I’ve never done this before but i’m up for giving it a try. I need mineral oil, a new olive and the hollow pin that goes in the end of the hose. Do I need anything else?

I’m going to follow the instructions off the Shimano website but does anybody have any tips from doing it themselves?

Cheers

I’ve just done the same with my new XT’s, unsuccessfully I think. Brakes feel spongy now, even after a mammoth bleed session using every method I could.

If you are very careful you won’t need to rebleed them. This has been covered quite a few times on here, try a search through the forum. Just make sure you have tools to hand, especially the tool you are going to need to grip the hose blocks with to put the new insert in.

especially the tool you are going to need to grip the hose blocks with to put the new insert in.

I’ll get one of these too.

Do you have the yellow blocks like this? All you need then is a pair of mole grips to hold them.

Getting everything in the picture, Cheers Mister P

you can do it without the yellow blocks if you can find something to securely hold the hose without crushin it. I had a set of pliers with an indent almost exactly the right size for the job which worked (I now have yellow blocks too).

You can do it without bleeding if you follow the instructions. Take the pads out, pull the lever and allow the pistons to move inwards. Cut hose replace, open up lever and then push the pistons back in. This should force the bubble to the lever. Top up reservoir close and check it works.

This worked twice for me and I’ve not needed to bleed. On a new set of brakes so they were performing well to start. If they are a little bit spngy already then I’d bleed them properly as you might as well. You could still do it this way though to reduce the likely hood of trapping air in the system.

I mustered the courage to shorten my hoses the other week, last year’s (pre-bled) SLX. I found shimano’s instruction for shortening without bleeding, and thought I’d give it a bash. The instructions are nice and clear, but I must’ve got air into the pipe, as there was no power in the brakes at all when I was done. So, in for a penny, in for a pound, and I started bleeding them. (small length of tube off bleed nipple, oil going in the reservior at the top) Just as I was thinking that all the air was out, I kept on seeing a series of small bubbles in the tube. the happened a few times, until I realised that a 1/4 turn of the nipple was making it loose enough to allow air to enter. 1/8 of a turn instead sorted this, but it took a while for the penny to drop, so just a heads up to anyone else trying this. Also, and this seems obvious, but still I managed to fall foul of it, make sure that the reserviour always has some fluid in it!!!! A very easy way to waste another five mins!!!
Hope this helps.

You were leaving the nipple open all the time while bleeding?

Sorry, didn’t explain myself too well. Started off with niple kept open, as I had huge bubbles in the hose, so just pumped them out, putting oil in the top, and eventually the big bubbles exited through the nipple. Once this was done, I reverted to the “proper” method, nipple was opened 1/4 turn, and then closed. At 1/4 turn though, I found that there was a small leak showing as a steady stream of small bubbles. So kept on bleeding, despite brake feeling ok. 1/8 turn provided enough “nipple openess” to allow air out, without causing extra leaks. Hope this makes sense.

That makes perfect sense now and is indeed a top tip.

I’ve bled them before and had that same problem, Thanks for the tip!

Worked a treat, thanks for the help.