Avid elixirs – problem with bleeding

I’m having a problem whilst trying to bleed my Avid elixirs. I have successfully bled them in the past, but this time it wont work. The syringes are degassed and sealed properly in the bleed ports, cut off clips are open, but when I try to push the fluid through it wont go. You can feel the pressure building up in the syringe, but to use any more force would just blow the seals. Any ideas?

You do have the two syringes connected to the same brake don’t you? I’ve had this problem before and then discovered I had the lever syringe connected to the rear whilst trying to push the fluid into the front calliper

I definitely have both syringes in the same brake. 🙂

any adjustment screws wound out? On the Juicy 7’s you need to unscrew the pad contact adjustment screw all the way out.

are you having the same issue on both brakes?

Mine dont have the pad adjustment on them.

Did your brakes work prior to attempting to bleed?
Not being able to get fluid from one end to the other with everything done correctly suggests a blockage of some sort, which would presumably stop the brakes from working.

Are you double sure that you don’t have the syringes connected to different systems? I did that a few weeks ago and it took me a few mins to work out the problem…

They were working perfectly a week ago, then the screw in the lever bleed port decided to abandon ship. After buying a new bleed port screw I did a poor bleed using a sub standard bleed kit, which gave a rubbish bleed, but it did work. Tried again yesterday with my good new bleed kit, but no joy. Unfortunately I had to give up early as my new port screw rolled of the bin and into the leaves(cue much cursing and another trip to my LBS.)

Syringes were definitely on the correct brake.

Back to the top with you!