual round depression about 1-2mm deep, across the top round edge of the squared off end of the shiny silver top cap on a current XT disc brake lever. From the other scratches it seems to be made of plastic!

Does anyone know how close this might be to critical internals or voids? Or is there nothing to worry about and it’s just cosmetic? I suspect fixing it would require an entire new lever since I’m not aware of there being such spares for Shimano.

Cheers.

Yes its just chromed plastic. So long as there’s no mineral oil leak I wouldn’t worry, as there’s a rubber diaphragm between it and the actual oil reservoir which does the job of sealing.

I’ve gouged chunks out of mine with regular OTB incidents, and the brake function hasn’t suffered – in fact I wear them with pride as battle scars – if your brakes are still shiny chrome you’re obviously not trying hard enough 🙂

But if you do want to replace it, you’re right you can’t get the reservoir cover only (at least I couldn’t), you have to buy the whole lever assembly, which is about 45 bucks from CRC.

you should be able to order the part from any bike shop that deals with Madison (ie sells shimano)

http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/EV/bikecomponents/BL/EV-BL-M785-3158A_v1_m56577569830796605.pdf

you should be able to order the part from any bike shop that deals with Madison (ie sells shimano)

Yes, thats what I thought – if there’s a part number, you can get it – right? However, when I asked my usual bike shop (who’ve always been able to track down Shimano bits & bobs in the past) to order me one, they said it wasn’t available. You may have better luck however…

Cheers, that exploded diagram seems to indicate it’s either solid at that point or a non critical void above the internal diaphragm screw.

I don’t fancy opening it up just to look because I’ve never had to bleed an XT disc brake before (I’ve got 4 pots from 2004 as well), so the factory bleed seems exceptional. I’m a dab hand when required on my Hopes though.

I’d suspect there’s not enough call for such spares against such a low full assembly cost. You always seem to read on here how Shimano is essentially disposable rather than repairable like Hope.