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Hi,
I have just tried a bit of DIY which I now wish I hadn't.
My plan was to shorten the hose of my front XTR brake. The Shimano website had instructions on how to shorten the hose without having to bleed the brakes, which after reading looked very simple.
All was going fine. I cut the hose down and installed it back into the lever. Then came the task of pushing the pistons back into the calliper. I pushed one in easily but the other was a little bit more stubborn, so a gave it a bit of welly and 'pop' it went in. "Fine", I thought, "job done", and then I noticed a load of mineral oil oozing from the brake lever. There must have been too much oil in there and I've blown a seal. But I thought the seals would have been stronger than that??
Is there anything I can do to repair the leaking reservoir cap or does the fact that it's leaking mean that the lever is busted?
Cheers!
Is the oil just coming out from the top cap seal?
I assume that it is just leaking from around the top cap, not from anywhere else?
it's likely that you've over pressurized thetop cap seal/expansion plate, from what you say I'd guess that this forced the oil past the seal.
Try removing the cap and reseating the seal then refill / bleed the brake
Thanks for the replies. Yep, it's just coming out of the top cap.
I'll doing what T1000 said. I presume that if there is oil already around the seal it will continue to leak because the oil's pushing the seal up?
Its an open system, so it shouldn't have done any serious damage surely?
By seal, i assume you mean the shaped rubber bit immediately underneath the top cap? If so it should be fine.
Panic over. I took the top cap off, gave the whole thing a wipe off and topped up the oil level and everything seems fine and dandy.
Thanks for the advice chaps.