Been trying to bleed my new Shimano SLX brakes. They were bought from Ribble ready bled but the hoses were too long so I had to cut them down. The front took a while to bleed though I got there in the end, but the rear is doing my head in - I've pumped stacks of mineral oil through but can't get all the air out or get enough pressure in there. Luckily I've got a litre bottle of oil but at this rate I'm going to get through it all!
Any ideas??
This is a common problem on the XT/SLX brakes, I have stated before these are a pain in the ass to bleed. Every other brake system I have had have always been a doddle to bleed.
I had the same issue for the first few times, I would bleed from the caliper end till no more bubbles were seen. Everything would be ok then all of a sudden the lever would return to the bar and a few sudden pumps it would harden it up again.
I found if you leave the res cap on and the lever pulled back (isolating the caliper) attach a syringe full of mineral oil to the caliper and crack the bleed nut, then create a vaccum by pulling on the syringe you should be able to remove the trapped air in the caliper.
if that doesn't work try bleeding using the method below. You can buy the cyclo universal bleed kit from CRC if you don't have one.
http://www.gravity-slaves.co.uk/?a=427