Where the black plastic hand screw meets the brake lever there looks to be a silver metal section and between that and the screw/lever sits a rubber grommet. After the screw became really tight I noticed the grommet had come out of its position and the screw action was tearing it, so I removed it. The reach adjust screw now works much freer, which seems fine (doesn’t rattle or lose position riding), but I’m wondering if it’s an issue to run it without the grommet and whether it warrants sending in for repair. Anyone else had this happen?

Sorry, blatant reply to self, to push the post back on to the front page. Might have been a bit too early posting it this morning. That, or it’s just a very tedious subject that only I care about 🙂

Unfortunately it’s not shown on the exploded diagram so this is speculation… I would guess it functions similar to a nyloc nut, with the rubber grommet acting to stop the reach adjuster turning too freely. Without it is possible that being rattled on the bike could cause the adjuster to turn itself. You could remedy this making your own rubber grommet out of an inner tube or using loctite.

Good luck!