My Reverb has about 20mm of play now when locked out at full extension. Everything I can find about this refers to being replaced under warranty, but mine is over 3 years old now so I don’t have much chance of that. Is it worth spending probably £75 to get this repaired or should I just buy a new one for £190..?

Have you checked the air pressure? It needs lots of psi’s in the valve at the base. If that’s not the problem give it a bleed. If neither of those sort the problem its time for a service. Mine had a full service including new collar and bushes etc for £80 parts and labour.

I’ve bled it and pumped it up to 250 but that didn’t help at all with the vertical movement.

Why would you replace it? It just needs a service. There’s air trapped in the top of it, so the post needs bled (not the remote) and you probably need to replace one of the internal seals.

Having just serviced mine for a similar issue, it’s a bit of a tit to do (and I’m confident doing forks etc).

Because the service cost is a significant proportion of a brand new one with warranty. If this is a design flaw then how long can I expect it to last until it happens again?

This thread may help if you want to try it yourself.

Flotec serviced mine for £55, which was as cheap as the service kit to do it yourself.

it “could” be as simple as replacing a 2-pence o-ring in the post. I had similar symptoms and have done this fix a couple of times now. It seems that whenever the top cap started to work loose it damaged a seal allowing air to leak. I locktited the top cap last time I changed the seal and has been fine ever since. I have just used generic seals from an O Ring assortment pack. About £4.99 for 1000 seals with about 30 of the ones I need in the pack! Need a circlip pliers, a quality vice with soft jaws or similar and a few spanners. An air wrench makes removal of the one key bolt much easier.

Badgerpoo – Member
Because the service cost is a significant proportion of a brand new one with warranty. If this is a design flaw then how long can I expect it to last until it happens again?

It’s not “a design flaw”. It just needs a service like any fork or shock would do after a couple of years of use (although preferably even more frequently than that). As above, it’s something you can do yourself with some patience and something resembling the correct tools, or get someone else to do it for a fraction of the cost of a new one.

you have air and fluid mixing , so needs a service .

if anyone can find the right o rings for the IFP i d be very grateful . bought a box of 400 but none fits the IFP .

Cheers Conkers, I’ll give “Method 1” a go tonight.

Send it back for a service. Very likly they will just replace it even though its out of warranty

Cheers Conkers, I’ll give “Method 1” a go tonight.

Safety specs and some care when you remove the top circlip, there will still be some pressure in there! (the air you’re trying to get rid of).

When you let it settle, you can tap the post with something to help the air bubbles escape. You’ll probably need to replace a little oil that you’ll have lost when you open it up, then without the oil height tool it’ll be trial and error to get it right for reassembly. Of course that doesn’t address the issue of however the air got in there in the first place…

For the sake of £5 I’d hang on until you have the oil height tool (not the bleed tool), as it’ll remove the trial and error with how much oil to add

As mentioned, it’s a temporary fix because you haven’t sorted the root cause, which is almost certainly a worn ifp seal. Which as discussed previously are a bl**dy nightmare to find!

As cchris2lou says, you have air and oil mixing in the post. It needs a service. You can buy an O ring kit for about £6-7, the oil height tool and IFP tool are also about a fiver. You’ll need some soft jaws for your vice and some replacement oil. There’s a full guide from SRAM on youtube. Follow the instructions, go a bit wrong then do it again and you’ll get it right! It’ll probably cost you £20-40 depending on how tool happy you get. It’s the same as a shock or fork, it needs some attention every once in a while.

Send it back for a service. Very likly they will just replace it even though its out of warranty

Aye, Fisher are very good that way, I’ve had one replaced out of warranty, as has my mate. Just need a shop to send it back to them, you may have to pay the postage mind.

the o ring kit for the full service is about £45 now , hence why a full service at £80 seems good value .

Heard a few people say that the problem is mainly attributable to lifting the bike by the saddle whilst post is down, forcing air past the seal and into the fluid.
Anybody know if this is correct?

Had the problem on two posts now. One was replaced under warranty.
The other was fixed by a £60 service, which inc new seals and polymer bush.

the o ring kit for the full service is about £45 now

No, that’s the full kit with the new outer seal/bushing. You can get just the o-rings etc (“basic service kit”) for £7.

Basic kit:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/RockShox-Service-Reverb-Basic-Post/dp/B0063HINSK

Full kit:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/RockShox-Service-Reverb-Complete-Requires/dp/B00A436J8U/ref=sr_1_3?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1438607728&sr=1-3&keywords=reverb+service

Note there’s an A1 and A2 full kit depending which reverb version you have, the basic kit is one-size-fits all with a wee bag with the bits only needed for one version in it.

If you speak to where you got it from very nicely, they may honour the warranty with RS as they are prone to this happening. They are usually replaced with the latest iteration but as it’s so old they may just repair it.