Hi Guys,

I’ve got a pair of Avid Elixir CR brakes and I’m havin a real tough time with them.

I’m (usually) pretty good at bike maintenance but this time I’m stumped.

The rear brake feels very spongey at the lever and it will pull right to the bar. It doesn’t seem to get a good grip on the disc at the calliper end and if I try hard, I can rotate the rear wheel with the lever fully pressed in so I’m not getting the power I need out of them.

Now I have bled and rebled the the back brake too many times. I first bleed the hose with the lever out, pushing fluid from the calliper end and all OK. I then bleed the calliper with the lever strapped to the bar, again, seem to get all the bubbles out and all seems OK. Then I slowly release the lever whilst pushing the calliper syringe as instructed. Then take off the calliper syringe and close it up.

Now, when I come to bleed at the lever end, it seems to want to draw and endless amount of bubbles up when I give it negative pressure. I can also hear a squeak near the lever pivot when I do this.

So, I’m pretty sure the lever is the problem and I’m pretty sure there’s a leak at the lever end with the squeak of air going into the system. I also noticed that when I went to put the bleed port screw back in at the calliper end before I bled the lever, the fluid kept dripping out of the port. Correct me if I’m wrong but that surely means there’s a leak in the system somewhere?

I think my next move is to get a new lever kit. I took the lever apart using the avid instructions and had a look at it all but it looks fine to me. I am assuming that one of the seals has gone.

Has anybody else had this problem or knows what’s going on?? I’d like to think I know what I’m doing with bikes usually but this one has me frustrated. Help Please!!!

Thanks, JT

Is it both you’re having problems with or just the back?

I once caught some juicy carbons at the hose where it meets the fitting for the caliper. It must have just kinked it enough to put a tiny hole in the hose.

Have you checked the hose?

Actually, I haven’t checked the hose, I’ll give it the once over.

Just the rear at the moment, the fronts a bit squishy but it needs a bleed, no leakage though.

Starting to think some brakes with no pad adjuster and no lever reach adjustment may be the way, far too much to mess about with!

Has anyone ever installed an avid lever kit? For £20, its worth a shot.

Mine did something similar, I think I was slightly overfilling the system and overdoing the negative pressure at the lever end, despite doing everything correctly.

No matter what I did it pulled in air at the lever, so a cure – of sorts – is when unscrewing the syringe also ever so slightly push on the syringe so it pulls in a bit of fluid instead, and quickly get the grub screw back in. Its a bit messy though, but it seems to work.

I also think there is a air leak somewhere at the lever piston, but really CBA tracing it / replacing the lever / etc so bleed it every other month or so, and put up with a slightly spongy rear for about half the time

Sometimes with these even though you have thought you have got all the air out you have not. I have had this before and after beelding the lever just pulled back to bar. So I re invented Avid’s bleed proccedure and over filled the caliper syringe (use a bigger one if you have one and de gass as normal), and de-gassed the lever syringe and pushed fluid from the caliper to the lever and from the lever to the caliper several times to dislodge any air which it did, alot of it too. I let all this air collect in the lever syringe and then bleed as per Avid’s instructions. It worked. If you have an air leek this won’t work but it will confirm you have a leak and not traped, stubborn air.

Cheers.

I’ll bleed it again and see what I come up with.

It’s the fact that with Avids instruction, you can bleed the hose, caliper and lever in that order while isolating then from each other and its only the lever bleed that I struggle with. There’s definitely air being sucked in at the lever end IMO.

I will defs give it another go though and see how I get on, can’t hurt.

Thanks for the advice btw

JT

These brakes are renowned for this problem, air getting past the lever seal. My solution was to de-gas as thoroughly as possible beforehand, bleed plenty of fluid through from the calliper, bleed the calliper as per instructions then omit bleeding the lever all together. Worked for me, might work for you.

I found this to be helpful
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/tech-tuesday-bleeding-avid-brakes-2010.html
When you get to the lever,try it first,if it is not squishy,then stop there.
Ian

You are probably pulling air past the lever seal. There was a warning against too much pulling on the syringe in my instructions.#

However, if it is coming through really easyily then maybe the seal is knackered.

Check your bleed kit. It might be a case of the bleed adaptor o-ring not giving you a good enough seal at the lever bleed port. This will explain the never ending stream of air you are sucking into the syringe.