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Hi. I know someone else will have been in this position. My rear Shimano XT brake is leaking all over the pads and disc. Been doing it for a while (loss of power) but only recently become obvious (fluid is now everywhere). It's about 4 years old.
Not sure what's wrong but can't be too many possibilities. Does anyone think it would cost less to fix than to buy a new one, which is currently about £75 on internet.
TIA
Shimano don't sell spare seals or piston kits.
Your options are to buy a new caliper or replace the whole brake
Thanks geex.
There is a thread on here about someone buying some seals on ebay to repair a shimano caliper.
Personally, I would just buy a new caliper for less than £75. Shimano is so cheap it's not worth repairing.
Easiest thing to is replace, it seems Shimano had a run of leaky calipers for a few years, no idea if they have sorted it now
Got fed up with mine leaking, Ive been through Zee's, XT's and R785 (road bike caliper) all had leaky pistons at some point in their short life (within a year)
No longer run any shimano brakes and wont ever again, Went Hope on all my bikes, no issues in 2 years of use and if there are any issues spares are readily available even for 10 year old Hope brakes
Just get a new caliper, they're not exactly expensive
Hope.
Shimano brakes have a 2 year warranty as opposed to the usual 1 year you get with most stuff, they'd cover a leaky calliper if it is within that period.
Else replace with an slx calliper (they're completely identical to the xt one), though I've found they can leak around the banjo bolt if that seal gets disturbed.
To be honest when I snapped a lever last year I just bought a new brake and when you account for the new pads that come with it and selling the old one for spares, it only worked out £15 more expensive for a complete new brake.
Replace, an M7000 calliper for example is about £30 and comes with £15 worth of new finned pads. Your era of Shimano brakes were known to dying seals, but 4 years is a good run IMHO.
My M8000 brake lever has just shat it's piston seal or something, I'm pretty annoyed because 1) I've been singing it's praises for nearly two years, because they're honestly the best brakes I've ever had and a lot of people knock them b) it would be in warranty if only it wasn't a warranty replacement for the M785s that died in exactly the same way about 2 years ago iii) it died (complete loss of pressure) about 30 seconds after a ride at stupid speeds with our in-house nutter, which was nice of it, but on possibly my last ride on that bike, I just planned to clean it and put it up for sale.
But, I found one for £25 in the end (left hand ones seem hard to find) it'll take me about 20 mins to fit and bleed it and it'll be good as new.
Cheers for the replies. It's a throw-away age!
It’s a throw-away age!
Yes and no. Put them on eBay, spares or repairs. Someone will buy them. 99p reserve
I'd be trying one of these piston kits..
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F401508947192