Haven’t used my mtn bike for a long while ! hydraulic brakes seem to be tight ? would it be best to empty and refil/bleed brake lines,or just use,and hopefully they will reset themselves? Lbs just want to charge me a fortune,they recommend new parts all round(pads,oil,seals,lines) and a complete service,approx £85/100. ???
Any advise will be great.Thanks

the brakes are Hayes HFX9’s

what brakes are they.

unless they’re special and assuming the LBS aren’t just being over cautious I’d buy new for £100 rather than repair.

You could try a bleed yourself and see how you get on – they’re your teeth.

I’d give them a bleed. Keep putting new fluid in until the old stuff has flushed through. You could also lube the pistons. Shouldn’t take long.

Take pads out spray liberally with silicone spray scrub with toothbrush, another douse with silicone spray, then wipe off as much lube as possible. Whilst pads out bleed system.
If no better see if CRC have any £15 sets left.

Just to clarify, pretty sure the reply above means take the pads out then clean the calipers with silicone spray. Don’t clean the pads with silicone spray, whatever you do!

Just change the fluid and bleed correctly. But these brakes are an old design and won’t be as good as new brakes and they are not well known for their reliability. TBH in your position I would spend the £90 but not on a service – buy a set of new Deore 596, they will be far superior.

I had some Hayes 9’s that did this after being left for a while, I think it’s the fluid that’s absorbed moisture and expanded, a quick fix is loosen the little top hat bleed port on the lever body, pull the lever and hold it in, and tighten the top hat bleed port before you let the lever back out, this should let any excess fluid out,
But they really need a bleed in the long run tbh..

hydraulic brakes seem to be tight ?

please elaborate…

tight as in ‘not much lever movement until they bite’ or tight as in ‘the levers are stiff and move slowly’

former = reset pistons and bleed and see if it goes away (if not see below)
latter = dry/sticky seals, will probably work loose with use but could do with rebuild/service (but not @ £90).

Hayes 9s are not brilliant, but they are very simple, and dead easy to work on. Spares are readily available too, the most common problems are normally degraded seals and calliper corrosion, followed by chipped pistons.

Replacement pistons are ~ £5 and come with a new seal, and you can rebuild callipers yourself at home very easily.

Lever problems are less commonplace but the master cylinder unit (inside the lever body) is a cartridge and is replaceable too for not a lot.

People knock 9’s but they are normally reliable if callipers kept clean and looked after and so cheap and easy to fix they can make great budget brakes long term.

*also – ignore Hayes bleed procedures, overly complicated and doesn’t always work well, best way is reverse fill with a big syringe, never fails and gives a better bleed.

@Buck53
Yes ment calipers.
Took it as red no one would lube pads.
Saying that my Father took his motorbike out of winter storage, cleaned ready for spring/summer.
Mam helped and put vasaline on rusty disks. Dad came back from first ride, white.
No one allowed to help after that .
Yep see where you coming from.

Ha ha, you can never be too sure!

Thanks ,
khani your quick fix worked with the front brake .
But waiting for replacement pistons and seals,also some more oil(Dot 4)to arrive so I can fix the rear brake.