Shimano disc bleed problem

Just shortened the hoses on some SLX brakes. The back bled up straight away but the front is a real pain. The lever feels nice and solid but when you actually ride, it doesn’t stop despite feeling that it ought to. I even changed pads and cleaned disc in case I had contaminated pads with spilt fluid but no difference. Repeated bleeding does no good although there appear to be no air bubbles coming out. Help, What next?

does the lever feel soft?

what did you clean the rotor with? Sounds like it could still be contaminated

Are you sure the brake was working fine before? Otherwise you could have damaged the new end/joint somehow. If you crimped the end it would give pressure but no actual braking power, I’d try re-cutting it.

EDIT: If you press the brake and watch the pistons move at the same time you’ll soon see if there is a blockage. If you try replacing the end and it still doesn’t work my next guess would be you’ve got dirt in the system somehow which would be more of a pain. You’d have to strip down the sytem into it’s three sections and find someone with an air line and blow air from the caliper end of each part.

Can’t be much brake systems are really simple there isn’t a lot to go wrong.

Yes it was working fine but that does sound a possibility. When I first connected up I managed to mangle the olive somehow so I could possibly have damaged the bore of the pipe at the same time. I should have enough hose to trim again. My LBS are going to wonder what I am doing with the olives though. I cleaned the rotor with Muck-off brake cleaner so I would hope that should be ok