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Got a weird problem, brakes wont self adjust as pads wear, so eventually levers pull to the bar with no pressure on pads. If I adjust lever further out it pulls to a stop still with no pressure on pads. When I try to forward/reverse bleed them I cant push fluid from calliper to lever. I can push fluid up to charge the system, I see the brake lever extend, but fluid wont push all the way through. Taken them apart today, removed reservoir cover, put it all back together, same again wont push fluid through. I pushed some fluid in from the lever and some from calliper. Left it with lever pulled on, will go back and do some more fettling later.
Im wondering if the lever piston isnt fully opening properly after you let go of lever, so not refilling from res and cant fully bleed. Can this happen? Can I fix it? The levers dont look very serviceable.
Your hypothesis wouldn't surprise me, it's what eventually goes wrong with the MTB brakes, the lever piston is plastic and swells up, getting stuck it the bore and not retracting fully.
I also had the opposite problem on mine, they would go hard as the pads wore, I put that down to the caliper pistons getting worn and sticking in the seals (or sliding too far when self adjusting, then getting stuck).
RISK components on ali-express do a metal lever piston kit I think.
had the sticky/swollen lever thing on guide brakes before, lever slow to pull and return, eventually jamming altogether, this doesnt feel the same, but I guess could be similar. mtb levers were an absolute ballache to strip/rebuild with a new plastic piston and immediately failed again, so havent bothered trying it again (just buy a new brake in a sale to keep for spares). Is it even possible to do that with road levers? As i mentioned they dont look serviceable